Mohali Test, Day 1, Tea
Monday, December 3, 2001

It was a mistake for India not to bowl two pace bowlers in tandem when play resumed after lunch. It defied logic, because whatever help there was for the bowlers was there early on, and Sourav Ganguly should have tried to exploit it to the hilt. Iqbal Siddiqui, in particular, should have been given a spell right after lunch. Ganguly has this habit of being put off by bowlers and underbowling them, and that was illustrated by how late Siddiqui got his second spell.

I like the way Siddiqui pitches the ball up, not minding if he gets hit for a few. Indian bowlers don't often do this, but pitching it up often pays rich dividends, as it did for Siddiqui when he got Thorpe out with a ball of driveable length.

Harbhajan Singh bowled tidily, but there was nothing in the conditions for him, and that allowed Hussain and Trescothick to keep the momentum going for England. The SG ball and the conditions – overhead conditions, not the pitch – kept the seamers interested. There were very few up-and-down deliveries - the ball was always doing things, and the Indians would have got a breakthrough much earlier if they had tried a two-seamer attack.

India were lucky to get Nasser Hussain out, as he was scoring quite briskly, and he is a big-hundred player. Hussain fell to Kumble in a way many batsmen do: because he bowls it pretty much in the same place over after over, batsmen tend to get complacent, and Nasser must have got a bit too comfortable against him. He was just a wee bit casual in defence, and Kumble must get some credit for that, as he induces that casualness in batsmen with the monotony of his line and length.

It's been a very absorbing session, and quite even. India are certainly better placed now than they were at lunch.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to Amit Varma.

More from Manjrekar
Nervy start from debutants
A chink in Sachin's armour

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