Bangalore, third Test, day 1
Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Who'd have thought that Jagmohan Dalmiya would be so understanding. England, pining for Christmas and Mr Kipling's mince pies on the last leg of their tour, were sent not to the heat and chaos of Madras but to ordered Bangalore - the old British headquarters in southern India. Nothing could have suited a colonial constitution better. Streams of rush-hour traffic hooted and stalled down around the stadium delicately directed by traffic policemen wearing white-cotton gloves, and a statue of Edward VII, in his capacity as Emperor of India, gazed down at members of the Barmy Army chewing on their early-morning chapatis.

To Sourav Ganguly it must have brought back nasty memories of his season at Old Trafford. A depression in the Bay of Bengal had made the weather one-jumper chilly. Banners for Notts County FC outnumbered any for Sachin Tendulkar, the ground was only about a third full, and the floodlights were switched on throughout the morning - for the first time in a Test, it was thought.

It made watching a peculiar sensation. Half past eleven felt like ten past five, lunch should have been dinner, each player was accompanied by four shadows, and the usual repressed excitement of the morning session was replaced by the laid-back relaxation of the last. It confused Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, languid and lumpy at slip, who were wearing sunglasses one minute, jumpers the next. It also seemed to confuse Nasser Hussain whose reckless whacking-by-numbers was unusual for the first hour of a Test. But when there is uneven bounce and your father is watching proudly from the stands, perhaps dogged defence doesn't have quite the same appeal as hooking Javagal Srinath from in front of your eyes to over the boundary.

By the fourth over of the day the crowd, encouraged by the local papers, were calling for Anil Kumble, who went into the match just a topspinner short of 300 wickets. "Jumbo, Jumbo", they shouted, and by the 15th over he was on - plying his on-the-money conkers from the Earth Movers end. There were no discernible tremors as he made his statesmanlike progress towards the crease, but it only needs one ball. His mother is here, in a chocolate-brown sari and a neat bun, to share the moment and counter the presence of Joe Hussain.

Kumble had an old friend on the field in umpire AV Jayaprakash, the man who stood in the Test against Pakistan at Delhi two years ago in which Kumble grabbed his ten-for. Jayaprakash even has all ten victims plastered on his visiting card. With such a potent combination, the big milestone was surely only a matter of time.

Tanya Aldred, assistant editor of Wisden.com, will be reporting throughout the third Test.

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