Shades of Bloemfontein a month ago when only two Indian batsmen bothered to turn up at the crease with a stomach for battle. The rest put up the collective resistance we generally expect from a touring side decimated by the mythical Delhi belly. Not surprisingly, Sachin Tendulkar was one of the two. And, as at Bloemfontein, Virender Sehwag was the sorcerer's apprentice. There is a school of thought that suggests Tendulkar is not the greatest batsman in the world because he doesn't play enough matchwinning innings. Give the fella a break. How can you expect him to save matches, let alone win them, when India's supposedly solid batting line-up has a propensity to vanish quicker than the fruit trifle at lunch? The 90 he made here was an uncharacteristic effort as it came in fits and starts. A brief interlude of exhilarating strokeplay would be followed by England reverting to the negative line that bored everyone senseless yesterday. Tendulkar swallowed his frustration and knuckled down to the job in hand until he lost his bearings momentarily after lunch.

The previous Giles over should have been a warning. A saunter down the track and flick over cover for four was followed by a paddle sweep that left the man at short fine leg lunging at thin air. He then worked the ball through midwicket and extra-cover for successive twos to do some damage to Giles' maiden-filled figures. The all-out attack betrayed his eagerness to break the shackles while giving Giles and Hussain hope.

In the next over, that hope was transformed into wild delight. A pre-meditated charge from Tendulkar as Giles slipped one down on leg stump and the easiest of stumpings for James Foster. It was an anti-climactic end to an innings that had promised so much and there was an eerie silence about the place - interspersed with applause - as he trudged back, disconsolate. A bitter Indian journalist was heard saying, "the umpire should get the wicket and not Giles", a reference to the officials' refusal to penalise England's outside-leg-stump line. But that is clutching at straws and an excuse that Tendulkar himself would never offer. Poor judgement, poor shot and, ultimately, a vindication of Hussain's strategy.

Sehwag's intentions were clear as natural spring water from the first ball he faced. This is a man who doesn't mind chancing his arm. He was given a reprieve early on off the impressive Hoggard but that didn't stop him going for his shots. There were a couple of stunning clips through midwicket off Giles and an imperious square drive off Flintoff that was reminiscent of Tendulkar, along with a fair number of hits-and-misses outside off stump. One member of the Barmy Army muttered, "He loves to have a flirt doesn't he, but by Christ, he belts it hard." There was an air of inevitability about his dismissal, caught behind after another flirtation with a Hoggard delivery, but his 66 runs were worth a hundred to an Indian team hopelessly tangled in the ropes.

Especially after Dravid departed early and Ganguly continued his wretched run with the bat. The man who used to be a prince, these days looks for scraps the way a pauper would. Ganguly has spent about as much time in the middle recently as Andy Flintoff (his former Lancashire team-mate), though Flintoff has at least left his sizeable impression on this match with the ball. Something in the damp Lancastrian air that inhibits runmaking, perhaps?

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor, Wisden.com, India.

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