Close India 92 for 8 (Tuffey 4-12, Bond 3-33)
Scorecard

Sourav Ganguly must be cursing the weather for clearing up, for as the rain kept away, the storm began. India collapsed on a lethal green pitch to 92 for 8, in a display that put an end to whatever hopes they had of squaring the series.

Dampness on the outfield and the pitch delayed the start of play by more than two sessions, and it finally got underway at 4.30pm local time, with 38 overs scheduled in the day. Stephen Fleming won the toss, opted to bowl, and the Indians fell apart. Daryl Tuffey picked up 4 for 12, Shane Bond got 3 for 34, but their credit must be shared with the groundsman of the Westpac Park, Doug Strachan.

Strachan, whose stated objective was to prepare a green and bouncy pitch, had said on day one of this Test that he did not think the pitch was yet fit to play on, and that he needed more time on it. The rain late on the first day clearly hadn't helped matters, and it was a surface that was hopeless skewed towards the fast bowlers. Tuffey and Bond got prodigious movement off the pitch, and the Indians, already a battered lot, were inadequate to the challenge.

Sanjay Bangar (1) was the first to go. Tuffey had troubled Bangar in the last game with incoming deliveries on a good length, and he had him in some bother here with a short-pitched ball that came in and crashed into Bangar's hips. The next ball from Tuffey moved away slightly and Bangar, expecting one more incoming ball, tried to play it on the on side and only got a leading edge to Jacob Oram at fourth slip (1 for 1).

Virender Sehwag was next. Bond got a ball to snort off the pitch and nip back in to Sehwag, who was clueless and took his eyes off the ball. The ball hit his glove, was deflected onto the helmet, and then ballooned to Mark Richardson at forward short leg (11 for 2).

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar added 15 runs in almost ten overs, but the viciousness of the pitch made another wicket inevitable, sooner or later, and Tendulkar, on 9, was the man to go. He was squared up by a beautiful away-going delivery from Tuffey, and his soft hands couldn't prevent the edge from going to Scott Styris at third slip (26 for 3).

Ganguly couldn't blame it on the pitch though. He hung his bat out tamely to Tuffey and Stephen Fleming at first slip took a regulation catch (34 for 4). It was the third time in a row that Ganguly was caught in the slips, and one wonders with what authority he can ever castigate any of the men under him for lapses in discipline.

The knock-out blow was Dravid's wicket. After some early jitters, Dravid had played his usual solid compact game, but Tuffey put an end to all that. Dravid, on 9, played down the wrong line which cut sharply outwards off the seam and kissed the edge of that bat on its way to a diving Robbie Hart (40 for 5).

VVS Laxman and Parthiv Patel added 30 gritty runs, a partnership which ended with Laxman gifting his wicket away needlessly. He played at a ball from Bond away from his body and inside-edged onto his stumps, out for the umpeenth time due to a lack of footwork (70 for 6). He top-scored with 23, but didn't look at all convincing.

Harbhajan Singh provided some entertainment to the crowd with five slogged fours off Bond, three of them off the first three balls he faced, but his tactic of stepping away and swinging like a helicopter's rotor could never last out in the long term, and Bond got his revenge by castling him for 20 (91 for 7).

Patel hung on grimly, but his team-mates seemed intent on throwing it away, as Zaheer Khan was bowled by a Jacob Oram yorker off the last ball of the day, swinging madly with a huge gate between bat and body (92 for 8). Signs of a specialist Indian batsman perhaps?

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd