It isn't unusual for there to be two pitches in use when India play overseas Tests: the green bouncy one that their batsmen succumb on; and the true batting surface that their bowlers struggle on. Well, there was only one pitch in Hamilton for this Test, as India's bowlers rose to the occasion.

If India's batsmen stand out in their overseas losses, their bowlers normally cop the blame for not winning that long-awaited overseas series. After all, say the critics, you need 20 wickets to win a Test match. On the evidence of today, India finally have the bowlers to take those 20 wickets.

India have seen the emergence of a lot of exciting young players in recent times – Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Kaif to name just two – but arguably, the most important of them all is Zaheer Khan. Other Indian fast bowlers in recent times have had the ability to generate pace and movement, but no-one has his temperament. He has bowled with outstanding control over line and length for the last few months – much as he did today – and packs an aggression that is manifest more in his bowling than in sledging or looking surly, as so many wannabe fast bowlers specialise in these days.

Ashish Nehra started badly in the first innings but redeemed himself with a good second spell, while Harbhajan Singh was superb. Indian spinners have long been woeful in overseas conditions, but Harbhajan adapted magnificently, and aggressively, not afraid to give the ball air. In the finest tradition of Indian spin, he was looking for wickets through deception, not containment.

Tinu Yohannan was an honest trier, and while he wasn't as potent as Zaheer, he bowled a superb spell with the new ball in the second innings, and was unlucky to not get a breakthrough. He was certainly far better than Ajit Agarkar, who should be consigned to the dustbins of Test history now.

This was the first Test match ever where both sides produced sub-100 first innings totals. That is strange, because the pitch, while it was lively, wasn't quite as bad as that. Many of the batsmen on both sides were guilty of not applying themselves enough and some, like Jacob Oram and Scott Styris, were out to ridiculous attempted slogs against Harbhajan, for which the pitch can surely take no credit.

Sourav Ganguly's captaincy was imaginitive and alert today, and most of his moves paid off. His decision to make Ashish Nehra change ends worked superbly when Nehra picked up two wickets before lunch, and handing the ball to Harbhajan Singh after the lunch-break was a masterstroke.

Slightly more controversial was his decision to ask Parthiv Patel to open instead of Sehwag. Patel made 0, but on the evidence of previous games Rahul Dravid would have been a virtual opener anyway, and this at least left Sehwag at No. 7, from where he struck a crucial 25 against a relatively older ball. But Patel is not a long-term option for the position, and this team is carrying one middle-order batsman too many. With Dravid often having to see off the new ball but unwilling to open, India need to decide which of their middle-order batsmen to sacrifice to bring in a specialist opener. If they do not sort this out before next winter's tour to Australia, they will be thrashed there.

Sachin Tendulkar played a lovely cameo in the afternoon. Barring the ball which dismissed him, he did nothing injudicious, and played his strokes when the ball demanded it. It was thrilling to see him hit Shane Bond out of the attack. A bowler of genuine pace against a great batsman who sees the ball early and has time to play his strokes is one of the elemental battles of cricket. Stephen Fleming, cunningly realising that Bond was getting the worse of it, took him off and let Daryl Tuffey do the damage.

The innings of the match was certainly Dravid's knock of 39. He made 190 and 103 not out in his last Test at Hamilton, but this innings might well turn out to be his most valuable here. He was beautiful to watch today, an embodiment of classical batsmanship, and a testimony to how, no matter what the conditions, technique can get you through. From his stance to his footwork to his shifting of balance to his backlift to follow-through, he was right out of the textbook. And he played some dazzling strokes as well – his pulls and cover-drives would please both the purists and the modern fans, who just want to see that ball disappear.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, India will take forward the same misgivings from this game that they had after the first Test at Wellington. Their batsmen, barring Dravid and Tendulkar, simply don't hack it in these conditions. Their bowlers have proved equal to the task and that is reassuring. But who will put the runs on the board?

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

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