The morning spoiled what would have been the perfect day for India. Young Ajay Ratra played the innings of his short career and VVS Laxman - please can we have nobody call him Very, Very Stoic or Steady or anything of the sort - played the second most important one of his, to virtually ensure that India does not lose this Test.

The decision to stick with Ratra, based on the best cricketing reason - that he is the best available keeper on tour – proved itself to be a fine one. It's not like he can't bat – you need some talent to get 224 not out even if it is an under-19 match.

Cricket, they say, is a confidence game. Just how much was amply revealed in Ratra's batsmanship after tea. Yes, he wasn't entirely convincing today, and yes, there were at least two edges that could have ended his innings. But he has got to 93 not out in a match where Sachin Tendulkar got a duck. After all, he had come into this Test with scores of 0, 2, 1 and 13 in his first four Test innings. And he's 20. If he didn't have the right to be tentative, nobody did.

As time passed, he became all footwork, all flourish. The second new ball late in the day brought with it an array of punchy drives on either side of the wicket. For a while, Ratra almost looked as good as Laxman.

Laxman, for his part, also began to cancel out much of the silence in the early part of the day. (Think about this, the man who gave Shane Warne the licks, needed eight overs to take a boundary off Ramnaresh Sarwan's leggies.) After tea, he was moving in for the hook and driving with assurance. This was the least attractive of his centuries, but could come to be counted among his most crucial ones. As he said in the post-match press conference, the need of the day was to occupy the crease. It was thanks to Laxman and Ratra that 257 for 6 became a very unlikely 462 for 6 by close.

Yet, India might have sniffed out their chances more aggressively. In this Test, they have been handed the golden – and quite perplexing - opportunity to bat first. At Jamaica, they will have to contend with what, along with Barbados, is nowadays regarded as one of the only two lively pitches in the Caribbean. A result is likely there, but it may well go the other way. The opportunity was here to be seized.

It was the morning session that India will look back at with regret. There was so much stodge that wickets were bound to fall. At the time Rahul Dravid got out, India had put up nine runs in 47 minutes. Totally, 46 runs came in the two hours. Reason? None at all. The perils of defensiveness are well known. At best, it can prolong the inevitable to such an extent that the end feeling is relief rather than failure. Maybe Ratra and Laxman will have spurred the bowlers onto a more attacking mindset.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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