Wednesday, October 9, 2002 First of all, Sourav Ganguly must be complimented because he showed the common sense in following the golden rule of tosses: when in doubt, bat first. There was a lot of uncertainty about this new pitch. Forget the teams, not even the curator knew for sure how it would behave.

The experiment with this pitch has not worked. The best feature of the Wankhede wicket used to be the bounce and lateral movement in the first session. This one didn't really help them at all.

Yet, West Indies should not have come out to bowl pessimistically. The conditions seemed to play too much on their minds. They were so concentrated upon the heat factor that they made long-term plans to conserve energy. The champion West Indian bowlers of the past, or even the present-day Australians, would have gone flat out in the first session. That was going to be the only time of the day that they found assistance; they should have been more aggressive.

West Indies need to have a good day to feel some confidence. Mahendra Nagamootoo was very disappointing. At one point Carl Hooper forgot about taking wickets and asked him to just defend, but even that did not come off right.

Hooper's task was made harder because of Virender Sehwag who played a special innings. He is at the top of his form, but it is his temperament that is proving to be more and more impressive. He realised that the pitch wasn't very easy paced and played for time early on. And, he was not perturbed by Sanjay Bangar's slow – and admirable - march at the other end.

A great adjustment that Sehwag made today was to have exploited the third-man region so effectively. Then, the way got to his hundred, with a flamboyant pick-up to square leg, showed that he had plenty of steam left in him.

His footwork suggests that he has specific ploys against seamers and spinners. Against the faster bowlers he doesn't look to move his feet overly. It is a deliberate decision as he realises that the later he commits himself, the better it works for him. He relies a lot on his extraordinary ball-sense. It's amazing to see how often he finds the middle of the bat – sometimes even when he is digging out yorkers.

When we were young, cricket was known to us simply as `bat and ball'. Sehwag shows just why. Because he has such control over the bat, he invariably gets it down at the right place and time even if it is has moved late. This can be his downfall against someone who can put six deliveries right on the spot, but how many bowlers are able to do that?

Sanjay Manjrekar, the mainstay of India's batting in the late 80s and early 90s, will be providing the Expert View on every day of this Test series.

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