Over the years India has produced some great bowlers. Names like Mohammed Nissar, Vinoo Mankad, Bishen Singh Bedi, E A S Prasanna, B S Chandrasekhar, and Kapil Dev spring to mind.

And yet, it's the batsmen who are more celebrated, who more easily become the darlings of the masses.

Every time India loses a match, even if it be on account of rank bad batting or fielding, it's the bowlers who cop more than their fair share of blame. When they are not accused of lacking the bite to dismiss a side twice in a match, they are accused of not putting enough of a price on their wickets, of not contributing to the team's total.

Yet, if India does go on to win this Test at Hamilton, the lion's share of the credit has to go to the four men who constitute the 'tail'. 

Think about it. In the team's meagre first innings score of 99, they contributed 28 valuable runs, or more than a fourth of the total. And in the slightly more respectable second innings score of 154, they put on 36 equally invaluable runs. 

What's more, they made Test history in the first innings by successfully defending a score of less than 100 and even eking out a slender lead of 5 runs.

And once again in the second innings, after the batsmen failed to make too much of a pitch that had eased out considerably, they have put up their collective hand and are making the New Zealanders, the more fancied home side, fight every inch of the way in pursuit of a small winning total.

At least this time, if the team loses this closely fought game, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Tinu Yohannan will not be disgraced.

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