Scorecard

India's inconsistent batting showed up again on the opening day of the fourth and final Test against the West Indies [Images] at Kingston [Images], Jamaica, on Friday.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, Rahul Dravid's [Images] men were bowled out for 200, the captain working as a cement to his team's crumbling fortunes.

Dravid was out after a painstaking 81 from 215 balls, while his Bangalore mate Anil Kumble [Images] offered some support with the bat, scoring a dogged 45.

Jerome Taylor [Images], with five wickets for 50, was the most successful bowler for the hosts.

India failed to take advantage of first use of the wicket and found themselves two down by the fourth over, opener Virender Sehwag [Images] and Wasim Jaffer [Images] back in the pavilion.

VVS Laxman and Dravid then batted dourly and took the team to 29 without further loss at lunch.

But after Laxman (18) departed in the first over after lunch, wickets fell at regular intervals, as none of the batsmen could come to terms with the Sabina Park pitch.

Morning session

I have this friend who, a while ago, spent many boozy evenings trying to figure out what TS Elliot meant when he wrote: In the beginning was the end.

Now he knows - the poet was doing a match report on India.

In a throwback to the first day of the first Test of the current series, India opted to bat first on a track that was a gamble, either way.

On the one hand, it is soft - the Windies quicks, after an attempt each, didn't even bother to try banging the ball down. Also, the ball doesn't come on quick off the pitch.

If both those are functions of a pitch that, as Jeremy Coney graphically showed before start of play, has a good amount of sub-surface moisture, it also meant that the ball would swing and seam around early, before the heat of the sun dried it of some juice and settled it down into the sort of track on which you can score runs.

In other words, Antigua Redux; and Rahul Dravid, as he had then, won the toss and opted to risk the early seam movement. His explanation: The pitch will turn and maybe even crack as it dries up, bringing the spinners (the Indians went in with an unchanged lineup) into play towards the second half of the game.

Brian Lara [Images], too, seemed a touch hesitant about calling the pitch, unlike in Antigua where he said he would have bowled first anyway - here, he suggested he was looking forward to a bat.

If Lara actually meant that, then both captains were bucking history; the commentary team pointed out that in eight matches after the Sabina Park pitch has been re-laid, the average score for the first innings is a mere 298, and teams opting to bat first on winning the toss have lost more often than they have won.

India's problems began with the third ball of the innings. As deliveries go, Pedro Collins has bowled far better ones with no luck - this one started on middle and leg and was going down leg side; Virender Sehwag played a firm flick off the middle of the bat and Ramnaresh Sarwan [Images] at a very short square leg held it, the lord knows how given there was almost zero reaction time (1/1; 0/2).

At the other end, Jerome Taylor cut down on his pace a trifle, and concentrated on length and line, getting the ball to seam away appreciably past the outer edge of Wasim Jaffar's bat. Time and again, the batsman was turned inside out; time and again he was fortunate not to get the touch.

Lara promptly began experimenting with his field, putting in three slips, gully, a close point, a short cover, a short square leg and a leg slip - that last, intended to cramp Jaffar on his favorite play off the pads.

In the third over, more drama - Collins banged one down, the ball climbed gently to about waist high and Jaffar, rocking back, pulled hard, and straight onto the knee cap of Sarwan, who collapsed in agony and had to be carried off the field.

Taylor meanwhile tormented Jaffar for seven deliveries, and took him out with the eighth -- a beauty angled in on middle with a hint of inswing, again squaring Jaffar on the angle, then straightening off the seam just enough to slip past the edge of the defensive push and clip off stump (3/2; 1/14).

From then on, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman could do little more than concentrate on digging themselves in, and waiting for the sun to dry the pitch out a bit. It was Test cricket of a kind not often seen these days: Collins bowled a 6-3-3-1 first spell, and Taylor had 7-3-8-1 against his name.

At one point, 18 overs had produced 17 runs; the first boundary of the Indian innings in fact came off the last ball of the 19th over, when Dravid pushed Dwayne Bravo [Images] through mid off to finally get more runs on the board than overs bowled.

India's plight could have been worse. Corey Colleymore, who seems to have a happy knack of taking a wicket in his first over, nearly did it again when he made one seam away from outside off. Laxman, who early in his innings tends to play a lot away from his body and from the top of the crease, pushed at this one and Lara at second slip, with one of the softest pairs of hands in the business, actually grassed a regulation chance (13/2 India at the time, and Laxman 5/41).

It's all uphill just now - the only thing the Indians have going for them just now is that already, the pitch is easing considerably; the exaggerated seam movement has died down to manageable levels, and the easing-off process should continue in the heat of the afternoon sun. Plus, already on the first morning, the odd ball has taken to keeping low - a sign that Lara was spot on when he said at the toss that this track is under-prepared.

India at lunch are two wickets down with little to show for it by way of runs, and with a horribly off-form batsman in next - it really is down to these two to bat the team out of a hole they, at least in part, dug for themselves. If they can, though, the tight, pinching shoe could well slip onto the other foot.

Post-Lunch session

Post-Tea session