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India 65 adrift with four in hand

High drama bordering on the melodramatic has been the norm ever since Pakistan landed here for a Test series on Indian soil -- and the fourth day's play of the first ATC Test at the Eden Gardens went according to form.

For once, the drama did not involve onfield happenings quite so much as events off it -- or more accurately, an on field dismissal was the catalyst for problems off the field.

We'll get to that in due time. Meanwhile, in the morning, the not out batsmen, Ramesh and Laxman, came out to try and rewrite recent Indian Test history.

279 to chase is, despite the seeming ease of the target, no cakewalk. Barring that world record chase of 406/4 at Port of Spain, the highest the Indians have managed on the second innings, to win, has been 256/8 against Australia, and that was even further back in time, coming in the 1964-'65 series.

Weighing on the mind of the batting side could have been the Madras experience -- at a time when it looked like the target would be achieved in a romp, a batting collapse saw the Indians fold to a 12-run defeat.

Thus, the morning session was crucial from the batting side's point of view -- an early breakthrough, and the pressure of chasing would be right on the shoulders of a middle order that has already seen its share of sudden collapses against the Pakistan attack.

The pitch was not radically different from that of the third day -- a touch slower if anything, a shade more variable in bounce, but neither factor was alarmingly prominent. The real pressure -- apart of course from the Pakistan new ball attack -- came from the crowd, 110,000 of them packing the Eden Gardens, setting up a veritable wall of noise that, though supportive of the Indian side, can be incredibly daunting for the batsmen out in the middle, being a constant reminder of the enormous expectations.

David Houghton, Zimbabwe's coach, while watching Sadagoppan Ramesh bat early in the morning against the pace of Akthar and Akram said that what was most noticeable was not so much his lazy elegance of strokeplay, but his composure. "He plays the first ball of the day like he already has 50 against his name and is sighting well," Houghton said, echoing sentiments made yesterday by Ian Chappell.

That composure was in full view this morning as the elegant southpaw took the pressure off VVS Laxman in the first half hour, taking quick singles to ensure that his partner did not need to spend too much time at the business end.

If Ramesh was worried by match referee Cammie Smith's 'award' of a one match suspended sentence, it certainly didn't show in the way he played. That sentence did come as something of a surprise, frankly -- true, Ramesh did indicate his bat, but through this series, batsmen of both sides have been guilty of more dramatic expressions of dissent, a case in point being the volley of clearly audible abuse Afridi let fly after being given out in the second innings of the Delhi Test.

Laxman, playing for his place in the side after a series of failures, used his chance to the optimum, settling down nicely after a slightly hesitant start and, once Akthar and Akram were both seen off, it was the right hander who flowered into a series of superb drives, against the medium pace of Azhar Mahmood and the off spin of Saqlain Mushtaq.

For Pakistan, the quicks had nothing much to offer with the new ball -- unlike the Indians, the Pakistan bowlers are much more comfortable with the old ball, shiny on one side, in their hands, and you could see the bowlers and fielders working on the ball right through the morning, shining one side furiously, keeping the other scuffed.

Saqlain for his part wasn't getting much turn, coming in to bowl after just 15 overs and getting a hard, shiny ball to work with. Laxman and Ramesh drove him easily off their toes when he pitched further up looking to beat the batsman in flight, and another early threat was seen off.

The openers thus had achieved their first objective of not allowing a breakthrough in the first hour, giving the middle order a further boost when Laxman, with a fluent pull when Azhar Mahmood pitched short, took the score to 80 and brought the target down under the 200-mark.

Most pertinent to the morning session was that the Indians did not get into a shell -- a run rate of around the 3.5 over mark an indicator that sound placement for singles interspersed with quick strokeplay ensured that they never really allowed the bowlers to gain the upper hand.

Pakistan tried out all five bowlers in the morning session, without much success -- and as lunch neared, slipped into a holding operation, obviously hoping to come back in the second session with an older ball, giving Akthar and Akram an opportunity to get their trademark reverse swing going.

At lunch, India had progressed to the best opening partnership of the series, 91/0, with Ramesh batting 33, Laxman batting 49, the side having added 87 off 26.1 overs in the morning.

Post lunch play

In what seemed a continuum of the last half hour of the morning, Laxman kicked off post-lunch proceedings with two fluent fours, the second an exquisite straight drive off Shahid Afridi that brought up the 100 of the Indian second innings off just 185 deliveries.

At the other end, Ramesh took on Shoaib Akthar -- and an on drive, played to a ball on full length on off and middle, with the slightest adjustment in footwork to change the line, had the bowler visibly hanging his head and half the Pakistan side racing up to pat Akthar consolingly on the back.

The offspinner, going round the wicket to the left hander, got the breakthrough after the two openers had put on the best first wicket partnership of the entire tour thus far. With a definite lack of pace on the pitch, Saqlain took to pushing the ball through quicker, with a packed offside field. Ramesh looked to get the single to the less tenanted leg side, flicked against the line, missed and was trapped plumb in front for a well-compiled 40.

Despite the loss of the one wicket, the pressure remained on the Pakistan bowlers. With the target being whittled away, the fielding side could not afford too many around the bat, with first Akthar, then Akram, reduced to just a single slip as close catcher. Akram, however, compensated by putting both a fine leg and a third man in place to stem the flow of runs -- a ploy that worked, and contrasted with an interesting situation yesterday.

Check Saeed Anwar's wagonwheel -- when he was on 162, he had got 40 runs to fine leg, 46 to third man and 41 in the square leg region, as opposed to 15 through point, 13 through the covers, and 7 through mid on. Obviously, the batsman was not playing too much off the front foot, and in the V, which argued a strong case for the boundaries behind to be protected. But that is another story.

The wicket that finally fell -- of Laxman, who to his credit shrugged off earlier failures to produce a quality innings when the side needed one badly -- went against the run of play. Saqlain turned one in from line of off, the batsman pushed forward and shaped to play, the ball beat the bat for turn and went to short square leg off the knee roll -- for Umpire Orchard to uphold the appeal for a catch, much to the batsman's surprise.

Tendulkar came in seemingly intent on putting his first innings debacle behind him at the quickest. A firm push for two through mid off, a blazing cover drive for four, both off Akram, was followed by a fluent clip off the pads through midwicket.

Tendulkar ran two, the second run getting him to his 5,000-run mark in his 67th Test, and then turned for an easy three. He was in fact coasting when disaster struck. The batsman was running with his eye on the throw coming in from Azhar Mahmood. Meanwhile, Shoaib Akthar had come racing in, from cover, to back up. Both were facing the ball, and ended up in a collision.

A second earlier, the batsman had his bat across the line and was safe. The collision however lifted the bat off the ground, just as the throw landed on the stumps. As per the rules, the batsman was out and so the third umpire ruled, the collision not being deliberate.

That was a most bizarre run out, and Tendulkar walked away trailing his bat after him, his walk the kind that would have done the chief mourner at a state funeral proud.

And the crowd erupted.

As with the World Cup semifinal against Sri Lanka in 1996, the crowd said it with bottles, the Pakistanis huddled in mid-pitch and then the umpires sent the players off the field as security fought to control the tension.

Within minutes, reactions had begun pouring in via the mail box, and one thing I heard repeatedly said is that Akram should have recalled Tendulkar, under the circumstances, in the 'spirit of the game'.

Yes, if you had learnt your cricket in the era of G R Vishwanath and the likes -- but this is a different day and age, and Clive Lloyd underlined today's philosophy best when he said, once: "There is no such thing as a good loser. A good loser is still a loser!"

The grand gesture would perhaps have lifted the profile of the game -- but realistically, I don't see the grand gesture coming these days, not from any skipper now active.

Sure, the crowd wants India to win -- who doesn't? Sure, the dismissal left the viewer with a certain sadness.

Yet, this is a game -- and should be seen as one. The fate of the world did not hinge on the outcome, and it is a pity that Calcutta's crowd, the most spectacular cricket backdrop of them all, loses it at the first sign of adversity, and ends up tarnishing its own image, and that of the country.

Meanwhile, tea was taken early.

Post tea session

One thing the crowds don't take into account is that when such disruptions happen, it is harder on the batting side. The batsmen in the middle need to get their concentration going again -- whereas the fielding side, which is the one under fire from the missiles, tends to come together and get the adrenalin flowing again.

That factor worked immediately after play resumed after an extended tea break, in course of which Sachin Tendulkar, with ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya and Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad for company, did a walk around the entire stadium, appealing for calm.

Saqlain completed the unfinished over, and Dravid took strike to Akthar. A bouncer, well directed, pitching off, climbing and cutting in into the batsman's body, had Dravid fending it away, the ball going off the glove for Moin Khan to hold on the leg side.

Shoaib Akthar then produced an exhibition of raw pace that was astonishing -- and commensurate with his ranking as the world's fastest at this point in time. Interestingly, his most dangerous delivery -- in tandem with the late reverse-swinging yorker -- was a superbly disguised slower ball, where he runs his fingers over the seam to come up with a medium pace off break.

However, his reach for pace produced a rash of no balls. After three instances of overstepping in a single over, Akram was seen running up to the bowler and very clearly telling him to relax, not worry about overstepping and just go for pure pace -- very good thinking, given how discommoded both Azhar and Ganguly looked against him at that point.

Ganguly had a let off when Saqlain made one turn from just short of driving length, the southpaw reached for that, got the outer edge and the ball flashed to Akram at slip in a reprise of Ganguly's first innings dismissal. This time, however, the Pakistan captain reacted late to the chance flashing between him and the keeper, and Ganguly ended up with four more to his name.

Immediately thereafter, a controlled flick took Azhar to his 6,000-run mark in his 97th Test, on the ground that saw him make his debut with the first of three successive centuries.

But almost immediately thereafter, Saqlain -- who with midwicket and mid on up close had been attempting to get Azhar on the uppish flicked drive, produced a ball of fullish length on middle and leg, and Azhar, again attempting a flick, managed only to play it straight into the hands of short square leg.

At the other end Akthar, grunting with the effort on every delivery in a style reminiscent of Monica Seles at her peak, produced a quick inswinger that caught Mongia on the half-forward prod, beating the bat and taking pad to produce the LBW decision.

The rest of the day's play produced a grim battle as Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, displaying grit and a determination to just hang in there, took the score to 214/6 when, for the fourth day on the trot, play was called off for bad light.

That leaves India 65 adrift with four wickets in hand -- and a match that, as the cricketing cliche goes, is 'delicately poised'.

Play starts ten minutes early tomorrow to compensate for time lost today due to the crowd trouble. For the batting side, there really is no strategy left to think about -- 'hang in there, don't gift wickets, chip away at the target a run at a time' is about the only game in town.

For Pakistan, the new ball becomes due soon after resumption -- and that provides Akram with an interesting conundrum. Do he and Akthar continue with the old ball, given their ability to make it move around? Or do they claim the new ball, hoping to use the newness to add that touch of extra pace and bounce and fire out the remaining wickets -- despite the risk that the new ball flies faster off the bat, and there are not too many runs to play with?

The first hour of play tomorrow should, one way or other, decide who wins this Test.

Scoreboard