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Bold bowling, cold batting

It took just 55 minutes for the last half of India's batting to fold on the final day. The tourists were never going to save the match at five down, but apparently they were not going to make Australia fight for it, either. After all, they had been doing that for four days already and it hadn't got them terribly far.

In 35 minutes of mayhem, beginning with Ganguly's dismissal, the remaining five wickets tumbled to leave India with an unflattering 285-run loss. They did not play particularly badly over the duration of the Test but were rather worn down by a single-minded Australian team which knew what it wanted to do, how it was going to win, then went out and did it. The contest was closer than the margin indicates, but the same was true of the series between Australia and Pakistan yet the Pakistanis went home having lost 3-0.

Despite the lack of resolve from the lower order, not much should be read into the last day's collapse. The match became irretrievable when India's top five batsmen were unable to resist the fiery Australian bowling, rather than the last five. If needed to dig in and contribute then it is likely the tail would have done so, as they demonstrated to a certain extent in the first innings.

You could say that the match was on the line on the final day and the Indian tail should have been doing everything in its power to resist as long as possible. That had to have been the aim, but in the back of their minds they had to know it would ultimately be futile and that knowledge makes the task all the more onerous. And it was not as though they were giving their wickets away, save for Srinath's back-foot slash that should have netted Fleming a hat-trick.

Even Ganguly's wicket, the important one, should not be blamed on the batsman too much. He could have taken a more judicious option in ducking under the bouncer, but what he had been doing the previous evening and on the fifth morning was playing his natural game, which the experts will stress is important to do in order to survive, and it is no coincidence he did that and finished as India's top scorer in the second innings. He did, in fact, appear India's most impressive batsman in both innings, although had Tendulkar's first knock not been cut short by acts of umpire he may well have changed that analysis.

Ganguly was unafraid to play his shots when India were in danger, which contrasted with Dravid and Tendulkar, and he undoubtedly enjoyed Adelaide's short square boundaries as some of his well-timed off-side strokes raced to the fence with barely enough time for anyone to blink.

Agarkar, who appears to possess roughly the same batting talent as Warne, fell to a poor shot by steering a catch to gully but Prasad and Srinath both got difficult deliveries that seemed to bounce more than they anticipated on the variable fifth-day wicket. Certainly that was the case with Prasad, while McGrath has had better batsmen than Srinath fending catches off the splice. Kumble simply got a good ball, one that cut back to give Fleming a career-best 5/30, which is small consolation when he could have been just the fourth bowler in Test history to claim two Test hat-tricks.

India could not afford to fall behind 1-0 as it probably rules out a series triumph, but now that it has happened there are naturally areas in need of sharpening to ensure another defeat does not occur. Somewhat surprisingly it was the batting that proved the weak point in Adelaide, as totals of 285 and 110 aren't going to win many Tests here. Unfortunately, India bowled better in the second innings than it did in the first, when it was only a question of how hard Australia had to work to set up a declaration. They were made to work hard indeed, but the kind of application showed by Srinath, Agarkar and Prasad would have served India much better after lunch on the first day, when the match was there to be won.

If that trio can maintain its second innings performance in Melbourne where there is likely to be considerably more seam, they will have the Australian batting in some bother. But then, if the Indian batsmen can't lift a notch or two it may not matter, because you can be certain the Australian bowling philosophy won't change.

Teams can't control outside factors like umpiring, of course, and India were served shabbily in that department during this Test. It was not one-way traffic, either, but who cares whether Langer got bat to an lbw or Ganguly gloved one to the keeper and survived when Tendulkar is contentiously given out? The decision that afforded the most attention was the peculiar lbw in the second innings when India were already losing, but the bat-pad verdict in the first dig had a more profound impact on the match.

To Tendulkar's credit, he made his way off on both occasions with a minimum of fuss and without making later comments to the media to incite the controversy any further than it had already gone. The things that went against India were exactly the kind that would raise suspicion were Australia on the receiving end while touring India but by accepting his fate with equanimity, Tendulkar set an example - for all teams, in all series - to follow.

Daniel Laidlaw