Mohali, first Test, day 2
Tuesday, December 4, 2001

Waiting for Sachin. It was the only thing that kept them going in a session that would have sent a glass eye to sleep. As Deep Dasgupta reached forward for another yawning forward-defensive plod, the crowd turned to themselves for entertainment.

The chief game was attract the TV camera. There were unbridled charges for the likely spots underneath the cameras, where placards were rapidly written. "Kumble - India's watchman, England's nightmare" vied with "Steve Waugh and Denness Shame, Shame, Shame." A father wrapped his seven-year old son in the Indian flag and gently prodded him in the right direction, sign attached round his neck with gold string.

Twice Dasgupta hit a four. Twice the crowd whipped themselves into a frenzy of excitement - slapping empty water-bottles, whistling, munching on buttery popcorn. A rotund Sikh policeman half-heartedly waved his danda (baton) at some dancing boys.

England dropped Kumble twice. And still the morning drifted. There wasn't even an aeroplane flying across the ground at 300ft to distract attention. The men balanced on the flat roofs of the houses nudging the pavilion were distracted enough to tug on the washing swaying like thermal petticoats in a chilly Leeds breeze.

Maybe that was why Richard Dawson felt so at home. He'd warmed up at mid-off, chased by his shadow shrunk to a sixpence in the midday sun. Then Kumble, as bored as anyone, tried to cut. Dawson's 12th ball in Tests had got him a wicket, and ears pricked up around the ground - could it be Sachin, could it be Sachin? There was a roar all right, but only a Dravidian one.

There were flags from Hornchurch, Southampton and, by some miracle, Derbyshire CCC - who seem to have support in India if not at home. And there was also a travelling contingent of multimedia managers from Papua New Guinea.

The crowd sat there, 15,000 of them ... and waited.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole of England's Indian tour for Wisden.com.

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