If there's a patron saint of lost causes, India could do with his help tomorrow. And perhaps a rain dance or two as well. Unless they bat with more gumption than they've shown in a very long time - and the rain plays another starring role - chances are that they will leave Port Elizabeth much as they arrived; a well-beaten side. So well beaten in fact that you could make fluffy omelettes out of them. Shiv Sunder Das's dismissal as India embarked on their trek for survival was symptomatic of their fourth-innings travails. It was a great delivery from Pollock but you have to ask why Das was dangling his bat out as the ball curved away like a boomerang. Dasgupta and Dravid played, missed and nicked their way through until bad light intervened but there was nothing to suggest that India can go into the final day with any confidence. Too many airy shots at wide deliveries, too many free hits spurned. It's almost as if India have forgotten the fundamentals of Test match batting - block the good balls, punish the bad ones. India have a tradition of buckling at the slightest sign of pressure. Opposing captains that set India a fourth-innings target usually sleep as well as a baby on a stomach full of milk. It doesn't matter whether the target is meagre or imposing - India run up the white flag with remarkable consistency. The last time they made even a decent fist of chasing a target was in March 1999 when Sachin Tendulkar's magnificent 136 at Chennai almost steered them to victory against Pakistan. Once he departed, the tail did its usual disappearing act and India fell short by 12 runs. You have to go back a further eight seasons for a show of defiance. At Adelaide in 1991-2, Mohammed Azharuddin's mesmeric strokes got India to within 39 runs of victory. Tendulkar's name figures again as one looks to the last time India batted a day to save a Test. At Old Trafford in 1990, his maiden Test century - and many still consider that unbeaten 119 to be his best - saw India to 343 for 6, chasing a target of 408. Those are exceptions to the rule. For the most part, Indian run chases in the past decade have been as reckless and unsuccessful as Custer's Last Stand. Only, they don't issue stamps in your name for losing Test matches in disastrous fashion.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor, Wisden.com India.

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