Three days of exciting cricket and all of them belonged to India. What else could one have asked for? It was the rare case of the Indian batting and bowling complementing each other.

At 15 for one, things may not have looked bright for the tourists, but Rahul Dravid's class and Sanjay Bangar's determination saw the pair put on a record second wicket stand against England in England. This provided the right platform for Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to change gears and achieve the record score of 628/ 8 declared.

Hats off to the team and Ganguly, especially, for sticking to his decision to play Bangar and also the two spinners - Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. For once, the bowlers, Kumble and Harbhajan included, also did their job and at the end of the third day, the Englishmen were reeling at 264/9, facing a follow-on and most likely a defeat at the hands of their till then unfancied Indian opponents

I have never before witnessed such solidarity in an Indian team, both on and off the field. Dravid's second consecutive century of the series and Sachin's special effort - his 30th century which saw him go past the Don in the list of century-makers in Tests - could not have come at a more appropriate time. It then is high time that the critics find something positive to write about these players rather than trying to find faults which seldom exist.

Ganguly, the Prince of Kolkata as he is fondly called, too needs to be praised whole-heartedly, as he led from the front showing calmness and extraordinary concentration to carve out a well-made century.

The most incandescent moments of the Sachin-Ganguly partnership came when they refused the umpires offer of light to them and proceeded to massacre the English bowling. It rained fours and sixes and 89 runs were scored of eight overs.The contrasting centuries from the Indian trinity on a pitch which was tipped by observes, yours truly included, to favour the English bowlers, put the home team on the back foot for the first time in the series. A rousing display from the Indian bowlers followed and this has firmly tilted the match in India's favour with England still trailing by 364 runs with two days to play.

Talking about the team, the Indians are gradually making people realise that they can play well in the longer version of the game too. It has been a rare case of focused cricket over 21 hours spread over 9 sessions. This is what Test cricket is all about, winning session after session, thereby throttling the opposition.

Ganguly's men have indeed worked hard and put on a display that will rank as probably their best in an away Test in recent times. Now it is up to them to continue their good work and crown their unstinting efforts with victory. Should India go on to win, it will definitely be one of their most famous wins and breathe life back into what was threatening to turn into a dead series.

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