At the end of the day, it was again left to India's two best batsmen to try and compensate for the incompetence of the rest of the team. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid ensured that India lived to fight another day, but coach John Wright would be hard-pressed to keep a lid on his frustration after India's shockingly pedestrian performance with the ball, and at the top of the order. The first two overs that England bowled starkly brought out the contrast between the new-ball bowlers from the two sides. Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan had sprayed it all over the place and offered huge dollops of hit-me balls. Hoggard dropped it on a perfect line and length straight away and got the swerve which India's bowlers had struggled to obtain. The Indian bowlers didn't even have the excuse of clear weather and lack of assistance from the atmosphere – there was plenty of cloud cover throughout the day. Yet, one set of bowlers needed just 10 balls to dismiss two frontline batsmen, while the other toiled all afternoon to get rid of the tail.

The huge difference in strategy and planning was apparent even when Tendulkar and Dravid were at the crease. In only his fourth over, Hoggard switched to bowling round the wicket to Tendulkar. Nasser Hussain had fielders on the boundary even though he had plenty of runs to play with. These were all signs that England's think-tank had clear plans about how they would go about the business of getting the better of India's best.

By contrast, the Indian bowlers and fielders went through the motions as if it were a punishment to be endured. Sourav Ganguly's field placements often gave the impression of a millionaire – the sweepers on the boundary were conspicuous by their absence even though the bowlers were leaking runs at an alarming rate.

Even more inexplicable was the reluctance to try something different. It shouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that when Plan A wasn't working, Plan B or C had to be resorted to. With India though, there was no back-up in sight. The Indian seamers sent down a total of 501 balls, but only 21 times did they change the line of attack to round the wicket. When Nehra did resort to that line, he immediately got the wicket of Hoggard.

Harbhajan got appreciable turn from the pitch, yet he finished with unflattering figures of 3 for 175. Of the total runs he conceded, a shocking 110 came in the arc between midwicket and fine leg, as the batsmen repeated flicked or swept him with the turn. A round-the-wicket line would have made it much tougher for the batsmen to work it away to leg, yet only nine times did he try that line, out of the 270 balls he sent down. Tendulkar and Sehwag got just six overs each, and India's performance on the field reeked of lack of planning, and a fatalistic attitude.

To make matters worse, Wasim Jaffer's opening woes continued. He may have got a harsh decision here, but his indecisive front-foot play would have done nothing to calm the dressing-room nerves. India have plenty of questions to answer before they move to Headingley, but first, they need to play out 105 overs tomorrow and ensure they are no more than 0-1 down after two Tests.

It's a tall order, but Dravid and Tendulkar showed it is achievable. Tendulkar looked at his fluent best in his run-a-ball 56, while Dravid's technical expertise shone through again in testing conditions. Will they rise to the occasion?

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com in India.

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