Delhi Test, Day 4, Close
Sunday, March 3, 2002

Once again, Sachin Tendulkar holds the key for India. His approach in the first 30 minutes tomorrow morning may well decide which way the Test is going to swing. I have a hunch that he is likely to take the attack route, and that is the best chance for India to pull off a win.

I was a bit disappointed to see left-arm spinners creating a flutter in the Indian batting ranks once again. I wonder whether this is because India haven't had a left-arm spinner in their own team for over a year now. It's something I can't put my finger on, but it is curious to see it happen so often.

A word for two of the younger players. Tatenda Taibu is a dazzling talent. For a wicketkeeper with hardly any experience at international level, he was always going to face a most severe examination on these Indian pitches, with the ball spinning and jumping about. But he handled it in a manner that would have made most seasoned campaigners proud.

It was his brilliant work today to run out Deep Dasgupta that started India's trouble while chasing. Dasgupta's decision to take the second run was not a bad call, but Taibu got the ball down and hit the stumps in incredibly quickly.

Dasgupta looked livid with himself as he walked back to the pavilion. His own keeping has been poor, and that too must have played on his mind. And yet I have a lot of time for Dasgupta, because of his approach to the game. At the crease today, he looked like a man desperately trying to make amends for his poor day in the field, and you could see the hurt on getting out. He is a fighter – he showed that the other day when he returned to the field after copping a blow on his face.

For his sake – and for India's - I sincerely hope he can drastically improve his wicketkeeping.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late 1980s and early '90s, was talking to Rahul Bhattacharya.

More Sanjay Manjrekar
Day 4, Tea: A lesson learnt for Harbhajan

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