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India found themselves immediately enmeshed in Kensington Oval's age-old jinx on the opening day of the third Test against the West Indies yesterday.

On the ground where they have been beaten in six of their seven Tests and never won a match of any kind, they lost a wicket off the first ball of the match after they were sent in, had the trauma of Sachin Tendulkar's dismissal for his second successive 0 of the series and were all out for 102 in 33.4 overs, broken into three parts by rain interruptions.

By the close, called 19.3 overs before schedule as the day's fourth shower swept in from the east, the West Indies had replied with 33 for the loss of Stuart Williams, whose edged drive off left-armer Zaheer Khan was neatly taken at third slip.

With the use of the pitch over the next two days when it is usually at its most favourable for batting, they have a golden opportunity to press for the victory that would even the series, following their loss by 37 runs in the hard-fought second Test last week.

Captain Saurav Ganguly was the only exception to India's pathetic performance against four fast bowlers on a pitch faster and bouncier than those for the drawn first Test in Georgetown and for the second in Port-of-Spain that they won by 37 runs but far from intimidating.

The collective malfunction was induced not so much by the conditions or by the bowling, as spirited as it was, but by history.

Since their first tour of the Caribbean 49 years ago, Kensington has been to India what Waterloo was to Napoleon. Their key batsmen yesterday – Tendulkar, Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman – brought unhappy memories of their last Test at the prestigious venue when a seemingly simple winning target of 120 proved beyond them as they folded for 81.

As captain, Ganguly spent just over two untroubled hours between the showers setting an example his partners had neither the inclination nor the technique to follow against four fast bowlers who could keep fresh between the weather breaks.

He compiled 48 before he was last out to Merv Dillon's sensational, tumbling catch in front of the disbelieving Three Ws Stand on the boundary's edge at third man off a raised cut off the energetic Adam Sanford.

Yet even he had a hand in the breakdown for he was culpable in the run out of Dravid for 17, just n From Page 47.

when the two were easing the shock of Tendulkar's rare failure.

India made only one change to their winning 11 from Port-of-Spain, the slim right-hander Wasim Jaffer brought in for his third Test as the third opening partner for Shiv Sunder Das in the series.

But the diminutive Das was the immediate victim, like Tendulkar later, for his second successive duck in the series. Tardy in defence, he was bowled middle-stump by Dillon's on-target first delivery.

It was a start that would have set off alarm bells in an Indian dressing room already suspicious of Kensington's bogey. The position never got much better.

In the seventh over, Jaffer, feet static, edged Dillon for reinstated wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, back where he belongs, to snare a sharp catch to his right.

Three balls later, the 8 000 or so in the stands reacted as if Owen Arthur had just abolished all taxes as Tendulkar sparred at left-armer Pedro Collins' second ball, angled across him, and Jacobs jubilantly claimed the deflection.

Out fourth ball in his previous innings in the second Test, it was the first time India's cricketing god had recorded successive 0s in his 94 Tests.

Dravid began scratchily with an edge off Dillon that flew through vacant fourth on its way to the third man boundary.

But he is India's most solid batsman, Tendulkar not necessarily excluded, and he and the impressive Ganguly were steadying things when Ganguly pushed Cameron Cuffy to Shivnarine Chanderpaul's left at cover.

He initially summoned his partner for the run but then changed his call. Dravid skidded to a halt, spun around as quickly and nimbly as the quickest ZR but Chanderpaul's return and Cuffy's neat, low take before breaking the stumps were too swift.

Umpire Billy Doctrove's verdict on the television replay took ages but was inevitable.

Ganguly found himself left with a tailend that begins with the little wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra at No.7 and the four bowlers when Cuffy, operating from the north after his opening burst from the south, produced a sharp breakback in the next over to breach Laxman's loose drive and hit the off-stump.

He was then 19 and was responsible for 29 of the 51 runs added before it was all over.

Ratra gained a stay of execution through Hooper's miss of a low chance at second slip off Cuffy and an hour-long rain stoppage. Ten minutes into the resumption, he predictably edged again and Jacobs gobbled the catch off Dillon.

Sanford then restored some of the public's vanishing faith in West Indian bowlers to bounce out batsmen – even if they were inadequate tailenders.

Harbahajan Singh hooked into fine-leg's lap in a replay of Port-of-Spain and Zaheer Khan stabbed a catch to short-leg as if shaking off a centipede.

By this time, Ganguly realised he didn't have long to do what he had to do and improvised two astonishing shots off successive balls from Dillon.

Charging down the pitch, he slapped a four that whizzed to the extra-cover wall in front of the Kensington Stand and then hoisted the fast bowler on top of the Pickwick Pavilion's roof.

They were to be the last flickers of life in the dying innings.

Dillon disposed of Srinath, lbw right after the late tea interval, and then hung on to his breathtaking catch off Ganguly to round off quite a day for himself – and for the team.

Now it's up to the batsmen to make the most of the effort.

© Barbados Nation