Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul played much the same way in their 186-run partnership as VVS Laxman and Ajay Ratra had on the second day – defend the good balls and score off the bad ones. The pitch was placid and the Indian bowling attack toothless, but Hooper and Chanderpaul took no chances. Their scoring rate off good-length balls was only 16% - that is one run every over – but when the ball was too full or too short, they scored at a rate of 93%. Hooper was marginally more adventurous with a strike-rate of 19% off good-length balls, compared to Chanderpaul's 13%.

The Indian seamers stuck to their task manfully, but their approach to bowling varied. Javagal Srinath bowled well within himself, rarely exceeding 130 kmph, and concentrated on keeping it tight. He bowled 80% on a good length and conceded just 15 runs off the bat in 21 overs. However, the batsmen were mostly in control against him. Only 7% of the time did they play-and-miss, edge, or get rapped on the pads.

Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were less predictable, and though they went for more runs, looked more likely to pick up wickets too. Zaheer had a good-length percentage of only 61, and Nehra was only marginally better at 65, but both induced more false strokes from the batsmen – the not-in-control factor against Zaheer was 19%; against Nehra it was 17%.

Sachin Tendulkar bowled all of 19 overs today, landing 71% of his deliveries on a good length, and inducing a not-in-control factor of 20%. He picked up the prized wicket of Hooper too. Not bad for a part-timer.

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

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