Two-hundred-and-twenty-three could be further than it appears. India today fell – typically – in the face of pressure and will require a rather inspired revival to prevent a series loss. Pessimistically speaking, the big question is whether this will be an innings defeat or not.

Only Sachin Tendulkar, who played wonderfully well for his 41, batted like a man who had really come to terms with the pitch. When he struck two glorious boundaries off the first three balls he faced, to reach eight - as many as he had scored in almost a month now - there was the whiff of something special.

More so when he straight away attacked Pedro Collins, his conqueror for duck in two of his last three innings, as if to prove a point. Runs flowed from his blade, and, after a very long time, Tendulkar was making it look easier than anyone in the world. But he too, once more, didn't rise to the big occasion. Forty-one were too few.

Tendulkar alone cannot take the blame. First, there was the bowling. Just how much India couldn't exploit the conditions was seen from the moment Mervyn Dillon landed his first over, from the George Headley Stand end. He regularly found a spot from where the ball lifted sharply and zipped away off the seam. Javagal Srinath had been given a long go from there in the morning. The contrast was depressing.

The bounce from the Press Box end was quite different. Where one ball from Dillon leapt pass Das's face from a length, another Collins delivery from the opposite end hit Das in the helmet as he crouched low to avoid being hit by what was essentially a half-tracker.

India's hopes now rest on the same duo that held some promise in the Barbados defeat. Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman are actually the best men to have for this situation. Yes, Tendulkar is a better batsman, and Dravid admirably equipped, but Ganguly and Laxman have best responded to pressure all through the series. They have, also, put the highest price on their wickets. Tomorrow they will have to do so in Chanderpaulesque proportions.

At the end of the day Harbhajan Singh gave a press conference for achieving his first five-wicket haul outside India. But really, it was irrelevant in context of the match. He was taken for 138 runs; two of his wickets were of tailenders, and Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ridley Jacobs had got 113, 65 and 59 before he had them. Yes, five wickets are five wickets, but his wasn't the story of the day.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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