India wrap it up before drinks

Yet the figures don’t show how much graft India had to put in before recording those wins. There were several sessions lost, several dire situations, but each time India came back. It was, as Tom Moody put it, due to their revived killer instinct, a quality missing for the past year or so.

Moody insisted that the series was quite close but said the Indians took advantage of the ‘‘slightest opportunity’’ they got. ‘‘We had them on the ropes in both Tests we lost but somehow they found ways to bounce back.’’

On the ropes India certainly were — 97/5 in the first innings at Motera, 100/5 in the second — but their recovery was helped by some responsible, heads-down cricket by the juniors.

Yuvraj Singh, for example, shook off the pressure of having to play for his place and twice came up with decisive knocks in the second innings after the first innings duck. Ajit Agarkar, the perennial fringe player in the team, did his bit with ball and bat. Dhoni seemed to have been sorted out by Murali when he was beaten and bowled by the doosra in the first innings at Kotla but subsequently scored 51 not out and 49 — and in both innings he gave Murali the charge.

The ‘‘killer instinct’’ was evident in the speed with which India wrapped up the match this morning. Sehwag, again handing the (relatively new) ball to his spinners, watched as they made short shrift of the Lankan tail. Kumble ended up with five for the innings, Harbhajan with 10 for the match.

All this by a team that had been dismissed for their lowest score ever against these opponents in the first Test and missed a senior player in each subsequent Test — vice-captain Sehwag at Kotla and Rahul Dravid at Motera.

Yet those two players stood out in the matches they did play. Dravid succeded with the bat, as he was expected to, but his most important statement was when he walked out to open at Kotla.

Sehwag, in turn, filled Dravid’s shoes well. He threw his weight behind Yuvraj for the No. 6 spot knowing his statement was open to interpretation. And by asking Harbhajan and Kumble to share the new ball, he showed he was in tune with Chappell’s ‘out-of-the-box’ approach.

Yet there is much work ahead, which explains why Moody rates Pakistan as favourites to win the series beginning next month.

The Indians have re-acquainted themselves with one old friend, their killer instinct. They now need to rid themselves of an old enemy, inconsistency. The evidence, though, is promising.