Jaldi chalo, jaldi chalo.’’ That was Brett Lee’s line right at the start of this series. Today, India’s much vaunted batting line-up took the benched fast bowler seriously, playing in one-day fashion to effect a spectacular collapse and hand Australia their first series win here in 35 years.In cold figures, saving the match was a task within India’s reach. Chasing 543, they had to bat around 150 overs, five sessions; not a tall order for a team that has done exactly that several times before. And for batsmen known for their ability to occupy the crease.Yet, disregarding Sunil Gavaskar’s advice to ‘‘take their bedrolls and occupy the crease’’, they lasted all of 53 overs, four hours. And scored 200 runs. There was only one explanation for it: Pressure.The Indians flopped today because they were, almost to a man, all dealing with various kinds of pressure. And, as Anil Kumble, that grizzled veteran, once said, the only thing sure to get a batsman out is pressure.First off was Aakash Chopra, whose tentative stays at the wicket are the result of the pressure he is put under because no one can make up their minds whether he should be in the team or not. In what could be his last Test innings for a while, Chopra played all over an incoming ball and saw his stumps shattered.Rahul Dravid, in the middle of a terrible run, didn’t have his cause helped much by having to act as stand-in captain. His average from four Tests as skipper is 9; today, he fell short of that by seven runs.At the other end, Virender Sehwag — who doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘‘pressure’’ — was going on merrily. Joined on Dravid’s departure by his idol Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag took on the role of senior partner.Sachin was under obvious pressure; just back from injury, having failed in the first innings, and the object of much talk about waning powers. He was very visibly off-colour and lacking match practice, and got out to a ball that got too high on his bat while cutting.That brought in VVS Laxman, under pressure simply to hold on to his place. He got into the hook shot when the situation hardly warranted and the Indians got into more trouble.Fifty minutes after lunch, India’s top batsmen were back in the pavilion.Sourav Ganguly wasn’t there, of course; he had succumbed either to an injury or to BCCI politics played out pitch-side, depending on which conspiracy theory you subscribe to. His absence, for whatever reason, merely added to the pressure on the others.Kaif, the new batting mainstay, was around but had barely any role to play this time, and it was left to Parthiv Patel — who also had a lot to prove — to help stave off the inevitable.His partnership with Sehwag took the score towards respectability but as a preventive it was too little too late.
