Look back in anger

The P-factor

Just who is to blame for this defeat?

A post-mortem of India’s defeat would revolve around the first morning. Bowled out for 76, they were playing catch-up for the rest of the Test. Then there are the 3Ps — the Pitch, the Proteas and the Preparation.

The Indian team wasn’t too happy with the strip laid out in Motera, but that alone did not contribute to the nightmarish capitulation on Day One. After being tonked around in Chennai, the visiting bowlers put the ball in the right areas when the ill-prepared Indian batsmen were at their most tentative.

All fall down

Yesterday wasn’t too different either. Virender Sehwag entertained briefly, hooking and flicking first-innings tormentor Dale Steyn for two sixes in the first over of the day, but didn’t last long enough to create a dent on the gigantic lead.

The South African bowlers ran in hard and bowled with purpose, the quicks not hesitating in hitting the deck hard and making the batsmen smell leather.

Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer looked like they would settle down, but both fell in quick succession — Dravid poking a short ball from Morkel to slip and Jaffer hanging his bat out to a Kallis away-swinger.

VVS Laxman, who has dug India out of one of the biggest holes in cricketing history, flattered to deceive, before Ganguly and Dhoni (52) came in to provide some respectability to the Indian total.

Brief resistance

They may never have had a sniff at saving the game, but they did enough to ease some of the pressure building up about their places in the side.

Ganguly was chanceless throughout his 229 minutes at the pitch, leaving anything outside off and not sparing anything pitched up. The left-hander swept and cut with precision and reached his half-century just before tea off 86 balls.

Dhoni was dropped by Ntini on the fine-leg fence at 18 — and Boucher muffed a stumping chance on 24 — but The India ‘keeper settled down to play his role in the 110-run stand. The two men are said to be at loggerheads after Ganguly was dropped from the one-day side, but that didn’t seem to matter out in the middle.

The inevitable

The resistance ended rather tamely though, with Ganguly edging Steyn to Boucher, and with the new ball due soon, the end was going to come sooner rather than later.

Dhoni, who got his 9th Test 50 off 122 balls with five hits to the fence, departed soon after, and Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh followed without troubling the scorers too much.

Sreesanth survived a chance off the first ball he faced, but went on to provide a few entertaining hits — including a six off Steyn (he didn’t dance this time) in his 17, before Ntini got through his defences to spark off the celebrations.

Pathan was unbeaten on 41 at the other end, left high and dry as he was in the first — two not outs to make up for his complete failure with the ball. Should we add another ‘P’ to the reasons for India’s defeat?