Lee-Hesh pull one back

Paes and Bhupathi were back together on Saturday and so were the in-the-air chest-bumps,the high fives.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were back together on Saturday and so were the in-the-air chest-bumps,the high fives. Showing their true camaraderie on the court,the Indians thrashed the Brazilian pair of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 6-4 7-6 5 6-1 in a match that lasted little over two hours. As the duo took their Davis Cup winning streak to 24 matches,it meant that India,trailing 1-2,lived to fight another day.

Its magic; whatever you want to call it but thats what it is, said Paes on how they pull it off. We still use our tricks from 1997. Nothing has changed in the on-court connect, added Bhupathi.

The match looked to be going in Indias favour from the very first game when Melo was broken. Soares lost his serve in the third,while both Paes and Bhupathi held to take a 4-0 lead. But the Brazilians made a comeback by breaking back Bhupathi in the sixth to go 4-2. While they held their next two games,they couldnt break the Indians again. They had a very good start but we tried to remain calm and fight. After we broke Mahesh,we started playing better and at 5-4 he was love 30 down,we thought we can equalise but a couple of good shots cost us the set, Soares said. And when Bhupathi got India an advantage with a down-the-line forehand,after being two breakpoints down on Paess serve,it was time for the first chest bump.

At 6-6 in the second set,Brazil had a 4-1 lead in the tie-breaker with three straight errors from Bhupathi. But the next three points were almost a mirror image when Bhupathis serve forced two errors and followed it up with a cross-court forehand that caused the third from the Brazilians to level the tiebreaker 4-4. Another chest bump.

They were putting pressure with the way they were playing but in the second set we played bad. After 4-1,we missed a couple of points,and the game changed in one minute, Marcelo Melo said. Having lost the tie-breaker to go two sets down took the steam away from the visiting team. Again on Paess serve,India were down a break point but Bhupathi found the courts corner with a cross court forehand. The signature celebrations again.

While the victory gave India hope,they have a Herculean task ahead. Its a tough ask but Somdevs match is going to be crucial. Bellucci looked vulnerable,it could work for us, Paes said.

When Bhupathi came on courts on Friday,he wore a tee-shirt that said,We came,we saw,we conquered. Almost 24 hours later,with Paes thats exactly what the he did. But when asked why they dont do it more often,Paes said: Magicians dont perform every day.