Just like his soft features and hairless face,theres nothing venomous about 36-year old Chris Martins run-up. He moves towards the crease at a steady pace,bouncing on the tip of his toes in wide leaps. The final jump is more a hop,as he takes off and lands from his right foot,crossing his hands at right angles high above his torso. At its release,the ball sways gently in the air,barely tickling the speed guns on the way. But everything changes on landing,as the stitches on the leather grip the muddy pitch,before it dart around viciously towards the ignorant batsman. Just ask the fear-stricken stalwarts of Team India,who found out about it the hard way on Sunday. Jagging,cutting,bouncing and seaming the ball ferociously off the dead Motera wicket during his first spell of nine overs,the seamer dismissed the whos who of Indias batting order Gautam Gambhir,Rahul Dravid,Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina to leave India reeling at 15/5 in the second innings,before coming back to claim the scalp of the Indian skipper MS Dhoni in his second burst. With his first five-wicket haul in the fourth innings of a Test match and best numbers outside his country Martins figures of 13-7-25-5 ensured that the Kiwis will go into the final day as the favourites to win the opening Test the same match in which they struggled to save follow-on at one stage. With tongues hanging by their chins,Martins awestruck New Zealand team-mates crowded around his lean frame time and again,as they celebrated the haul of a lifetime. With one of the finest spells of seam bowling,Martin single-handedly detonated the Indian line-up in the final session of the fourth days play,turning the equation of the game on its head. The clueless Indians stumbled to 82/6 by stumps in Ahmedabad,with VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh still at the crease. Although Laxmans unbeaten 34 helped India crawl to an overall lead of 110 runs,New Zealand owned every session of the fourth days play,long before a chuckling Martin could have the final laugh. Starting off from where he had left on Day Three,20-year old Kane Williamson tormented the weary Indians some more,punching off the backfoot in style to bring up his first Test match century. At the other end,skipper Daniel Vettori brought up the team 400 with a wristy six over long-off,before notching up the personal milestone of 4000 Test runs. But seconds before lunch,Pragyan Ojha dismissed the prodigal debutant on 131 to a weak prod,latched comfortably by Laxman at first slip. The Kiwis bundled up a session later 28 runs behind for 459,leaving the Indians with five overs to play before tea. And all hell broke loose. In the third ball of the innings,Gambhir misjudged Martins in-cutter to get caught behind,and the scoreboard read 0/1 at the end of the first over. A ball later,Sehwag was run out by a ball-watching Dravid to make it 1 Dravid soon made it 2/3 after he poked at a Martin delivery that held its line,giving keeper Gareth Hopkins his second catch. While the Indians took refuge in the dressing room at tea,Martin bowled at a single stump outside,maintaining his new found momentum. It showed immediately after the break,when he sent Tendulkars leg-stump cart-wheeling for 12. Having set him up with a few wide ones,Martin had Tendulkar back in the hut with a wicked in-cutter. It soon became worse when Ross Taylor claimed a low catch to put Raina out of his misery on three,as Martins four fragmented India into broken shards. Laxman and Dhoni salvaged some pride with a half-century stand,before the Indian skipper clipped Martins bouncer onto his off-stump on 22 to give him his fifth. Harbhajan Singh signed the day off with a six off Vettori,but the visitors werent complaining. They were too busy pulling Martins wrinkled cheeks and patting his bald head the gentle features that had transformed into the face of the apocalypse.
