Yawn-day series over

8220;We still love you, India,8221; said an SMS sent by a distraught couple who had come to watch the last one-dayer of the five-match series all the way from Toronto.

What they got instead were some wisps of smoke from the blazing bats of Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers during their 177-ball 173-run opening tie-up, drooping Blue shoulders, the blowout of VVS Laxman, the fading shadow of Virender Sehwag 8212; and a cruel caricature of Sachin Tendulkar.

On their last legs, India today just knelt down and threw their hands up 8211; they didn8217;t have the runs, they didn8217;t have the wickets. And yes, they didn8217;t have the luck, either. Graeme Smith was trapped in front for zero, off a no ball; Mohammed Kaif, India8217;s No 1 fielder, dropped a sitter at point of de Villiers 19. Even the spunky Sreesanth gave up.

The one-day series is over, it8217;s a whitewash of the most humiliating kind, and what do we take away from this final game? Mahendra Dhoni8217;s courage 8212;strangely enough, he has been India8217;s most consistent batsman in this series with scores of 14, 55, 26 and 44 8211; and one very embarrassing memory. Of the great Tendulkar, struggling to get a touch on the ball.

Imagine Tendulkar, 40 centuries, 14482 runs, scrambling to survive from one ball to another. Imagine Tendulkar, 373 ODIs, stuck on 4 in the first 40 balls. Just imagine.

He got his first three runs in 26 balls, all of routine legside tucks of Makhaya Ntini8217;s in-cutters. He got his fourth run from the 33rd ball he faced, a similar shot, this time off Shaun Pollock. His first scoring shot on the offside came in the day8217;s 13th over, off an edged square drive to third man in Jacques Kallis8217; opening over. By then, India had crawled from 25/2 in 10 overs to 26/2 in 15 overs 8212; just one run in five overs.

In fact, Tendulkar8217;s only convincing stroke on the off 8212; where has dispatched some of the world8217;s best bowlers over the last 16 years 8212; was a cut off Kallis to cross his 50. Was he finally beginning to get it right? Before you could think of an answer, he was out 8212; where else, but on the offside, the Justin Kemp delivery hitting the right end of the horizontal bat, floating to de Villiers in the cover region.

But then, can you point the finger at Tendulkar alone on a day when Sehwag blew away his one-day career with a careless wave on the offside, when Laxman failed to sight the first ball he faced, when Dinesh Mongia held up one end but failed to step on the gas, when the Dinesh Kaarthick experiment failed again?

Maybe, you could also point to some smart captaincy by Smith who, unlike Sehwag, came up with a big 79 on the day it mattered. Why? Winning the toss for the fourth time, he chose to field here, leaving an excited Sehwag waving happily at the dressing room. If only the Indian captain had talked to Hilbert Smith, the groundsman, last evening. He would have been told that this was not the World Cup pitch of 2003, but a relaid one that stops and starts in the morning, settles down under the hard sun later on.

The second and final twist from Smith came later in the day when he left de Villiers to face Zaheer Khan. By the time Smith faced the first ball from Zaheer, he had hit five fours off 17 balls, and the ghosts of the last three matches had been banished. The South African captain then went on to seal this debate with a huge six over long-off.

Rubbing it in for India was this final note. After three failures, South Africa8217;s GenNext icon de Villiers had regained his form with a sparkling 92. But Irfan Pathan, the Indian equivalent, is well on his way back to domestic cricket 8212; his figures today, 6-0-48-0.

Hoo Haa India? By the end of it all, the Blue Billion had given it their own spin: 8220;Hai Hai India.8221;

Sachin injured

Centurion: Virender Sehwag, Munaf Patel, Rahul Dravid, Ajit Agarkar and now, Sachin Tendulkar. Team India8217;s injury list is reaching critical levels. Today, Tendulkar sat out of the second half of the one-dayer, after being hit on the left elbow by a short ball from pacer Andre Nel that squatted. Tendulkar initially shrugged off the pain and continued to bat. But two balls later, at the end of the over, physio John Gloster rushed in to help, holding up play for about 10 minutes. Tendulkar spent the afternoon with his 8220;bruised8221; arm in an ice pack 8211; the team thinks it8217;s not critical enough to warrant an X-ray.

8220;It8217;s hard to tell at this stage. I think it8217;s just a bruised arm. We will have to wait and see how he pulls up over the next few days. Thankfully, we have got 10 days or more before the first Test. So we are hopeful that8217;s not going to be a problem,8221; said coach Greg Chappell. Later it was learnt that Tendulkar will only be able to lift the bat after three days.