Indians hurry home on day five

Prem Panicker

Anyone who figured that after all this controversy, the side would decide, on the final day of what has been a dismal tour, to make a Horatio-like stand and prove a point or three would get a 'F' for failed in figuring.

The gameplan would have called for the kind of spirit shown at SuperSport Park. The conditions were the same -- spiced further by the forecast that there was 60 per cent chances of rain.

The Indians probably had a game plan. The uncharitable would say it was to get the hell out of there, fast. The charitable would maintain that India looked to knock off the 200-odd runs remaining of the lead, put on a further 200, and then try and bowl the South Africans out. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

The tone for the morning was set in the second over, when Rahul Dravid -- recepient of more complaints than he has Test runs that he always tends to over-defend -- launched into Nantie Hayward, clipping him for three crisp fours in his opening over, through the off side. Ball six of the over was fullish, hitting line of off. Dravid looked to flick to leg, played around it, and was bowled. And that was that.

At the other end, Tendulkar was guilty of some serious ball tampering in the very next over when he clouted a Kallis bouncer out of the ground and into the wet outskirts, causing the ball to get soaked and leading to S'African skipper Shaun Pollock drawing the umpire's attention to the ball.

From then on, he played shots like he had come out with some predetermined plan -- the most noticeable being those new-found, cute little under-cuts, getting below the line of the ball and helping them over slips and gully, that he seems to have discovered in order to replace the shots he cut out thanks to his back.

The 55th over saw a delivery from Kallis kick high off a length, hitting one of those uneven spots on the deck. The bounce took the batsman by surprise, and ballooned off the splice for Gary Kirsten at gully to spill the simplest catch we have seen offered in the series, thus far. Interestingly, Gibbs a little backward at point could have taken it without moving a muscle.

The 50 partnership came off 66 balls, Tendulkar cover-driving the ball after his let off for four to rub some salt into the wound.

And then came the most bizarre dismissal I've seen yet, of Tendulkar. The one thing he does with unfailing regularity is to move the back foot back and across as the bowler delivers. To a straightish delivery from Ntini, bowling from wide of the crease and angling it in, Tendulkar kept his back foot stationery, and left the ball -- in a horrible misjudgement of where his off stump was. The ball clipped the stump -- end of story.

Laxman was pretty. Pretty brief, that is. Given how he had perished, failing to keep a cut down, in the first innings, the South Africans gave him two gullies. And sure enough, after the usual quota of effortless-seeming shots, Laxman cut at a Ntini delivery bouncing almost shoulder high, and picked out gully with precision, for Gibbs to hold and then drop kick the ball by way of celebration.

Kumble edged an angled delivery bowled at him from around the wicket, to bring out Harbhajan Singh and provide the crowd some fun -- vide 16 runs off a Boje over, including a clubbed six over midwicket and two cover drives that Tendulkar would have been proud to own. It is not the shots so much as the childlike glee when he pulls them off that make the offie's batting such fun to watch.

Pollock, for his part, let his bowlers send down 24 overs before bringing himself on.

Meanwhile, Ntini gave us further cause to realise that "ball tampering" is a widespread disease, when he furiously scratched away at the seam, unaware of the camera on him. He was cleaning the seam, very clearly -- but that does beg the question somewhat, given that he hadn't taken the umpire's permission either.

Harbhajan Singh and Deep Dasgupta, meanwhile, underlined a very crucial point about Indian cricket -- that it is the young ones who have the spirit, the nous, the heart and the sense of pride that increasingly, the seniors seem to lack.

Hayward with the second new ball finally ended Harbhajan's enterprise (30 off 33), a lifter going to leg getting the batsman to hook, the ball glancing off the glove to Boucher. India went in to lunch on 259/7 with only Nehra left to bat -- at the end of an extended session that saw 142 runs being scored for the loss of five wickets in 36 overs. At the end of it all, India was still 75 runs in deficit.

The end is not long now and the only point of interest is how much longer Dasgupta can prolong his defiance.

And in the final analysis, you are left with a thought -- the nation, en masse, has been fully sympathetic of the team's travails. But the team cannot, should not, expect an iota of sympathy for the way it has played its cricket.

Never perhaps, since the days of Bodyline, has any team received such massive support from the nation it represents. In return, that nation was entitled to one little thing -- a sense of gratitude from its players, translating into a commitment and determination not to let the country down.

Unfortunately, the bargain between the country and its players has been one-sided.

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