India lose again

There is, increasingly, something shambolic about the Indian performances in Sri Lanka -- an inexplicable inability to fire. Like a badly tuned motor, the team chokes, splutters, and dies.

Reminds you of the Test series against Australia, in a way. What the team needed then, and what it seems to need now, is to step up to the plate and produce an inspirational effort.

Going into this do-or-die game, India made two changes, bringing back Nehra for Mohanty, and Badani for Khurasiya. And Sourav Ganguly, on winning the toss, took into account some rain that delayed start of play, and opted to field first.

The decision seemed justified when Nehra, in the fourth over of the innings, made one kick and leave Astle off the seam. The batsman, beaten for pace and movement, pushed at it only to feather the edge through to the keeper, and the dangerous Astle was back in the hut before he could do any significant damage.

The Indians could have had the Kiwis in further trouble when, in the 6th over, Nehra produced another superb away seamer to find Mathew Sinclair's edge on the drive -- Sehwag, at second slip, however, put down a simple chance.

Mathew Sinclair initially, and Oram later, began opening out, taking their chances and focussing on pushing the scoring rate along -- and the ploy seemed to work, with the Kiwis moving to 55/1 after ten overs, and a very handy 82/1 at the end of 15.

Oram, in fact, was threatening to take the game away with his rapidfire innings of 40/37 when, in the 16th over, he attempted a needless reverse sweep against Harbhajan despite a slip being in place. Dravid reacted well to hold the uppish shot on the dive, and India got a breather.

From then on, it was all about Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh. The former bowled slow and wicket to wicket, the latter tossed them up and turned them away, and both proved almost impossible to hit off the square. The pressure -- exaggerated by the fact that the Kiwis had got a fine start and would be looking to build on that -- mounted, and wickets began tumbling.

Matt Sinclair, in the 21st over, played a shot born of sheer frustration, whacking at a slower ball from Ganguly and getting it on the toe of the bat for Dravid, again, to show fine fielding skills this time at mid on. Sinclair had, at that point, faced 12 deliveries from the Indian captain, and got just two runs.

The same policy of choking the runs worked for Ganguly against New Zealand's stand in captain McMillan -- 10 balls, 4 runs, with shots time and again trickling gently to the fielders. Finally, a clearly annoyed McMillan aimed a slog over mid on but managed only to pick out Badani with a simple catch.

At 111/4 in 25, the Kiwis had lost the early momentum and India, thanks largely to a remarkable spell by its captain, had clawed itself right back into the game. Ganguly consolidated matters further when he had Lou Vincent attempting to drive him on the rise -- the ball on this track just wasn't coming on, and Vincent only managed to pick out the fielder.

Adam Parore has been in good touch thus far, which made Yuvraj Singh's contribution in the 30th over crucial. The ball was tossed right up around off, and Parore made an attempt to rock back and cut. The ball skidded off the deck, turning as it went, and the batsman managed only to under edge onto his stumps. At that point, with the Kiwis 126/6, Yuvraj had turned in a spell of 5-0-8-1 -- a superlative effort that complemented the efforts of his captain at the other end.

Tight fielding and steady, line and length bowling without too many frills attached meant that India never really slackened the grip. At the 15 over mark, New Zealand was threatening a big score in a game reduced to 48 overs by a rain-dewed track. But with the part-time bowling of Yuvraj, Ganguly and Sehwag providing the star turn, India easily walked away with the first-session honours, bowling New Zealand out for a paltry 200.

And then it all began to go horribly wrong -- as it has, time and again, for India with the bat in this series.

A delivery from Mills that hit line of off and middle and straightened saw Ganguly play an indecisive push, slightly around the line, for the ball to take him on his front pad bang in front of the wicket, as early as the second over.

VVS Laxman was the next to go -- in a fashion that backs up increasing calls for him to be benched for a while, at least in the shorter version of the game. Tuffey came up with a nothing ball, well outside off and going through straight -- and Laxman, with a casual wave of the bat, managed to drag it back a good two feet and onto his stumps to reduce India to 9/2.

Virendra Sehwag and Rahul Dravid then settled down to play with some sense, keeping the board moving along nicely. But not for long. In the 16th over, Dravid drove Vettori hard and back along the track on the on side. The bowler dived forward, and fielded -- and then, from his prone position facing the batting end of the pitch, realised that Sehwag had taken a start. Vettori swivelled while still lying on the pitch, and threw down the stumps to end Sehwag's effort.

From then on, watching was, frankly, painful. McMillan toyed with Badani, pulling the fielders at mid on and mid off in and inviting the batsman to try and take on Vettori. Badani obligingly walked into the trap, looking to hit inside out and putting it up for McMillan to run back 20 yards and make a difficult catch look ridiculously easy.

India's progress was well and truly halted. 69/4 in 20, 92/4 in 25, and the only reason there was some hope was because the target was so very small. That hope, however, lasted till the 28th over, when Oram produced one on off seaming to middle and leg. Dravid attempted to whip off his pads, the ball came on slower than expected, took the edge onto pad and richocheted onto the stumps and India had lost its last recognised batsman.

Yuvraj Singh batted better than he has in recent times -- but seemed yet to be unable to curb his impetuosity. Against the gentle pace of Harris, he kept trying to club the ball out of the ground, frustration showing when his shots found the fielders. Finally, an attempt to rock back and slash square ended up with the batsman getting a faint tickle through to the keeper and India was 111/6.

The next wicket fell for the addition of one more run. Samir Dighe pushed the ball in front of him and took off with scant regard for the fact that the fielders were well inside the circle. When the throw came back, he was out of his ground by half the length of his pitch.

The Kiwi bowlers duly completed the formalities to force a 67 run win -- an amazing margin, given how small the target was.

What is more amazing, however, is the overall performance of a batting side that is missing only one of its major stars. The other day, given a run a ball ask of 26 off 26, India failed to win with four -- count them, four -- wickets in hand.

Today, having to get a mere 200 in 48 overs, India batted with such ineptitude that by the 32nd over, they had managed to actually push the asking rate up to 6 an over.

There is only one word for a performance of that kind: abject capitulation.

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