Ganguly was lucky to win the toss and of course, elected to bat. Bajji, who has buckets full of wickets on this ground, was chosen ahead of Zaheer.

India started off quite well with nothing to bother the two openers. Of course, the Pakistan bowlers were to blame in this respect because Sami kept spraying the ball all over the place and Khalil was apparently instructed to only bowl short stuff at Sehwag.

Sehwag was of course not in a mood to hook or pull so he just let those be, and at the sight of any loose ball, he would smack it for 4. Gambhir did the same. Some classic drives off the front and back foot on the offside were a treat to watch.

What was important to see was that both the openers went after Kaneria, trying to seemingly disturb him and not let him dominate them. They succeeded to a great extent because he was immediately made to rethink his plans and had to start looking at options like going around the wickets, and maybe trying to get some purchase from the rough on the other side.

Gambhir went first trying to be cheeky and sweep a fuller ball off Kaneria. That shot was not really called for, but I guess you can’t really blame him for getting out like that. He was on a roll and he would have bet his money on connecting on that ball. Another good start by this guy for India.

Dravid came and settled in fine, with no signs of defensive frame of mind. He was trying to get runs from the first ball, so the run rate was maintained at about 4+ runs per over.

Sehwag went to an absolute nonsense shot. He was beaten twice earlier off Afridi and once was when he tried the exact same shot he got out to, eventually. He did look a little out of sorts, maybe disinterested even. Strange, because it has not happened for a while.

Anyway, he scored (quick as usual) a nice 80+. And that brought out Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin was 27 shy of 10K in test cricket and after a long long period of staying on 0*, he opened his account with a classic off drive. His next shot was a great smash on the offside and I could tell he was all set for a long innings.

Except that after reaching his fifty, he was out. Another soft dismissal where he tried to go for a cut and got a very thin bottom edge which stuck in Akmal’s gloves. Sachin looked in great touch, and especially after reaching his 10K mark (which apparently he was not aware of) he showed some of the shots the ‘old’ Sachin used to play. Fierce pulls and cuts and drives. I can only say that Bangalore will be a great match to watch! :-) Fingers crossed.

Ganguly came and hit some shots but was out fishing outside the off stump. Laxman had a failure on his favorite ground. Karthik hung around for a bit but frankly I fast forwarded the last bit of the game because I was pissed at the mini collapse.

And sadly, at the end of the day, Dravid knicked one behind the stumps and I know now that Pakistan would think they are back in the game.

It is no up to the tail to muster at least 100 runs more so that there can be some pressure applied on the Pakistani batsmen. Pathan will have a big role to play along with Karthik, in the first session tomorrow.

I am not too interested in the Indian batting now. And if Pakistan is positive in their attitude (means they give Indians enough chances to take wickets), it will be worth watching. Or else it could start getting quite boring. But on the other hand, the pitch is expected to deteriorate a bit, so hopefully there will be some unexpected response from the pitch and help to Kumble and Bajji.