Diggin' a hole

A rather dismal day for India finally wound to a close when Taylor dismissed Patel with a snorter of a ball. Yet another one of those performances by an Indian batting line-up that seems to happen overseas with depressing regularity, especially on pitches like this one, that show some early bounce. The number of times India have lost five wickets before 100 runs were on the scoreboard doesn't bear thinking out. One thing has remained constant through these performances: some sort of spirited fightback by the lower border. Today, that was provided by Kumble who hung in for a gritty stand with Dravid (whose innings was yet another indicator of why this man might be the hardest working batsman in the world today, and possibly the only one to rival and surpass, Gavaskar for his sheer impeccability of technique). But Kumble's dismissal, once again, depressingly to a sloppy defensive technique that has seen him play on three times in this series, saw a rather shabby performance by the rest of the tail that folded quickly (Dravid had been suckered into edging one from Colleymore by that time).

Make no mistake about it; India are in a hole, and its one they've dug for themselves. They'll be ruing all those missed opportunities earlier in the series, and wondering how they can get out of this jam. The pitch has already eased up, as the Dravid-Kumble stand showed, and we could very well be looking at another failed Caribbean adventure, a four-day special, if you will.