Nagpur night coming up

After a sub-par performance in the first two tests, India seem set to move into a winning position in the third test. Plenty of things can still go wrong of course: SRT and Dravid could dawdle even more than they did yesterday, and some quick wickets could make India's 300-run lead into a 200-run one. Which would then be followed by yet another Kiwi batting bonanza, facilitated by more blunt bowling from India's spinners. But all of that seems unlikely (even my spinning that out sounded a bit stretched). India should win this. What is of more interest to me is how they will do it. Dhoni insists that playing test cricket is about "taking care of the basics so that the results will follow". We'll soon see if India's "basics" include knocking out a doughty opponent quickly now that they have them on the ropes.

Incidentally, I don't suppose it has escaped anyone's attention that Tendulkar will be looking to score his 50th test century when play resumes "tonight". It's a mind-boggling statistic, and while I look forward to it, I will have to turn down the volume if it happens because I don't think I will be able to handle the hagiographic gushing emanating from the commentators.

The expected and the unexpected

Come the first test of a series featuring India, and one can expect a reasonably incompetent performance, possibly culminating in a heavy defeat. The Galle test, therefore, is not much of an aberration, but rather, just another data point that further clarifies and establishes the claim that Team India is very consistent with its inconsistency. Things will be better in the second test, I'm sure (or maybe I'm not - is such certainty justified with such an inconsistent outfit?)

What is an aberration, however, is that a test bowler is retiring with 800 wickets to his name. To be honest, I haven't still quite wrapped my head around that number. 300 wickets used to be a lot and then it got to 400. From that point on, the wicket-taking record became an increasingly fantastic number. 500? 600? 700? These numbers simply boggled the mind. Murali has gone one further, and staked out a point that is going to be very hard to get to for any bowler that follows him. Besides the usual worries about injuries, form, getting "found-out", will bowlers of the future even play enough test cricket?

Thanks Jacques

Thank you Jacques Kallis, for keeping your celebrations over reaching the 10,000 run mark so demure. I found Dravid's triumphant, hands held aloft, Olympian exultation at reaching the same mark last year at Chennai in very poor taste, especially since his innings had completely and totally bogged down India on the fourth day. Celebrations over these individual landmarks are most tasteful when done in as dignified fashion as possible. I don't mind the hoopla over centuries; they are, after all, contributing to a large team total at that point. But aggregate records, which are a recognition of your longevity and consistency need to be tackled a bit more tastefully. In Kallis' case, he also probably recognized that plenty of work needs to be done as RSA struggle at 17-2 facing an Aussie total of 466.