Watching it slip away

A bizarrely loud alarm went off early this morning, forcing me out of bed and rendering me so wide-awake that I had to turn to my trusted PC for some entertainment. Bangladesh were 117-6. Interesting. But I only stayed awake till 160-8. A sinking feeling had set in. For Chittagong had just become the latest cricket ground to bear witness to a particularly Indian affliction: the inability to turn the screw, take the initiative, go for the kill or whatever your happen your favorite sporting cliche happens to be. By and large Indian cricket teams rely on their opponents to commit harakiri. When that doesn't happen, the game more often than not, simply slips out of India's hand. As it did today. For it was not just Mortaza's smackeroo of an innings that did it, but the batting display afterwards (to be fair Dravid fell to a brilliant catch). But even before then, one knew (or at least could very reasonably surmise), that India would not get off to a brilliant start that would take back the advantage. Traditionally this is not the sort of situation that India is good in: a test match could drift to a draw, and India has to force the pace in many ways to get a result. A familiar situation for sure, and eerily similar to many in the past where India have failed to get it going.