Game Day, First Test. 3rd [Sloth Bear] day,

Sehwag went on to score his next test hundred and much more;Dravid was cool as usual, he reached his fifty. Dravid took a blow on his head that might have made him think about it, it was rare sight for me to see Dravid take a blow on his helmet. Dravid watches the ball better than the TV Camera. But this time he misread the ball was struck on his head near the temple. May be shaken up by the hit he played an unusual careless shot after his 50, and was out caught.Dravid also never plays a reckless or careless stroke; every cricketer has to learn this from him. Dravid also holds a new record now. He is the only player with the longest tenure who has been never dropped since his debut. This clearly proves his importance and contribution to the Indian team.

Pakistan’s poor fielding agony continued they kept dropping catches; Gangully had 2 lives while Sehwag was dropped again.

Another highlight of the day was the poor “digition” - [Sanjay Manju says the word Decision] from Umpire Rudy Kirsten. Sachin was out to a bat pad catch. A well tossed ball from Kaneria took a thick inside edge and was caught in close in field. However umpire Rudy Kirsten failed to see it, and ruled not out. Replays showed the picture clearly, it was thick edge; I really don’t know how umpire missed this clear decision. I would like to appreciate Pakistani fielders for taking this poor decision well. They were really clam and did not make a big fuss about it. Frankly they cannot afford a free ride for a batsmen like Sachin. Any other team would have misbehaved for this decision.

Sachin went on to score a blasting 94, yes he missed his “record” breaking hundred. If you ask me Frankly, I was happy with it. I really don’t want “the record breaking score to be 100 for 1. He will get his chance soon. Some of the shots Sachin played were simply incredible.

Everything changed after lunch, for some reason run rate was reduced by half. Indians started to bat very slowly. Even Sehwag was playing slow and it became worse after Sehwag departure. Sachin and Gangully scored about 50 runs in 25 overs. It was really a turtle slow cycle race, Sachin and Gangully never bothered to check the run rate. They kept blocking the ball, reminding us “The Lord of the Block” - Commentator Ravi Shastri.

Like others I really could not guess the game plan. It looked as though Indians were playing for a draw. This (Ravi Sashtri + Chris Tavare) hybrid mix at 2.30am put me to sleep right away, I feel asleep automatically until a loud noise woke me up Gangully was out. VVS walks in and take over the sloth bear tree climbing.

For many this will be an easy Sachin bashing, people will speculate that Sachin wanted to score his record 100, actually he was no where close to his hundred when all this happened. I am sure the intent was not hundred, the reason I feel like this , apart from me being a golden “Jalra” for Sachin, I saw Gangully and VVS play in similar ass breaking fashion., What the heck is wrong with our game plan?. Or May be Pakistanis really bowled well.

VVS struggled against the tight bowling of Kaneria, but managed to stay there till close. Just before close suddenly came some aggression from no where, he played very good shots to accelerate the scoring. Dinesh Karthik started off well but was out caught. Irfan walked in and Indians were 135 runs ahead at the close. Game was stopped due to bad light. Heavy rain was in the forecast.