Clark leads the python job

As clinical Australian bowling exposed the chinks in India's batting armour, you couldn't help but think of the geniuses in the Indian board that ratified this itinerary. It's every coach's favourite adage: Fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail. India's preparation for this mammoth task consisted of a week of acclimatisation - some players spent days sleeping off the jetlag - and one warm-up game that lasted 48 overs. It was almost as farcical as stepping into the ring with George Foreman (circa 1973) after having sparred a couple of rounds with Coco the Clown.

The batting line-up that earned comparisons with Hobbs, Sutcliffe and others on their last tour has aged and isn't the force it once was, but they still coped with the examination better than the new power generation did. The exception was Rahul Dravid, masterly in 2003 and a lost soul this morning.

Dravid has struggled for fluency in recent times, and promoted to open the batting, his ordeal was painful to watch. Dropped in the slips by Phil Jaques and then caught off a no-ball, he was extremely fortunate to survive a leg-before shout against Stuart Clark before the Get-out-of-jail cards ran out.

The fields Ricky Ponting set were attacking, but they also focussed on cutting off each batsman's scoring areas. Dravid didn't even look like finding the rope, and the couple of drives he did play went straight to the fielder. Rather than a venomous sting, this was death by constriction, python style.

The master of that art is now Stuart Clark. He eclipsed more illustrious colleagues in the Ashes whitewash, and his display today was emphatic proof that he'll be more than a one-season wonder. If you can look beyond his near-expressionless demeanour, it's like watching Glenn McGrath all over again, with bounce and subtle movement the lethal weapons.

VVS Laxman, usually such a star against Australia, got a start, but was then undone by an R-rated bouncer from Brett Lee, and it will annoy the Indians no end that three of the big four got starts without going on to play a defining innings.

Tendulkar showed plenty of positive intent, determined to upset Brad Hogg's rhythm on his return to the Test side, but neither he nor Ganguly looked entirely at ease when the ball was flying around. How long will it be before Australia's selectors take a punt on the raw pace of Shaun Tait?

For all the Indian failings though, this was a day when Australia found that little extra that only the greatest teams have. There was no weak link to break through, and after a nervous start, Hogg was certainly a bigger threat than Stuart MacGill has ever been against the Indians. Mitchell Johnson went wicketless, but on another day he might have had three, so well did he bowl first up.

It took India more than 20 overs to strike the first boundary, and the circumspect approach never appeared likely to work for a line-up more renowned for flair than graft. The one man with a reputation for hard yakka, Dravid, looked as out of place as a landlubber in choppy Channel waters, and unless he finds his seafaring feet soon, India's campaign will plumb the depths. After the stirring riposte on the opening day, Kumble and his brave bowlers certainly deserve better.

Comments

[AndieRae]

India's bright young talents of the future will gain nothing from watching the slow death of a dinosaur. At least Ganguly looks like going out with a bang, not a whimper.

[bunty]

the conditions may be more helpful than the past but reflexes and youth remain at least as potent vs pace as form n experience; india may yet miss the likes of raina, badrinath, utthappa, vrv singh; oz may bring in tait sooner rather than later to get the fastest attack on the field anywhere in at least 15 years

[Rajeev Mohan]

Galacticos, Fab-four... We can continue to live in a make believe world. Once in a while when we wake up, we may find to our bemusement that things don't appear the way we want them to be.
A few stray knocks against a pathetic English team and a 3 member bowling attack (for lack of a better word) of Pakistan, and our cricket journos go ballistic in their praise of this aging and toothless batting line up.
As Roebuck said in his inimitable style, 'a team that is not busy being born, is busy dying'.