And intriguing final day…. rain permitting….

Rain has already played spoilsport at Lords – not that the English bowling achieved anything significant in the 22 overs of play in the 4th innings – it hard to say that the rain saved the West Indies, with them at a healthy 0/89 when play ended.

The Chittagong Test has been set up intriguingly. Of the 540 overs of play possible in a Test, only 180 have been played yet, India are 193 ahead and if a full days play is possible on day 5 (98 overs), then i can see India batting for another 25 and leaving Bangladesh 70 overs to survive. It might have been even better for India at the end of 180 overs, but for the brilliance of Mashrafe bin Mortaza. His batting average might suggest that he is of modest means as a batsman, but he played with the maturity of a Miandad as he picked his spots and rode his luck. His Bangladeshi batting line up had played poorly up front at at 8/149 it looked like Bangladesh would follow on. Mortaza dragged Bangladesh past the follow on target of 187 (more about that later) and the momentum of that effort carried them 50 runs past 187 on a fast scoring ground. India tried to buy him out with Ramesh Powar for about 6 overs, before turning to Sachin Tendulkar. 9 times out of 10 Powar might have bought him out, but yesterday was Mortaza’s day. He used his ability to clear the ropes judiciously.

Bringing on Tendulkar was excellent captaincy, especially once it was established that the great man had the landing permission that he sought. He bowled superbly and nobody picked his googlies. Later in the day he was back with the bat after Rahul Dravid had been scalped brilliantly by a flying Rajin Saleh.

All in all, a fine days cricket. Rahul Dravid was right to bat on in the morning – his hope clearly was that 4-5 overs of Dhoni would mean 30 additional runs, which would have pushed the follow on target past 200. The follow on target remaining at Score – 200 puzzled me. My understanding was that if a full day has been lost, then the Test is treated as a 4 day game, and the follow on score is Score – 150 in such an instance. May be this is something that has to be agreed upon in the playing conditions prior to the series.

The Dhoni gamble didn’t work and Dravid seemed uninterested in letting the world witness the batting prowess of VRV and RP….. that is a sight best reserved for more desperate times. Mortaza and to some extent Saleh apart, the Bangladesh batting let themselves down. India caught with aplomb and Dinesh Karthik demonstrated that his wicketkeeping skills might just come in very handy at gully.

In the final analysis though, it was Mortaza’s day……