In control, but never in command

Sourav Ganguly: had reason to be disappointed with himself © AFP

India can look back on this Test with a generous dose of regret. It was a match that never seemed out of their control, yet rarely did they manage to take command. In the end, they were defeated - failure to win in this instance must surely count as defeat - as much by the resoluteness of the New Zealanders as by their own perplexing reluctance to press on the throttle at crucial moments in the match.

Teams which have a habit of winning know how to seize vital moments, wrench the momentum and never let it go. Unmistakably, India were the superior side in this match, but that's scant consolation because finally it was New Zealand who achieved their pre-match objective.

Perhaps the result would have still been the same even if India had the opportunity to bowl 20 more overs. Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle batted out the final session with calm and assurance and there were still Robbie Hart, Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman to come. But what could have been we would never know, because India did not allow themselves the luxury of more time by failing to press on when they batted.

The timing of Sourav Ganguly's first-innings declaration was spot on, for it allowed his bowlers a crack at the New Zealand top order after more than five sessions on the field, but 500 runs was a poor return for 159 overs when they had lost only five wickets. Quick scoring is not always about booming strokes but about intent. A few more quick singles, a few more singles converted into twos would have brought them the 50 runs more that they needed to enforce the follow-on - and therein lay their best chance.

Even more baffling was their decision to stick to the established order when they batted second. They ended up consuming 45 overs for their 209, when they should have targeted the same runs in 35, and the best chance for them to achieve that lay in sending their tried-and-tested stroke-makers out early. Rahul Dravid did the job for them, but Akash Chopra consumed 72 balls for his 31, and in the context of the match, it was painful.

India lost only 11 wickets for 709 runs in the match, which is as much an indication of their domination as it is a cause for lament: in these batsman-friendly times, most Tests are won not only by scoring lots of runs, but scoring them quickly. India's scoring rate would have been more acceptable had they been tested by the bowling; by soft-pedalling against a defensive strategy, they only abetted Stephen Fleming's cause.

It is easy to be wise on hindsight, yet it was only logical to assume that the wickets would come from Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh on the last day. A couple of overs from Zaheer Khan were not out of order in the morning, but to give L Bajaji, who has looked least likely to take a wicket in this match, a bowl before Kumble, who was brought in after 50 minutes, was one of the many bewildering moves made by Ganguly in this match.

After a disappointing first-innings performance, Kumble bowled with heart and purpose. Of late, he has been given to flighting the ball and seeking turn and purchase. But after castling Daryl Tuffey with a trademark flipper, he was back to his own basics, bowling straight and spearing them at good pace. It was exceptional focus from Lou Vincent and skilled footwork by Craig McMillan that kept him away from another matchwinning performance, but it must be registered with a whiff of lament that the pitch was disappointing.

New Zealand would have been pardoned for fearing demons from the pitches here after the conditions India encountered on their tour to New Zealand. It was a fear felt by many well-meaning cricket lovers to whom a return to the mudcake era would have not only be retrograde but detrimental to India's preparations for Australia. The freshly laid pitch at Motera, with soil imported from Mumbai, belied all such fears by lasting five days, but sadly, it made this Test much less absorbing. Wickets that break by the third morning are a disgrace. Equally, if a pitch, unresponsive to pace bowlers to start with, gives no assistance to spinners on the last day, it is no good for Test cricket. You expect the ball to swing in England and bounce in Australia. For a last-day Indian pitch to be dead to spinners is bad news.

Sambit Bal is editor of Wisden Asia Cricket and of Wisden Cricinfo in India.