The woodcutter's shadow and the trampoline leap

1.15pm There's over an hour still to go for the start of the game, but the Wankhede Stadium is well over half-full, and watching the two teams go about their warm-ups has a pleasure of its own. It appears that almost everything that the Indian team do these days requires a huddle. The Indians come out one by one, and then group together just off the practice squares for a chat, each man's arm on another's shoulder, before they break out in different directions for fielding drills. A number of them run around the boundary in front of the North Stand, catching skimming hits. A loud cheer goes up every eight hits or so, as it is the turn of Mumbai's favourite son to catch the ball, and throw it back with his trademark hop and a skip.

2.00pm The two captains come out into the middle with the match referee for the toss; Ricky Ponting wins it, and can have had few misgivings about choosing to bat first.

2.30pm The hubbub around the ground becomes a roar as the Indian fielders run out into the middle, Harbhajan Singh sprinting past the rest and making a leap for the ball as the umpire throws it in the direction of Zaheer Khan. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden follow them out. Hayden swings his arms, bat in hand, in a circular motion. His shadow looks like that of a woodcutter about to strike at a tree. But minutes later, he is making his way back to the pavilion, caught off-guard by a well-aimed short ball from Zaheer Khan.

3.00pm Virender Sehwag at extra cover and Mohammad Kaif at cover point present a study in contrast. Kaif is the best fielder in India, and a minute spent looking at him tells one why. Not only is he nimble as a gazelle, he also rarely ever turns off - as soon as the proceedings are over after a ball is bowled he walks back to his mark, just as the bowler returns to his, and prepares for the next ball. He walks in as the bowler runs in, bent low, his eyes fixed on the batsman, and just as the bowler hits his delivery stride, he rushes forward almost on tiptoe, ready to take off in either direction. Sehwag has a slightly more desultory air about him. His hands are often on his hips, or in his pockets. Kaif wears a cap, a man clearly out on work, and Sehwag a blue hat, like a man of leisure out for a stroll. Kaif looks like he spends all his time on his toes; Sehwag, on his heels.

5.20pm India have taken wickets regularly, but not made a significant dent in the run-rate, and Australia look set to total 300. Zaheer, whose first three overs went for 37, returns to bowl a testing second spell, the highlight of which is a series of pinpoint yorkers that Michael Bevan grinds out time after time. Bevan struggles, but Damien Martyn is in a different zone altogether. Martyn's eye is such that he often reaches out to meet Zaheer's yorkers just before they pitch, hitting them sweetly back past the bowler. He reaches a hundred with a push into the off side.

6.00pm Australia total 286, but India go out on a high as they take four wickets in the last over. Ajit Agarkar, who bowled as well today as he has ever done in the India colours, drives the crowd into a frenzy by bowling centurion Damien Martyn and Andrew Bichel with swinging yorkers.

6.45pm Nathan Bracken catches Virender Sehwag in front with his first ball with a nip-backer. Sehwag is horribly late on the shot, and everything about his dismissal suggests it was carefully planned, and seen by Bracken a hundred times in his mind's eye before he came out and did it.

7.30pm Many photographs of Andy Bichel show him airborne, suspended several feet above the ground as he celebrates a wicket. He comes on to replace Brad Williams, and does a couple of jumps to get himself going before he starts. Indeed, his very run-up suggests an imminent take-off. With his second ball he has VVS Laxman caught by the wicketkeeper, and launches into his trampoline leap. How good Bichel's head position is when he bowls can be gauged by the manner in which he then stops a number of full-blooded drives off his own bowling.

7.40pm Sachin Tendulkar has looked unconvincing for much of innings, playing and missing several times. He spoons a drive off Andrew Symonds that lands between midwicket and mid-on, and is late on a pull shot in the next over and lobs it just over mid-off. Rahul Dravid goes down the pitch to have a word with him.

8.40pm The curse of the left-arm spinner continues to plague Tendulkar as he steps away to Michael Clarke, misses, and is bowled for 68, in very much the same way as he was bowled by Ashley Giles in last year's NatWest final. Clarke, Australia's batting prodigy, aroused great interest because he was the only change in either line-up from the teams that played at Gwalior, but he only came out to bat in the last over, and was run out attempting an impossible second run. But he comes good with the ball here, and runs through the middle order. When Mohammad Kaif nicks one behind, the end is in sight, and the interest fades away, as the crowd starts to leave, and the batsmen begin to accept the inevitable.

10.30pm Australia have won by 77 runs, all the post-match proceedings are over and done with, the lights have dimmed, the stadium is nearly empty, two policemen stroll on the outfield, and man leads a child, probably his son, out into the middle to give him a glimpse of the pitch, and the last men are traipsing out of the press box, saying their goodbyes. "Till next time."

Chandrahas Choudhury is a staff writer with Wisden Asia Cricket magazine.