Thank you, Graeme Smith

It will not take long for the knives to sharpen and for India's "lack of preparation" to be bandied about as the reason for the spectacular opening day collapse against South Africa at Centurion.

Pshaw! The reality is that the bowling by the two pacemen was so sustained and brilliant that India would have collapsed no matter which match of the series they were playing. Heck, ANY batting line-up (including the SAffer line-up of this very Test) in the world would have collapsed. Dale Steyn is the deadliest wicket-taker in the history of the game (if you keep a cut-off of at least 113 wickets). He takes a wicket once every 40 balls. In this inning, so far, he is striking at twice that rate (once every 20 balls). Steyn is a rare gem - a super-fast bowler who relies on swing and accuracy, rather than bounce or fear to get people out. The last bowler who I can recall having a similar effect on me was a similarly small-statured Malcolm Marshall (whose strike rate was 46.7 balls per wicket).



Even though the score is 135 for 9, India can take a few positives out of it. Let's get something out of the way first - India is going to lose the Test match if the weather does not wreck havoc with the game. Unless...and that is where the positives come into play.

First positive: Graeme Smith. His captaincy is going to be India's best chance out. Steyn and Morkel were good enough to rip out the most accomplished batting line-up in the world yet when the 9th wicket fell, Smith spread the field and let MS Dhoni have a free hit at the crease. Two slips were the only players not on the boundary for the first 5 balls of the over and Masada refused numerous singles, shielding a debutant #11 from facing the bowling. More importantly, the fellow who had limped to a desperate, inside-edged 1 run in 21 balls, finished the day on 33 not out in 47 balls. So Masada scored 32 runs in 26 balls with the field spread out to try to stop him from scoring quickly while trying to entice him to get the #11 on strike. In 20 balls, Unadkat has faced 5, Dhoni the other 15 while scoring 19 runs. Seriously, Mr. Smith, I know that EVERY captain these days does this. But how exactly is this tactic working out for you?

More importantly, for me, is this: Masada, are you watching this? Do you see how futile it is to try to get only one batsman out and that too when you only give yourself one or two balls per over to do so?

Tomorrow morning, India is unlikely to add more than 10-15 runs to the total and, in the scheme of things, it will not matter much as I fully expect the Saffers to score more than 350 when they come to bat.

Second positive: if India gets out early it will, ironically, give India its best chance to get a few quick SAffer wickets before the wicket eases away over the next couple of days. The worst possible result of Day 1 would have been to be 135 for 7 and have the last 3 wickets eat up 45-50 minutes of the freshness of the morning while adding 15-20 runs to the total.

Third positive: Sachin Tendulkar was batting on a totally different wicket. Altogether. The man's deal with the devil is still intact, even as Ricky Ponting's has expired. I missed all the years when SRT was the lone man on the burning bridge but today I got a glimpse of those dark, dreary years. It wasn't pretty to watch what was happening at the other end but seeing SRT in such a mood was great. Fleeting but great.

Fourth positive: All the pre-match yakking about reputations and hard work in the nets and all that can be thrown out of the window and we can get down to actually discussing batting and bowling on the field. The Indians have lowered the bar so much by virtue of this collapse that any show of spine the rest of the way will only increase their stature.

Fifth positive: The collapse has shown the other curators in South Africa that this Indian team can be had and, hopefully, this will spur them to leave the grass on the pitch and allow the contest between bat and ball to be fairer than it is in 95 percent of the grounds around the world.

If the Indians pull out this Test and series, it will be won the right way - by looking the opposition in the eye and punching above their weight to do so. I love Test cricket and even though the team I support did badly and the one man I stop everything else to watch bat was the only one to lose his stump (and the middle one to boot) I am grateful that it is not a batathon.

Duif du Toit/Getty Images 2010

If this was an ODI, India would almost certainly be consigned to a miserable defeat. The beauty of a Test match is that the second inning offers hope. The prospect of that third dimension - a draw - offers a chance at redemption/salvation depending upon who is writing the story. India is down but not completely out.

The Saffers have their hands around their guest's necks. They have to hold on tightly and a precious 1-0 lead in a 3-Test series is theirs. India's slim hopes lie in the fact that the SAffers have been known to shift those very-same hands onto their throats often enough during crunch times in the past.