Enjoying a draw and a win in almost equal measure

India’s magnificent performance that helped draw the second Test was nearly as satisfying as the comprehensive victory in the first, and for a very different reason. While the greatest batting line-up in the world has won Tests in style, once memorably after following on, it has sometimes disappointed by its inability to bat through six or seven sessions in the second innings. When the last century has been scored, and the final figures are tallied, greatness will be decided as much by the ability to win as the skill to bat on for a draw.

It has been a decade since India batted 180 overs as they did in Napier, to draw a Test match. That was in Mohali, when centuries from Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid saw them bat through 183 overs to save a match where they had been dismissed for 83 in the first innings.

By batting for over ten and a half hours, one of the side’s most attacking batsmen, Gautam Gambhir, indicated that at 27, he is emerging as a leading batsman of the new generation. He is also the allrounder of the new generation, a certainty in all three forms of the game. Among batsmen, only Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni can make that claim.

Still, India’s batting should not take the focus away from their atrocious catching in the New Zealand innings. It is a long time since they have dropped so many catches close to the wicket. When you consider that the team has three players with 100-plus catches in Tests, it might be tempting, in the modern spirit, to call this their best catching side. But the habit of not catching can be catching.

Much is being made of the fact that the New Zealand authorities have been excessively kind to India by preparing wickets that have drawn the teeth of their own seam bowling. Wasim Akram has called it cowardice. It is not that, but professional respect for opponents who have the better seam bowlers. The hosts will have to take a chance, however, for the final Test in Wellington and go with a track that could just as easily backfire on them. But at 0-1 down you have to take the risk.

With that casual insouciance that comes easily to columnists who write on the game, I had predicted a 3-0 win for India after the first Test, and spent much of the first half of the Napier Test wondering how to make more palatable the words I was about to eat. Some years ago, one writer published a photograph of himself literally eating his words (and washing it down with wine). It is more difficult to do now, since swallowing a computer is not easily done. So, I have a little more reason than the rest of India to thank Messrs Gambhir, VVS Laxman, Tendulkar and Dravid.