...and when they were bad, they were very, very bad ...

For two days now, India have shone as brightly in a dull Eden Gardens as the Rainbow Lorikeets who preen themselves in our back yard trees. Owing to the height of those trees, there is very little to bother their splashes of green and red and yellow and so too the Indian batsmen. On the second day, Captain Courageous, Mahendra Singh Donhi - a man who chooses to be named in the way adoring fans have done to their favourites for years ... SR Waugh, KD Walters, IM Chappell, SK Warne ... anyway, on day two he used a sledge hammer whilst VVS Laxman (forget it, I have a space limit) used a scalpel. There could not be more contrast between the two innings and yet, combined, 224 was added in just 51 overs. 

Dhoni was brutal, with ten 4's and five 6's but the surgical genius of Laxman in such mood meant no slowness in the scoring from either end. Laxman scored at a strike rate of 63 runs per hundred balls: highly acceptable in a six and a half hour innings. The fact Dhoni scored his at a rate twenty runs higher had more to do with the game situation and the love the Indian skipper has of striking the ball long, high and hard. 

Of course, the West Indians helped. The problem with describing the first day bowling as poor is that it left nowhere to go if things got worse on day two. They got worse. Fidel Edwards adjusted his line to the extent that instead of wasting one or two balls an over down leg side, he send most of them down there. Kemar Roach bowled too short, all day, including at day's end when another short ball outside off stump found the edge of Dhoni's bat and ended his innings. He had done so twice before Dhoni reached twenty, both times Carlton Baugh taking catches off no balls. The second was an Amir special. Where in the great book of cricket does it justify bowling the same garbage in order that eventually the batsman tires of smacking you all over the ground and leaves with a hundred large? Sammy's crime was to be too full and after Dravid had taken the sword to him yesterday, Dhoni took the scimitar to him today after he removed a disappointed Yuvraj.

Through it all, it was the spin of Bishoo and to a lesser extent Marlon Samuels that tempered the blustering attack of the 7th wicket partnership. Samuels has been forced into the role of back up spinner and his offies are more Boon than Saqlain but what he lacks in spin he makes up for with accuracy. With a young leg spinner at the other end, he nags away demanding risks from the batsmen to score but without threatening to dismiss them if, like a good doctor, they retain their patience. Davendra Bishoo was impressive among the ruins of an attack. When was the last time a West Indian leg spinner bowled a third of the overs from 150 and conceded under three and a half? He was the least expensive despite bowling the most overs. Yes, he only got one wicket but if you could pick a bowler whose only job was to get Tendulkar out every time, wouldn't you take that option? Surely the other three or four can get the rest?

As often happens, once the West Indians arrived at the crease, the demons came out to play. Umesh Yadav lifted a ball at Adrian Barath and it got big enough to take the shoulder of the bat and Sewag gobbled it at second slip. Yadav was quickly removed after one over as the umpires took a liking to consulting their light metres like Maxwell Smart does his shoe and their conspiratorial conversations rushed Dhoni down an alternative path. The off spin of Ravi Ashwin was no relief. He spun the ball alarmingly. A big man, he also extracts bounce and the combination was too much for Brathwaite, who looked to turn the ball to leg, was struck on the pad but ruled caught at short leg by Gambhir. The Indians, with their trenchant refusal to adopt the DRS, always seem favoured by umpiring outcomes. Official replays would have saved Brathwaite.

Needing another 400 to just avoid the follow on, the next three days offer a splendid opportunity for the West Indians to gain experience under difficult conditions. Two of their brightest, Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo, will resume tomorrow against an Indian spin attack which already looks more than they can handle. As always, Chanderpaul is the key. He's been here before, done that and bought the tee shirt but even he can only bat at one end.

(No pictures today ... having some technical issues.)