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ShareOnce again, Pakistan were caught one bowler short when it would have really mattered.
In all, Shoaib Akhtar managed to bowl only 10 overs and to make matters worse for his captain, had to go to hospital midway through the first day's play. That put immense pressure on the other three specialist bowlers.
Yet, nothing can take away credit from the way Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly batted today. It was a supremely confident display from Yuvraj and I am astonished at India's bench strength.
The fact that they could have kept a batsman with this sort of form on the bench and only gave him a chance because Sachin Tendulkar could not play, is indeed surprising.
The 300 runs these two left-handers put on made India's position immensely strong. The home team does not have a very good record at this venue and in fact, I hear they last won a Test match here 12 years ago.
The last time these two teams played here, Pakistan walked away winners by a comfortable margin.
This time, however, it could be a very different story. Yuvraj's assault -- particularly surprising given the situation with India down at 61 for the loss of four wickets -- has helped push Pakistan on to the backfoot already.
Such has been the pace of run-gathering that India have clocked up runs in excess of four per over throughout the day, and much of the credit goes to Yuvraj, who showed exquisite timing right through his innings of 169.
Ganguly too gave notice of his determination to put on a big score. The Eden Gardens century must have come as a huge relief to the Prince of Kolkata and the way he resumed today showed that the hunger for big runs is well and truly back with this graceful left-hander.
It was a partnership to appreciate, not only for the quality of strokeplay, but also the conditions under which it began and flourished.
Pakistan must count themselves fortunate that India are five wickets down. There was no devil in the wicket today and the first four wickets that fell were more because of their own mistakes than anything else.
Gambhir pushed too hard at the ball, Dravid surprised me by playing a cut shot when the ball was so close to the body while Jaffer played no stroke at all.
I could feel for Younis Khan today. He went into the match with four bowlers and then had to manage with three.
Shoaib has been the only one to really test the Indians and he may not even play a role in the rest ofthe match. To win a match, you need 20 wickets, and given the present shape and form of this Pakistan attack, I cannot see that happening.
No captain in the world can hope to win a match with his main bowler out of the firing line and the others not contributing fully, and that is the state the Pakistan skipper finds himself in.
