Plenty in reserve

Through most of the day, the Indian team appeared to be playing with less than a hundred percent intensity: Sourav Ganguly - and Rahul Dravid, the stand-in captain when Ganguly was off the field - allowed L Balaji extended spells in the first and second sessions, while Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh hardly bowled in tandem till after tea. The general demeanour in the field suggested that the Indians were supremely confident of stepping up the ante - and delivering immediate results - if the situation got a tad uncomfortable. If, despite such an approach, India found themselves so far ahead in the game, it was only an indication of how thoroughly the New Zealanders had been outclassed in conditions which were unfavourable to them.

The tone was set early in the piece when Balaji - who was largely unthreatening except for a brief period in the afternoon - bowled four overs at the start and then five more after a change of ends. Ganguly has often been less patient with young bowlers of greater promise - the shoddy treatment of Murali Kartik readily comes to mind - but Balaji wheeled away his innocuous stuff despite being smashed by Nathan Astle.

The tactics were all the more unfathomable given the New Zealand batsmen's discomfiture against spin. `Do what the opposition would like least' is a good mantra to operate on. Ganguly, through most of the day, did quite the opposite, allowing New Zealand's middle-order batsmen the luxury of playing themselves in against the seamers.

Balaji has been rated highly in domestic circles, but on the basis of today's performance, he is unlikely to achieve much success at international level. His tendency to bowl from wide of the crease takes away, to a large extent, the lbw as a mode of dismissal - though, ironically, his maiden international wicket came in that fashion. With a speed that generally hovered in the early 130s (kmph), and a predictable angle of delivery, it is easy to imagine him being the ideal bowler to be carted around on the true Australian pitches by the likes of Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and co.

The biggest gain for India today was the magnificent fielding of Akash Chopra at short leg. More than the two catches that he held - both of which were top-notch efforts - it was his technique in that position that was exemplary. He crouched low - exactly as Yajurvindra Singh, a superb close-in fielder during the late 1970s, would advise - and kept his eyes on the ball even when the batsmen attempted to play strokes on the leg side. With his adequate batting performance in the first innings, Chopra has ensured that unless he has a shocker at Mohali, he would be in the squad for the Australian tour.

For New Zealand, the middle-order trio of Scott Styris, Astle and Craig McMillan showed enough fight to suggest that a draw can still be achieved. The lack of pace in the track showed up every time the spinners pitched it even marginally short, and the bounce and turn wasn't alarming either. For inspiration, all that Stephen Fleming needs to do is look back at the last time they played a Test here. Faced with a fourth-innings target of 424, New Zealand batted out the entire last day losing just two wickets. In that match, though, Sachin Tendulkar, the captain, missed a trick by not enforcing the follow-on. If Ganguly gets to make that decision tomorrow, he is unlikely to be as charitable.