Skipper in form, Sachin out of it

The teams were clearly selected with skipper Ganguly and his deputy Dravid taking charge of each but, as the day progressed, the teams also exchanged fielders and batsmen — most of whom used as much time they could for a hit in the middle.

The major beneficiaries were Badani, Kaif and Kartik, who each batted twice. Kaif is coming into the Pakistan tour with no first-class match behind him. So he used all he could get from the match.

But the day clearly belonged to skipper Ganguly, who used his bat to do a bit of talking. His trademark ‘rocket-launcher’ off the off-spinners — especially new boy Ramesh Powar — stood out on the day. They were long and clear strikes into the empty stands, which would have surely erupted if full.

In contrast, Tendulkar — who didn’t field when his team’s turn came — seemed to be having a nightmare out in the middle. He had three shots at batting but none of them was convincing.

The first time he was out for a first ball duck in the slips (c Laxman b Zaheer).

The second time around his stay was equally short and runless — he played Sehwag uppishly to Kaif at widish mid-on. After this, even as he was walking, rival skipper Dravid asked him to carry on.

Luck again deserted him as he scratched around for four runs and finally left being caught plumb by offie Ramesh Powar.

Earlier in the day, bowling consultant Kapil Dev —who’d spent time with the young bowlers last night — finally showed up on the field. Amd somewhere in the midle, the team sponsors had their turn with a group photo shoot.