For a brief while, just for a few minutes, it looked like Sachin Tendulkar had finally turned the clock back. He had just smashed his first six in Test cricket after that 109 in Delhi against Sri Lanka 18 months ago, he had already picked up two fours, and only an hour had gone by.

But then, Tendulkar scampered back into his shell, peeking out towards the boundary line only six times in the next three and-a-half hours, even after crossing his second century of this series, even after India had muscled their way past the 600-mark.

Believe it or not, in India’s 610 for thre —the first four topping hundreds to set a new record in Test cricket—there were just eight Tendulkar fours, and that one six.

He struggled to get the ball away against left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique, he was awkward while fending aside two bouncers from pacer Mashrafe Mortaza. And, it was almost as if that 101, just six days ago, had never happened.

Of course, this Test is virtually over, Bangladesh collapsing sensationally to seven for four before limping away at 58 for five, three days still left. And, Zaheer Khan finally rediscovering the lethal line with which he had nearly strangled South Africa three months ago.

Yet, for India, what’s really turning out to be a bit of a disappointment by now is the way Tendulkar is beginning to get bogged down at one end, while the rest are racing past at the other—Mahendra Dhoni’s three sixes that exposed Rafique is just one instance.

... contd.