In sportsman-like-manner, he came for the post-match press briefing and didn’t flinch from facing the truth — suddenly Arthur’s words were sweet music to the Indians, who till then, had only heard of chin music. “We knew that they had been badly wounded after the one-day series, and we discussed every day the prospect of them fighting back. Hats off to them for the way they have played so far,” he said.

Arthur praised the Indian bowlers no end, and accepted that his team hadn’t executed their gameplan well enough. “They bowled very, very well, but there was no way that we should have been bowled out for under a hundred,” he said. “India showed us the right lengths to bowl on this pitch. We have not got our lengths right throughout this Test. Over the last two months, we have played a lot of one-day cricket, and yesterday in particular, we largely bowled one-day lines and lengths.

“The pitch got a lot quicker today than it was yesterday. Yesterday, there was a little time to adjust but today, things seemed to happen a lot faster. At the same time, some of the shot selection and the application wasn’t perhaps where it should have been.”

While Arthur expressed his disappointment over his own bowlers and batsmen, he reserved special praise for former India skipper Sourav Ganguly. Arthur admitted that his team somehow lost the plot in targeting particular batsmen. “We had our plans, but we couldn’t execute them properly. But hats off to Sourav, he came in and did a very good job.”

Despite the overwhelming acknowledgment of the Indian team’s fight-back, Arthur reposed complete faith in his own men and reiterated that the match is far from over. “We had a chat about it in the evening. Today was a poor day overall, and everyone has owned up responsibility for what happened. We have full confidence in the personnel we have and hopefully, there are big scores to come soon.”

Shaun Pollock today became the first South African and the 10th bowler ever to scalp 400 victims in Test cricket. He reached the landmark when he had Dravid caught in the slips in the second innings.