Not surprisingly, Mortaza fell away after that early wicket, losing his line and length and giving away 32 runs in the final three overs of his first spell. And while his partner Hossain stuck on gamely, even rattling Dravid and Kaarthick with two ferocious bouncers, Bangladesh’s three-spin attack let it go by taking its time to shake off the one-day hangover, before waking up to flight the ball and hit the right length, a bit too late.

Not that Dravid and Kaarthick were complaining, though — speeding along at five runs per over, they really weren’t.

Soon enough, Dravid zipped past his 47th Test fifty, 11 boundaries behind him, the hundred just one turn away, and Kaarthick pulled out every stroke that he would have dreamt of playing at this level — cover drives, flicks, pulls, on-the-up, through the ground, the works. In the end, it took an over-ambitious shot—a pull from outside off for Kaarthick—and an extremely good ball from Hossain, which bounced sharply to beat the skipper’s cut, for Bangladesh to squirm back into the match.

Well, not squirm back, really. Because, Tendulkar and Ganguly simply wouldn’t let them. Both past masters in such situations — 132 for three, in this case — the two veterans first let Mortaza and Hossain run in hard only to dash in vain against their wall-like defence. Then, they watched Mohamad Rafique, Enamul Haq (Jr) and their left-arm spin colleague Saqibul Hassan, twirl out every trick in their book, even the odd arm ball, only to wave away any hint of danger with a gentle swish of the bat.

... contd.