Colombo Test, Day 4, Close
Saturday, September 1, 2001 India were crushed by the weight of the task in front of them. The batsmen who got starts couldn't carry on, though to be fair to them, it would have needed the innings of a lifetime to save this match. It's only a question of time now before the Sri Lankans wrap up the series.

The two run-outs didn't help the Indian cause. The defensive mindset contributed in no small measure to that. When you're looking only to save a game, you tend to turn down singles that would otherwise be there for the taking. On the rare occasions when you do decide to push the quick single, your partner can be unprepared.

It was also disappointing to see the way the batsmen defended against the spinners. Murali is a top-notch performer but the same can't be said of Samaraweera. The fault lies in the attention we pay to the basics. When a spinner comes on to bowl in the nets, it's taken lightly. Most batsmen look to have some fun and loft the ball high into the stands. Very few actually practise their defence against spin bowling. It's something we need to work on, a problem that John Wright will no doubt be addressing soon.

To their credit though, the batsmen didn't allow Murali to dominate today. On the whole, they played him pretty well. He never looked like running through the side like we feared he would. But faced with certain defeat, that's small consolation.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to Dileep Premachandran.

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