Team India failed unit test

Their first match on this trip, the warm-up against New Zealand, India lost by nine runs, their last game of the campaign, against South Africa, they lost by 12. As a team though, they have taken more steps back in the last two weeks than those numbers suggest.

Of all the hits that MS Dhoni and his team have taken over the fortnight, this one probably hurt the most. Losing to South Africa on a turner (the track was more Kanpur than Trent Bridge), chasing an extremely chaseable 130 at that, definitely ticks the box marked embarrassing.

For the last three days, the Indian camp has been answering questions on what went wrong.

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Tendulkar sets record straight with a century

Paceman Tim Southee was a two year-old toddler when Sachin Tendulkar first toured New Zealand in 1990. The Indian didn’t score too many runs in that series, his second, but the locals were sure they hadn’t seen the last of the 17-year-old, curly haired prodigy. Four years later, New Zealand got a ringside view of the launch of an opening act that became a hugely popular travelling show around the world. In Auckland, Tendulkar, opening in one-dayers for the first time, blasted a memorable, match-winning 49-ball 82.

A lot has changed since then, but not everything. The frame has thickened, the hair has thinned but the halo refuses to fade. They still applaud when he enters the ground and, on Sunday, at the AMI Stadium gave a standing ovation as Tendulkar walked out, retired hurt, for 163.

This despite the fact that the master batsman has been responsible for spoiling the bowling figures of several generations of Kiwi bowlers.

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