India lose their bearings

If he was given a choice between signing off with a hundred, on his one-day swansong at home, or watching an under-strength West Indian side ram home the advantage, Brian Lara might have just chosen the latter. It was a triumph engineered by a collective will, one where reserve players stepped up to the plate, one where Lara could afford to bask at long-on, watching his team-mates win the big points.

India were flattened; they looked it. For a side that prided itself on sprightliness on the field, they turned in arguably their most shambolic performance in recent times. For a side that appeared to have found the right formula to chase, they made a mess of a sitter. For a side that seemed to have got over the extras malaise, they reverted to the erratic. Most importantly, like they had done throughout the series, they lost the crucial moments. After cracking all those previous examinations, they found themselves experiencing a black-out. Before the series Lara had spoken about "winning being contagious". India must have realised that the same applies to losing as well.

Dwayne Bravo might have hurt India anyway; with the kind of lollypops the Indians were bowling to him, he decided to have them for lunch. Bravo's slower balls have been haunting India all series; today he decided to pummel them with the bat, boosting the rate at the death. Expecting the ball to be full and straight, probably because that's how he would bowl them himself, he stood his ground, leaned back and thwacked. The fact that he scored just four fours in his 44-ball 62 tells you about his speed between the wickets. It also tells you about India suffering a relapse into discarded habits.

A little over three months back, on a sunny day at Karachi, India had watched Pakistan crumble to bits, succumbing to a 4-1 defeat. Pakistan hadn't batted to potential, neither did they bowl at their best, but they lost the match on the field; as a unit, they cracked. Today, it was India's turn. It started in the second ball of the game, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni fluffed a catch off Chris Gayle's slash, and India went from bad to outright sloppy. Robin Uthappa was guilty of grassing a sitter at midwicket but the real shocker was with regard to the throwing. India's fielders, it appeared, had forgotten their compasses back in the hotel.

When Munaf Patel turns in an erratic throw from the boundary, you can probably blame his ungainly method; when Virender Sehwag does the same, making back-up fielders scurry around in circles, you can probably attribute it to the increased waistline; but when the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina (yes, you read right) begin to throw returns that are ten metres adrift of the stumps, you know you're having a nightmare.

It took a wily spell from Virender Sehwag to pull things back a shade, and he followed it up with some eye-popping strokeplay. Along with Mohammad Kaif, who ended the series with three half-centuries, Sehwag's return to form will be of some comfort to a batting line-up that appears to be weak on batteries. When both were at the crease, India were sauntering along at more than 5.4 runs and over, and with six wickets in hand, looked well in control.

That's when Jerome Taylor stepped in and snapped up three quick wickets. Taylor wasn't picked for the last game, yet he returned with a matchwinning performance. Wavell Hinds, playing his second game of the series, chipped in with both bat and ball, where he winkled out two early wickets with his nagging swingers. Dave Mohammed, the chinaman bowler, playing his first game of the series, nailed Yuvraj Singh at a crucial moment and sealed the issue with two more at the end. India were beaten by understudies. Is there anything more that needs to be said?