Over number 20 -- Nehra to McMillan -- has been one of the most interesting yet; the normally aggressive batsman looking to leave everything on line, and Nehra bringing it closer and closer to off till a point came where Mcmillan let two successive deliveries bounce over the stumps -- which takes a lot of courage on this track.

The Kiwi batsmen seem, though, to have forgotten what their captain said before play began -- that the game now was about determination, hanging in, accumulating runs painstakingly. About, in fact, "doing a lot of hard yards out there".

Their innings is now unfoldling in a very Indian manner -- too little patience, too many shots. Which is stranger, coming from them, than when it comes from the Indians for surely, the Kiwis don't have a problem adapting to their own conditions?

McMillan is an exemplar -- after one over of patient leaving outside off, flashed at one from Nehra in his next over without the front foot covering the line, got the edge on the extravagant drive, and was held in the slips.

It's interesting cricket now -- Nehra nearly had two on two when he banged one onto Astle's pad first up, the batsman left it, it would have been LBW but for the fact that the bowler overstepped. That reprieve merely gave the batsman one more ball to face -- a short, wide one outside off at which he played a very Sehwag-like slash, to be taken by Harbhajan at point. (48/4). Scott Styris -- again leaving on line of off -- was almost LBW first ball, except for height.

In the second hour of play it is Fleming -- who was dead lucky to be reprieved on an LBW shout -- doing all the "hard yards".

The wickets -- coming after a spell when the Kiwis seemed to be taking the game away with some reasonably brisk scoring -- appear to have perked the team up. Skipper Ganguly is suddenly a lot less tense, a lot more loose, his field setting has acquired an aggressive edge, and after a brief flirtation with the containing line of Bangar, he is back on the lookout for wickets with two of his three seamers now operating in tandem.

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