India lost Wasim Jaffer soon after he reached his second Test double-hundred, but continued merrily along their run-making ways on the second morning of the second Test at Eden Gardens.
Pakistan's bowlers recovered from their first-day mauling to exert a bare semblance of control over the first hour, with Sohail Tanvir bowling a tight spell. But India were the horse that had long since bolted and with the Prince of Eden Gardens, Sourav Ganguly hovering ominously in front of Pakistan's happiness, unbeaten on 62, and VVS Laxman in typically dreamy touch, the second hour was a more accurate indicator of the pain headed Pakistan's way. India will lunch contentedly on 449 for 4.
For the sake of contest, it helped that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami had another night to recover from the illnesses that had so visibly ailed them on day one. Sami had been a hardy competitor yesterday in any case, but Shoaib in particular looked better, changing his pace well and running in with a little more purpose. Still, as Jaffer flashed him through square and then edged to third man in the second over of the day to reach his landmark - off only 260 balls - trouble loomed.
The introduction of Tanvir delayed it: as yesterday, he struck with his first ball, gaining from Jaffer a thin edge. And until the drinks break, he bowled a fine, probing spell. Laxman jabbed nervously outside off and Ganguly struggled to decipher the same angle and movement into him. It wasn't to last though, as a morning drink perked the pair up. Laxman eased Tanvir past mid-off soon after and then collected a brace of boundaries from Shoaib's next over.
Ganguly wasn't one to miss out. He had easily weathered an early morning short-ball barrage and now an opportunity for a rare score on home turf - he had only one fifty here before this - presented itself gift-wrapped. The grass around covers and gully was duly scorched during a Tanvir over in which Laxman also caressed a pair of boundaries, forcing even the sphinx-like Tanvir to vent. And with a flick to fine leg the next over, up came Ganguly's fifty to predictably rapturous applause.
Thereafter, the pair were set and a fourth successive fifty partnership of the innings a formality. Laxman whipped Danish Kaneria unperturbed through midwicket and Ganguly drove him past mid-off and just like that, as early as the second morning, the Test was effectively out of Pakistan's hands.
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