Shortly after England had been soundly beaten in the first Test, India staged their traditional post-match ceremony to see how many important officials could be crammed on a very small podium without falling off.
Impossibly, there were 10 of them, with the sole Englishman, Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, gradually jostled to the back until he eventually disappeared entirely from view. From an English viewpoint, the cricket had gone pretty much the same way.
Less than a week ago, the talk was of how India did not possess a fast bowler worthy of the name, and how England might just take advantage in the most favourable pace-bowling conditions in the land: Mohali, where India had last fallen to New Zealand for 83, and where they had yet to win a Test.
Today, fast bowling seems largely irrelevant, Mohali can no longer be presented as English cricket's version of an old colonial hill station and accolades are being bestowed instead upon the most dangerous spin-bowling combination in the world.
The destruction wrought by Harbhajan Singh in England's first innings, passed yesterday to Anil Kumble, whose six wickets silenced the widespread conjecture that, after his serious shoulder operation nearly a year ago, he might never be the same bowler again.
England's last six wickets had fallen, first time around, in 14 overs; this time they managed to last 21, which at least might be regarded as some sort of coming of age. There has been much sympathetic shrugging towards an untried bowling attack, but no one had anticipated that the batsmen would look quite so naive.
Such was the nature, for all England's bowling discipline, of this 10-wicket defeat - confirmed two balls after tea on the fourth day - that a repeat of the 3-0 whitewash suffered on their last tour of India eight years ago now cannot be discounted.
On a ground where bowlers run in from the Ambiya Cement End and the Birla Cement End, there was reason to hope that England, 197 behind overnight, with all 10 wickets remaining, might lay some decent foundations. Instead, three wickets were down by lunch, and the slim chance that England might save the game had gone.
Tinu Yohannan, who bowled straight and athletically on his debut, removed Mark Butcher and Marcus Trescothick to pull shots.
The captain, Nasser Hussain, blinked through half-an-hour as if Olive Security had just shone a torch in his eyes and advised him to escape before the embarrassment was complete. Cutting erroneously at Kumble's googly, he chopped into his stumps.
Mark Ramprakash resisted for an hour, but then misread a ball from Kumble that hurried back at him.
England Second Innings
M Butcher c Sub b Yohannan 18
M Trescothick c Siddiqui b Yohannan 46
N Hussain b Kumble 12
G Thorpe c & b Kumble 62
M Ramprakash lbw b Kumble 28
A Flintoff c Ganguly b Kumble 4
C White c Dasgupta b Harbhajan Singh 22
J Foster lbw b Harbhajan Singh 5
J Ormond b Kumble 0
R Dawson b Kumble 11
M Hoggard not out 0
Extras (b10 lb13 w1 nb3) 27
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Total (77.4 overs) ... 235
Fall: 1-68 2-82 3-87 4-159 5-163 6-196 7-206 8-207 9-224
Bowling: Yohannan 17 3 56 2 Siddiqui 8 3 16 0 Kumble 28.4 6 81 6 Harbhajan Singh 24 9 59 2
India Second Innings
I Siddiqui not out 5
D Dasgupta not out 0
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Total 0 wkts (0.2 overs) ... 5
Bowling: Hoggard 0.2 0 5 0.
India beat England by 10 wkts.
