THERE is much to be said for positive thinking. "Brilliant", was how the England coach, David Lloyd, described a distinctly ordinary team performance at Lord's. Hyperbole of course, but say it often enough and people start to believe it.

The word might well have crossed his mind yesterday also as he watched play from the Trent Bridge pavilion, but even this supreme optimist would have been hard pushed to have applied it to his own team when faced with a superlative display of batting from the Indian team.

A little less than two weeks ago, Sourav Ganguly was generally regarded in Indian circles as an underachieving, 23 year old one day player, temperamentally unsuited to the more stringent demands of Test matches, and one who had gained a place on the tour purely on the strength of a high ranking cricket official for a father and a fellow Bengali as secretary of the Indian board of control.

A century in his first Test innings at Lord's did much to change that view. But just in ease there was any lingering doubt, he did it again yesterday. It was shortly before five o'clock when he rocked on to the back foot, pulled Mark Ealham's long hop to the mid wicket boundary and raised his arms in triumph.

He had joined an elite club seven players, including his captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, had scored centuries in each of their first two Tests (and Azhar actually went one better, taking it to three in three) but only one other left hander, Alvin Kallicharran, and Lawrence Rowe, 24 years ago, have made successive centuries, Rowe in each innings of his debut Test.

Ganguly was still there at the close with 136, having batted all but four overs of the day as India established the most solid of bridgeheads in their effort to win the final Test and square the series.

With him, it almost goes with out saying, was Saehin Tendulkar, another promising young lad, who survived a sharp but eminently catchable chance to Mike Atherton in the gully before he had scored. He reached his 10th Test century three overs before Ganguly reached his, and will resume today on 123 having hit 16 fours.

Together, the pair have added 254 for the third wicket as India recovered from 33 for two to reach 287 for two. All this and Azharuddin to come.

Atherton, searching for ideas rotated his normal bowlers at first, but eventually was reduced to dipping in the bran tub, and tried seven bowlers at various stages. But although there was no margin for error against such good judges of length, it was overall a disappointing performance.

In particular, on this sort of surface, Mark Ealham, preferred to Ronnie Irani, was desperately short of pace, and Min Patel's left arm spin looked guileless. The fielding, too, has lost some spark since Edgbaston.

That notwithstanding, England found themselves up against two quality performers in prime nick. England made a positive start after Azharuddin had won the toss, with Cork having Rat bore caught down the leg side by Russell just as the rain shower swept in (ignominy for the bats man as the fielding side raced past him on the way back to the pavilion) and Lewis having Mongia caught, also by Russell, but only after Hick had sent a rebound his way from second slip.

Had Atherton then hung on to his catch it might have been different. But thereafter, it was an exhibition, with Ganguly picking up where he left off at Lord's, driving with the bat's full face and a minimum of fuss, hitting 17 fours and twice (once in the penultimate over of the day) stepping out of his crease to hit Patel straight for six.