40 minutes

is the time India batted this morning before declaring. And in that time, they lost 2 wickets for the addition of 43 runs.

And for what?

Every day,around 30 minutes of play has been lost because of fading light. Factor in the 40 minutes that India batted today plus the 10 minutes for the change between innings and we are talking of around 80 minutes of play lost on the last day.

India led by 301 at the end of Day 4. This translated to a run rate of 3.34 per over ( over 90 overs) if India declared overnight. Which, in conjunction with Pakistan's foray in the first innings, was still on the higher side for a run chase on a fifth day wicket.

Also, India controlled the pace and the tempo of the game..We could speed up the game by hustling between overs or slow it down by taking our own sweet time between overs and during them. Pakistan is the team that was that had to do the chasing ( or the saving). Either ways, we held all the aces.

But we chose to bat on. And lost two wickets. And did not exactly set the Hooghly on fire.

The 40 minutes we chose to bat on could be all the difference between an India win and a draw.