Cape Town: The Indians were caught on the wrong foot after the side lost two quick wickets on Friday morning. The No.4 batsman took an eternity to arrive at the crease.

Meanwhile, the South Africans turned restless. The time too was ticking after the second Indian wicket fell at 10.43 a.m. The three-minute period after which a batsman can be timed out had passed.

A lot was happening in the Indian dressing room. Sachin Tendulkar was all set to enter the arena, when the Indian camp was informed by the fourth umpire, Murray Brown, that he could only go in to bat at 10.48 a.m. This was because Tendulkar had spent some time off the field on day three.

When Sourav Ganguly finally came in, six minutes had passed. Umpire Daryl Harper requested Graeme Smith not to appeal for a timed out dismissal in the spirit of the game. Smith, to his credit, agreed.

The Indian team management should have been aware of the rules and the fact that Tendulkar had missed some action on Thursday.

Law 31 (Timed out) says: (a) Unless Time has been called, the incoming batsman must be in position to take guard or be ready to receive the next ball within three minutes of the fall of the previous wicket. If this requirement is not met, the incoming batsman will be out, Timed Out. (b): In case of a protracted delay in which no batsman comes to the wicket, the umpire shall adopt the procedure of law 21.3 (umpires awarding a match). For the purpose of the law, the start of the action shall be taken as the expiry of the three minutes referred to above.

Since the Indian batsmen had not decided to stay away wilfully, there was no chance of the match being awarded to South Africa. It was a mess-up, nevertheless.

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