Gloom

Defeat. Comprehensive defeat. As India succumbed to a focused performance from Pakistan on the final day of the third test at Bangalore, it's difficult to rationalize the disappointment with "the-better-team-won" and "it-was-a-good-game" lines of thought. The series verdict stands at one apiece, though there's little doubt who holds the edge going into the one-day series. Pakistans hold all the aces -- psychological and cricketing -- and quite frankly they've earned it with a tremendously large-hearted effort. For the Indians, there must be an all consuming sense of gloom. Gloom because it was a series which at so many times seemed won -- for four days at Mohali, for all five at Kolkata and for at least one and a half at Bangalore. But it was not to be ...