SOUTHAMPTON, August 22: Sourav Ganguly made the cardinal mistake of not looking at his partner on Tuesday; he kept looking at the fielder, and probably thinking Monty Panesar’s arm could be tested, he dashed towards the other end. Sachin Tendulkar was, however, not even looking at him. Ganguly realised his mistake, turned and tried to make his way back. He couldn’t. In the process, he gave Panesar his first run-out victim. Once in a blue moon, again? Well, that was a spur of the moment mistake. But how did India suddenly lose three wickets after that? How did they crash to 34 for four and lose the match? What were these batsmen looking at? We don’t know for sure although we know where the entire stadium was looking around that time. As England’s bowlers were settling down into their rhythm, the Rose Bowl suddenly erupted into a roar. The noise even made its way into the air-conditioned, soundproof media box. Everybody immediately stopped pounding laptops and got up to check the source. Lo and behold, in the southern stands, about 200 metres from where we were working, six girls were seen running. They raced down one aisle, crossed over to the next, and raced up again as whistles and wild clapping chased them. Two fatly built security men were hot in pursuit. The game paused for a minute and laughter was in the air. The reason for the merriment: well the girls had stripped down to their last and most secret (actually not often very secret) two pieces of clothing; a couple of them were not even worried about that either. Fair-skinned, blonde and just a strip of black patches just below their waist glistened as they laughed, shrieked and ran. Streakers used to be a common occurrence on England’s grounds; but for probably the first time they all came out together. With a fine of £1,000 for entering the playing arena, it would have been a little optimistic to expect them to streak into the ground. But the tactic worked. India lost three more wickets and eventually the match. Sinking feeling: There is something ominous about starting things from Southampton. In 1912, the great Titanic had set sail from here and could never make it back; as the movie goes, it crashed into an iceberg, broke into two and sank. Earlier, when Indian teams used to come to England by ship, they would make their entry through Southampton. Not too surprisingly, they never used to take off here. Cricket manager Chandu Borde too has experienced one of those journeys, coming all the way via Egypt, and knows the feeling of getting thrashed match after match. Well, the current team’s One-day campaign has started here too. It has also started disastrously. Can India recover from this? Or will the team go the Titanic way too? We will know soon.