India bounce back emphatically

Irfan Pathan provided the early breakthrough that was missing in the recent past, as Salman Butt attempted an ambitious drive to the second ball of the match which swung and seamed away after pitching. Sreesanth once again bowled with good pace and swing, but remained unlucky. He surprised Yousuf with a well directed bouncer and made good use of the bowling crease, coming wide off the crease to bowl his incoming delivery. Shoaib Malik seems to revel against the Indian bowlers and once again played an attacking innings even as wickets fell at the other end. Kamran Akmal was looking good with some stunning cover drives against the swinging delivery, but he tried to cut a ball that was too close to him and chopped Pathan onto his stumps. When Yousuf had run himself out with his manic running between the wickets Pakistan were in trouble. It became big trouble as Inzamam somehow played too early at a short ball from Zaheer and popped up a simple catch to mid on. Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled very well after replacing the opening bowlers. India went in with only 4 frontline bowlers and all were the faster men with Romesh Powar as the super sub. Agarkar bowled a few excellent outswingers that somehow missed the outside edge of both Malik and Younis Khan.

After the controversy over Inzi’s obstruction of field dismissal in the first match, one would think that it couldn’t happen again in the series. But, it almost happened in this match too. Shoaib Malik at the non strikers end scampered down the pitch for a single accompanied by the bowler Zaheer Khan. He was sent back by Younis, and just as Zaheer reached down to pick up the ball, Malik kicked it away. The Indian’s muted their appeal probably because it wasn’t clear whether it was intentional, but after watching the replays it looked as if he plonked his foot on the ball quite unnecessarily. It would have been quite interesting had the Indians appealed.

India didn’t have a fifth bowler, thus when Sehwag and Sachin bowled in tandem the pressure was off Pakistan. Malik & Younis Khan managed to get a boundary almost every over. The only over where Sachin managed to bowl 5 dot balls, off the sixth ball Malik slashed it deep point and ran back for a dangerous second run, but Sreesanth’s throw from the deep was perfectly on top of the stumps and Dhoni had no trouble in whipping the bails off. It was a great piece of fielding and in this department India was much better than Pakistan, who were pretty woeful in the field. Afridi came in and clouted a six as is his wont but threw it away before he could do further damage as he came down the wicket and flung his bat at a short and wide delivery from Pathan. Kaif judged the skier to a nicety. Younis Khan continued his outstanding form in the Test matches as he methodically collected runs interspersed with powerful shots to the square boundary.

India did well to dismiss the big hitters in the Pakistan lower order. Both Agarkar and Zaheer Khan bowled well at the end and coupled with some excellent fielding from the Indians, Suresh Raina in particular who added a run out and a catch to his fielding kitty, made sure that the Pakistanis were all out before the end of 50 overs. In the end 265 was a good score considering that Pakistan were in some strife at 68-4.

Sachin and Sehwag started cautiously giving the utmost respect to Mohammad Asif, until Sehwag exploded in the fifth over. Rana Naved whet his appetite with a short and wide one outside the off stump and Sehwag launched himself off his feet and into the ball, smashing it over the thirdman boundary with such power that he injured his left shoulder. After getting treatment from John Gloster, Sehwag hit three consecutive boundaries and after each shot he grimaced as if to tell the bowler that he could have hit it better if he had two fully functional hands. The first four was ping ponged over the bowlers head, the second was whipped wide of mid on and the third was rocketed through covers. After that he became the hunter and the bowlers were on the defensive. Even as Sachin played Asif cautiously, the Sehwag effect caused an error in Asif’s line and he was flicked to the mid wicket boundary and a wide one was dispatched to the point boundary. Umar Gul started well, beating both Sachin and Sehwag. But, Sehwag immediately sent the very next ball scorching through the covers. It is incredible just how he is able to compartmentalize each delivery. Sourav Ganguly, writing in the Cricinfo magazine provided an interesting insight into Sehwag’s thinking. Ganguly recalled how both of them were watching another batsman at the crease in Australia, and after every slightly loose ball Sehwag would say “Chauka gaya” or “Chakka gaya”, i.e. he missed a four or he missed a six!! It is a pretty simple approach to batting. But, it is not all bang, bang like Afridi, because he started taking singles and Sachin got into the act, lofting Mohammed Asif over mid off and collecting three fours off one Umar Gul over. The opening pair reached their 9th hundred run partnership making 105 from 15 overs when Sachin opened the face off his bat and guided Razzaq into Akmal’s hands.

The flexibility with the batting order in the one dayers has been a consistent feature of the Dravid-Chappell combine, and this time there was no need for the big hitters so Dravid came into bat at number three and eased his way to his 66th half century at strike rate over 90 with only five boundaries. Even when Sehwag was run out by an incredible direct hit from the boundary by Gul, India had no worries as Yuvraj Singh came in and calmly put the match beyond Pakistan. This is where Inzi’s tactics were a bit bizarre as he never brought back his main strike bowler, Mohammad Asif to the attack. All the other bowlers were given a go, and it seemed as if Inzi had already given and up and didn’t want the Indians to score brownie points against Asif. Dravid and Yuvraj added 118 runs before David fell just before the win was achieved, and Mohammad Kaif had to come in to finish off the game. Dhoni, Pathan and the extra bat Suresh Raina weren’t even required as India completed a thumping win.

Dravid will be happy with the win, because his bowlers got him the early break through and his batsmen countered the main threat of Mohammad Asif quite admirably. Suresh Raina in the field pretty much covered the lack of the fifth bowler. Inzamam will be pondering the Sehwag effect and throwing up his hands in frustration at the Pakistan ground fielding which made his bowling attack look even more mediocre than it actually is.