Pakistan batsmen let go a golden opportunity to continue their good form on a testing pitch and now they find themselves needing an enormous fight back from their bowlers in upcoming days. They still are not out of the match thanks to their tail who wagged brilliantly.
Inzi lost an important toss on a Rawalpindi pitch that had tinge of green and variable bounce since the very start of the match but that is not an excuse for the kind of batsmanship we witnessed from some of the batsmen. Yasir got out to a careless shot; youhana nervously defended a ball only to see it hit the stumps; Kamran Akmal tried to attack a bit too much and the tale goes on. Sami provided the kind of resistance Irfan Pathan did in the second test. But Sami had no Yuvraj at the other end but Fazal Akbar who is making a come back in this match stayed with him enough to add 70 priceless runs. Many commentators and experts believe that Sami had the potential to be a good all rounder and today he showed why. He taught a lesson or two to his top order batsman how to bat on a tricky pitch.
Pakistan got rid of Sehwag on the first ball of Indian innings thanks to a no nonsense delivery from a fired up Shoaib. Pakistan needs him to continue his fiery spell and other bowlers to stand up and counted to make a match of it. We can expect lots of moisture on the pitch in the morning because of overnight covers. It is up to bowlers to exploit it. Indians have their noses in front and it is Pakistan who needs to do all the catching up.
Pakistanis toiled hard and hard on second day of last test but they hit ‘The Wall’ again and again every time they looked like pegging India back.
The shallowness of Pakistan’s bowling resources was evident from the fact that a batsman of supposedly lesser ability, Patel, irritated them throughout the lunch session. Apart from Shoaib, who was unsettling to the Indian batsmen throughout the day, none of them was consistently threatening. Shoaib bowled with great fire and venom and the delivery with which he dismissed Sachin was a jaffer and the master could only slice it to the keeper. Dravid defied bowling throughout the day amid some intermittent lucky escapes. Sami beat the bat once in a while but as pitch had eased out, there was nothing for him or Fazl-e-Akbar who bowled too many four balls to the batsmen. Kaneria toiled with no result. Shoaib’s injury sapped the remaining enthusiasm and by the end of the day Pakistani fielders were just going through the motions. All now depends on how quickly they can get remaining wickets and then respond to the huge deficit when batting in second innings. Chances are bright that India is nearing its first series win on Pakistani soil unless some individual pulls some miraculous trick out of his bag.
Pakistan is staring at a innings defeat and only some miraculous performance can prevent India from winning its first ever series in Pakistan.
On third day, young Pakistani bowlers who were without Shoaib Akhtar, toiled hard with little rewards throughout the day. Mohammad Sami bowled with determination the whole day and Kaneria showed enough guile in his long spells to trouble both Dravid and Yuvraj and he was specially unlucky with few decisions going against him and the spell he bowled to Yuvraj in the morning was special but unfortunately he has nothing to show for his efforts. 2-178 makes a deceiving reading of the effort he put throughout the course of the day. Inzimam once again left a lot to be desired with his unimaginative field placings. On day 2, Laxman and Dravid edged quite a few balls to the slips but they didn’t carry, and same thing kept on happening on Day 3. It would have been advisable to bring slips two three steps forward and results could have been different. But first and third tests have been all about ‘could have’ and ‘should have’ as far as Pakistan is concerned. Let us see if Pakistan manages to take this test to fifth day or not. Game is all but lost and Pakistan needs to go down fighting rather than capitulating on face of huge defeat.
Starting day four, this match was already a lost cause but fans would have hoped for a fighting attitude rather than a resigning one. But it was a mixture of both of them. Some played resigned innings and certain individual won hearts all around with his gutsy effort.
Kamran Akmal and Yasir decided early in the morning that playing shots is the order of the day but soon Akmal was on its way. He has shown glimpses of his batting talent but its high time he makes one big score to cement his place once and for all after Rashid and Moin. After the departure, Inzi came and soon got reprieves from the Indians but could not make it count. Yasir got out to a brilliant catch by Parthiv Patel but yet again he got a start and could not convert it. Youhana and Asim provided with the best phase for Pakistan with some lusty counter attack. Asim Kamal braved the pain and played a gutsy unbeaten innings, this guy surely has a bright future ahead of him. Youhana played some classy strokes, makes you wonder why he does not play like that in every innings and tried to curb his elegant shots. Shoaib came and tried to hit out kumble, it was good while it lasted but he raised a few eye brows along the way. When Kaneria was out, Asim was stranded at the other end and Indians finally clinched a series win abroad in a decade.
Being a Pakistani fan, it hurts to lose a home series and yes Indians, right now a more professional unit than Pakistan. They deserved to win. Congratulation to India and hope Pakistan avenge this series loss come next year