Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
i share ur sentiments and am full of pride and joy but it was mushtaq mohammad who called our team a club team not javed
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
desired, it was unbelievable, the atmosphere was electric. The way the Pakistan team played together was brilliant. The last few overs were awesome, very tight field placement, everyone put their best up.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
for you mr. desired…
Running into happiness
Amit Varma and Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Bangalore
March 28, 2005
Shahid Afridi ran, ran, ran, ran, ran towards square leg and punched the air with a divine joy and turned around, and then they fell onto him, one by one, a swarm of Pakistanis homing in on happiness. Sachin Tendulkar had played a ball from Afridi, just short-of-a-length, to Asim Kamal at short leg, and Kamal, who had dropped him earlier, held on. And then he watched Afridi run past him, and keep on running. What could stop them now? (AV)
The million-dollar miss
Throughout the series, Pakistan’s fielders have been culpable of costly misses, but the biggest catch arrived moments before the tea break. As India waged a grim battle, Mohammad Sami, who was shaping the ball away from the bat, unleashed the surprise short one at Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar fended without any sort of control and the ball began its loopy trajectory left of the short-leg fielder, Asim Kamal. Kamal palmed it further away from him, juggled a couple of more times and as if overwhelmed by the occasion, groped in the air as the ball fell to the ground. Sami dropped to his knees immediately, Kamal realised the magnitude of the error and dropped too. Four Pakistan fielders had their hands on their heads, Kamran Akmal covered his face with his gloves and Inzamam-ul-Haq went down in slow motion to a postion of namaz. Eleven heads reeled in the centre as about 25,000 around them danced with relief. (SV)
Captain falling
When Sourav Ganguly came out to bat, sections of the crowd shouted, “We want Karthik, we want Karthik”. Less creative sections just booed. It was sad: such a fine batsman in his prime, perhaps the best captain India has ever had, now reduced to a poor parody of his former self. He pottered around for a while, then tried to drive a ball from Shahid Afridi that pitched wide outside off, and missed. The ball came into him viciously, and bowled him. As the fielders celebrated, Ganguly stood around wondering what had happened, unable to fathom that he was out, thinking perhaps that it was a stumping attempt and his foot was in the crease, or that the ball had rebounded from Kamran Akmal’s pads. He had been down for a while; and now the umpire said that he was out. He walked off; was it for the last time in a Test match? The crowd didn’t care. They booed him. (AV)
The mesmeric opening
The roar over Sachin Tendulkar’s entry had hardly died down as he faced up to Mohammad Sami’s steaming deliveries, but off the third ball he faced, a full-length one on middle stump, he stirred some old memories. Front foot slightly forward, perfectly in position, bat thrust out just at the right moment, making perfect contact, summoning the force to drive it straight, managing the angle to beat the bowler … and thwack. Sami’s right hand extended desperately, the mid-on fielder simultaneously looked left, the ball had meanwhile covered three-fourth the distance to the fence, the crowd had gone bonkers and several nostalgic chords sprung up within. (SV)
Anything is possible
VVS Laxman had said yesterday, “The way [Virender] Sehwag plays, anything is possible.” Well, Sehwag was 38 off 53 balls, playing with controlled aggression, when Danish Kaneria bowled to Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir pushed it to mid-on, Sehwag casually backed down the pitch, Abdul Razzaq raced to the ball, Sehwag turned, Razzaq threw, and leather hit timber. Sehwag didn’t even have time to try to get back, he just walked to the crease and past it to the pavilion. Razzaq windmilled his arms, and Inzamam-ul-Haq came, a wide smile painted on his face, and lifted him up.
And then Rahul Dravid walked in. (AV)
Amit Varma is contributing editor of Cricinfo. He writes the independent blogs, India Uncut and The Middle Stage.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Cricinfo.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
hahahhahaha i personally hate him wid a passion but this series did show that we doo need a strike bowler in our ranks if we are to achieve success regularly
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
cheeeer pd
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
u r welcome…kee checking cricinfo.com…more details are coming
well seems like i am the only one left here dancing all over…so i guess it is time to get ready for office…i know i will keep smiling for whole day in office for no reason and my colleagues will think i have gone nuts…but who cares…
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
Well, the last match did wonders for Pakistan. sada sutta patti jag gya. :)
It's party time... Let's celebrate...
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
I swear i want to go out on the streets but its 7.30 am and theres nobody i can celebrate with. I had been watching all night and my bro woke up an hour before the match ended and joined in. Balaji was looking like a tough customer but sadly his ball thumping and protruding butt moves weren't enough to match Kaneria's guile. Still both of us skipped a few beats for the time between the teams' appeal and umpire's finger going up. We gave a huge sigh of relief and hi-fived. I never realized till today why a Test match can be so fking irritating. The hindians kept defending and there was nothing nobody could say to them at their technique. They could not be forced to play shots. The only way to penetrate their defences was to outsmart them. And ofcourse feline like athletics by Younis Khan helped too.
I feel really sorry for Saurav. His excellent captaincy skills will go to waste because of his poor form. Maybe he should take up John Wright's position after he leaves. That way he can still be an integral part of the Indian team and won't have to face any embarassment while batting.
As for the Indian team's performance i think it was their own undoing. They have seen that in the past 14 days of play Pakistani bowlers have never been able to penetrate the Indian batting as effectively even on bowler friendly pitches. So why did they think Pakistani bowlers can do it this time? If they had just played their natural game and peppered the occasional boundaries here and there, the pakistani fielders would have spread out (for their own body's sake) and it wouldnt have been easy to get so many people out at once.
So yeah thats what i think. The paki bowlers were amazing especially the spinners and Sami was on fire. But their confidence level grew partially because of the Indian batsmens' defending mentality.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
@ protruding butt moves!! I was wondering what he was doing. poor guy.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
nice summary cheegum…and i agree that indians were playing for a draw and the decision hit them real hard…
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
What a game. I don't think i've ever been this happy before. Oye phoenix, how will you manage at work today.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
Hehe thats the best description i could come up with. But what he did with pouncing on every ball with his bat was pretty smart. I wonder why he didn’t tell other coming before him to follow a similar technique. I mean for a while he had Kaneria thinking really hard how to outsmart him.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
Yep, they fell in the hole that they dug for us.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
Told yaa Guys 
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
AQ you were right man 
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
5abi bro: it’s all about faith. I had faith in my team 
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
well done pakistani team, congrates to all pakiteam supporters.
I think inzmams inng of 184 is the key for there big score (thou khan scored more , i feel that inzi ingg is more imp). It is very clear that indian team didnt expect any resistance from pakistani team and thats a reason for there downfall along with great paki team spirit.
nothing really against indian team, thou i am not very happy with this defeat.
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
Mairay aziz doustooo aur hum’watnaoo - As salam ul lakum.
es 'tareekhi moqay per mai app sab ko ‘Mubarak Bad’ daita houn 
:k:
Pakistan ZindabaD - Baqi sab es kay baD
Re: 3rd Test - Thu 24 - Mon 28: March 05 Pakistan Vs India
:k: it pays off indeed 
sure, ups and downs are part of it, but in the end, it alwayz pays off