Re: India/Pakistan series - Daily Diary
Lahori Munda's 2nd test day 3 review:
It was a fun day of cricket today. India started off cautiously, a few quick wickets giving Pakistan a sniff to draw first blood and India again fighting her way back into the game, much to the disappointment of the local crowd.
The day started rather slowly as Dravid and Laxman ensured they don’t loose any wickets and scored at a very slow run rate. In the process Dravid recorded his second successive ton of the series, while Laxman just missed out a century I thought he deserved for all the pressure he sustained.
In the first session when the going was slow for the batsmen Pakistan found it extremely difficult to get anything off the pitch. The second session saw a flurry of wickets with Kaneria striking the first blow by sending Laxman back and soon after Dravid was run out by a direct hit leaving India with two new batsmen on the crease.
Yuvraj might be in great knick but the shot he played when he got out I think was not of a specialist batsman of a team that was playing only 5 specialist batsman. Pakistan had taken the new ball, they had placed fielders for the hook or pull shot and he still went after Asif, didn’t get a hold of it and Kaneria took a fine catch just inches inside the boundry line.
Tendulkar who was looking dangerous gloved one from Shoaib down the leg side and Akmal picked up a regulation catch leaving India in all sorts of trouble. Pakistan sniffed they had a chance then with all 5 specialist batsmen back in the dressing room but Shoni and Pathan played out of their skin, particularly Dhoni who made a well deserved century as he took the Pakistani bowling to the cleaners. He was greeted by some hostile short pitch stuff from Shoaib Akhtar but instead of going into a shell and let the bowlers dictate the terms Dhoni replied to aggression with aggression. He played some fine shots all around and park. The impressive part is his hand eye co-ordination and balance is just fabulous. The first 6 he hit off of Shoaib, the ball was coming right at his rib cage, yet he picked it up beautifully with great balance and hoiked it for a big six.
Today would be another interesting day. Pakistan would want to run throw the Indian batting line up as quickly as possible and to try to leave our batsmen some time to set a target for Indians. Indians would plan on getting as close to Pakistan total as possible for starters and then maybe see if they can get a handy lead. Pakistan would be short two batsmen with Inzi out due to injury and Shoaib Malik visiting his ill father. I am guessing Afridi would open the innings for Pakistan when they come to bat and try to quicken the things a little to get out bowlers some chance in the second innings. Although on this pitch I don’t know if Pakistan would be able to get the remaining 5 wickets in India’s first innings, set a target and then get them out again in two day but stranger things have happened in cricket and only time will tell if either team will have enough time to force a victory. For the time being though I think we are starring at a draw, not as tame as the one in Lahore but a draw nevertheless.