Re: India/Pakistan series - Daily Diary
Lahori Munda's review of 3rd test, day 3:
Apparently the pitch is not playing anymore tricks as Pakistan continued piling runs on the third day of this test match. Younis and Yousaf continued their good form and scored half centuries to build on the solid foundation provided by the openers, Afridi blasted his way to a half century and Faisal Iqbal played majestically for his century. Razzaq was still out there with Iqbal approaching his half century as Pakistan took their lead beyond the massive 500 mark.
With two well set batsmen on the crease and the first innings hero Akmal still waiting in the wings India is looking at a massive target to chase. Pakistan will probably try to score quickly till lunch tomorrow and extend their lead beyond 600 which will essentially put the game out of India’s reach. Akmal and Razzaq are both capable of striking some lusty blows. I think Pakistan needs to start hitting out as soon as they go out tomorrow morning since the lead is pretty big as is, but we need to give our bowlers as much time as we can to have a go at India. We should play tomorrow morning at a brisk pace and ideally, we should declare about half hour or forty minutes before lunch to leave the Indian batsmen to face the uncomfortable few overs. Shoaib can go flat out, bend his back since he would know he could only get a couple of overs in before the lunch break. If we get a wicket during that phase it’s a bonus, if not then it’s no big deal and the bowlers can start fresh after lunch.
I wrote earlier that this pitch was not as bowler friendly as the first inning stats suggested, I also don’t think it’s as flat as the second innings stats are suggesting. There is still some juice in it for the bowlers and if they bowl in the right areas they can still ask the batsmen some testing questions. Shoaib has been bowling well in this match, he might have taken only two wickets in the first innings but he roughs up the batsmen and the bowlers from the other end take advantage of it. Asif bowls a very nice line and frustrates the batsmen with that nagging off stump line, many of his balls can be left alone but he does have that stock ball that nips back so it’s not easy to leave the ball every time.
Pakistan has ended each day of this match making with a slight advantage and finally today we ended with odds stacked pretty heavily in our favor. We don’t need to get complacent, there is still a lot of cricket to be played here and the players need to stay focused and finish the job. We’ve got the momentum with us; all we need is some disciplined display from our team, especially the fielders. Since the pitch has eased up a bit we need to start hanging on to the catches that come our way and InshAllah we will drive home the advantage we have worked so hard to gain.