is what cost India the third Test at Bangalore. They started off their displays of negative cricket on Day 4 by constantly bowling around the wicket in a desperate and ungamely attempt to put a plug on the pakistani run machine. Despite of that Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan improvised and adjusted their game with some over positive batting, to neutralize the effect of India’s negative bowling. Younis Khan even came up with a superb left handed shot, in which he went as far as changing grip of the bat (from righty to lefty), charged up like a left hander would do and destroyed kumble’s line with all his might.. for the boundary of the day.
Come Day 5, as soon as Sehwag’s departure the Indian batting line up, consisting of world class batsmen including ICC’s number one ranked batsman in the world (sorry rahul), put their tails between their legs and curled up in a cocoon. Again, negative cricket. They try to bat out the whole day without scoring any runs - and hope Inzamam, who has been hungry for a win for almost a year, would just give up without a fight.
All of the Indian batsmen suddenly underestimated their own abilities and their confidence. As well they underestimated the Pakistanis’ ability to sense a win when theres one around the corner.
All of the Indian batsmen, save Sehwag and Kumble. The latter one especially deserves more credit. Because if there was one person standing between Pakistan and victory (when it was within sight), it was Anil Kumble. Not even a specialist batsman, he put up a last minute fight and continued to irritate the pakistani bowlers like he had done in all encounters before that. He sprinkled seven boundaries all around the ground. Granted it is fairly easy to score a boundary when all nine fielders are hogging the pitch, but Kumble was the only one to have the guts to perform this feat whereas all others failed. During his time on the pitch he made a statement. ‘My team has abandoned ship which they themselves have sunk. I too will sink, but not without a fight.’ And so did he sink, but not without a fight: A Kumble not out. R: 37, M: 89, B: 52, 4s: 7, 6s: 0.
Like someone said in an article: India were playing for the series, not the game. In doing so they ended up losing the game but most importantly they let their series win slip out of their hands.
This day they they have lost a game but learnt a very important lesson. A lesson about the negative effects of negative cricket.
(These days, when anyone talks about something that you’re not aware of, try adding www in the beginning and .com in the end, and type it in the address bar. You’ll get your answer
The bowling of Kumble and Tendu on day 4, is definitely negative line, but it was perfect for India at that time, as their main aim was to slow down the run rate. I don't think it worked as effectively as they may have wished. But for all intents, it was perfect test cricket from Ganguly and his team. There was no down-side for them in that strategy, except redicule from Pak fans.
However, their strategy on day 5, after Sehwag's dismissal was catastrophic. When the day had begun, there were three possible outcomes...
Draw
Indian win
Pakistan win.
When Dravid and Gambhir applied the brakes, Indians took option #2 off the table, and that allowed Pakistan to stop worrying about the runs and the boundaries and start a relentless attack on the batsmen through aggressive field-placements and whirlwind spells from bowlers. That multiplied the pressure over Indian batsmen manifold and they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. That was a critical lapse of judgement on the part of Indian management Wright and Ganguly. Batting out a whole day even on 5th day Bangalore pitch wouldn't have been impossible from the famed Indian batting line up and under-rated Pakistani bowling attack. But their strategy to get bogged down, played right into Inzamam's hands.
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So right too.
I also felt it and thought that umpires were about to intervene and grab GungU
on the side, give him a ticket for time wasting. :elmo:
That was the point when opt # 2 was flikering its last.
Non the less, it was very unpropfessional and not befiting to a team seems competing for numero uno spot.
man, you are cuckoo. I agree that draw and indian win was a possibility but to say that pakistan winning wasn’t a option is stupidity at its best. I would say there was a 50% chance of a draw, 30% chance of pak win, and 20% chance of a indian win.
Most knowledgable Pakistani supporters had a feeling that Sehwag has never been very successful in second innings (his 2nd innings avg is 25, compared to first innings avg of 71; the Highest delta amongst all batsmen), and Tendu has hardly ever delivered the goods for Indians when the chips were down… so realistically the only two people that would have stood up for India would be Dravid and Laxman.
Yes and no, Sehwag was not troubled by any of our bowler throughout the series and despite have a low 2nd innings average was on pace to score another blistering (maby not exactly blistering, but still a) century, had it not been for that runout, which no knowledgeable pakistani supporter would have expected......
Cheegum, i totally aggree with you. A boundry every other over and a couple of singles every over would have been enuff for Pakistan to disperse its field and then there would have been no one to take those close catches. there were only two people that played positive cricket. One was Kumble and other was Sehwag. One got run out other one came not out.
I wonder who came up with this strategy. They probably forgot that they have the strongest batting lineup and they are facing the weakest Pakistani bowling attack in ages. Anyways.....it was what helped us save the test.
I still cant believe that there were 8 fielders right around the batsmen. Any shot, even an edge by Indian batsmen would have meant a boundry as there was no one to stop it.
nice article bro but one thing is missing, even shane warne bowls the so called “negative line” its part of the tactics, and one thing was the obvious they were there to just stop the runs not to take wickets.
Yes it is comforting to Imagine that India would either Draw or Win, But after Pakistan's 1st innings knock, it was draw or Pakistan win India was never in a position to win, and when a team plays as a TEAM it does make a difference, which Pakistani players did and eventually won Pakistan the Match and Helped draw the series,
Critics of Younis well for that matter not only Younis all players Ind/Pak who are not given a fair chance, this should be ample proof that there is something called as a bad day at the office. learn to live with it, dont be judgemental after 1 or 2 games.
I did say the same about Afridi too, lekin Ehsan Bhai threatened to ban me:D :D so I had to be a silent , lekin after his glorious performance, Ehsan Bhai bhi Afridi ke Kayal hou gaye, and he started saying weird things like "Afridi sada sher aye" and other incomprehensible stuff:D
Ok seriously Jokes apart, India DESERVED to lose and Pakistan not only DESERVED the win, but actually EARNED the win, and ONLY for that reason I salute them.
Saby Bhai bas aab is se zyada mai nahi likh sakta:D :D
is this the same Aejaz bhai who went into hibernation. 
by the way my name is SHIVANGI not SHIVANJI
