Related Links : Pakistan’s Tour of India : Scorecard
Pakistan fought back in a stunning fashion on the second day’s play at a misty Feroz Shah Kotla to have the first test interestingly poised. India found themselves in deep trouble losing half its side for less than 100 but a century stand between VVS Laxman, who is still there and MS Dhoni has saved them from a disaster. At the close, India are three runs away from matching Pak’s first innings score of 231. They have four more wickets to try and take a crucial first innings lead.
The morning session started with extremely poor visibility because of the thick fog. However for the players in the ground, it wasn’t all that bad. India continued to break the stubborn partnership between Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami but at the same time, the runs weren’t coming at an alarming rate. The much needed breakthrough for the homeside came in a bizarre way with Misbah-ul-Haq reaching the crease with his body but with his feet in the air after trying to take cover from a direct hit from Dinesh Karthik. Misbah was run out in a disgusting manner after being guilty of not grounding his bat while attempting a single in front of point off Sourav Ganguly. Misbah ended up with 82 after batting patiently for 243 balls while getting 6 fours and a six. His partnership with Sami was worth 87. Anil Kumble wasted little time after Misbah’s dismissal by cleaning up the weak defences of Danish Kaneria who lasted only a couple of deliveries. Mohammad Sami remained unbeaten with a neat 28 (in 101 balls with 3 fours and a six).
The Indian Captain Anil Kumble finished with 4 for 38 in 21.2 overs with all his wickets coming through bowling the batsmen. India had almost an hour to play before lunch. In that brief session, they lost Dinesh Karthik after he had hung his bat outside the offstump without moving his feet to give an early confidence booster for Shoaib Akhtar. Karthik fell in the 5th over after making 9 from 11 balls. Pakistan couldn’t find any more wickets before lunch because of the inexperienced Sohail Tanvir releasing the pressure with some wayward bowling. The left armer was hardly bowling at 120kmph which wasn’t good enough to put the batsmen under any trouble. Former Captain Rahul Dravid got himself to a terrific start with boundaries coming quickly from his bat to take India past the fifty run-mark by lunch.
Wasim Jaffer looked good as well, putting away the loose deliveries for runs. His innings was ended though by the second spell of Shoaib Akhtar in which the fast bowler got the reverse swing. Jaffer was trapped in front of the stumps by a quick inswinger that got India to 71 for 2. Jaffer made 32 from 65 balls with 6 fours. The turning point of the innings came when Sachin Tendulkar ran himself after a miscommunication with Rahul Dravid in the same over in which Jaffer was dismissed. While Dravid had settled down for a single after flicking Akhtar towards the legside, Sachin turned blind and for some reason took off for the second run. He had slipped while turning back for the second run and then after seeing Dravid’s signal to go back made a valiant attempt to reach the crease but an accurate throw back to the keeper from Mohammad Yousuf found him short. Tendulkar’s innings lasted just the one ball in which he had got off the mark.
At 73 for 3, it was upto Dravid and Ganguly to rebuild the innings. Ganguly kick started his innings with a lovely square drive off the backfoot off Sohail Tanvir. But it was the same bowler who produced an absolute beauty that came back sharply to bowl Ganguly (8 from 9 balls) through the gate after the left hander was induced in playing a cover drive. That was the first test scalp for Sohail Tanvir and he soon got the prized wicket of Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman. Dravid (38 from 73 with 8 fours) got himself bowled after playing right across the line to a straight delivery to put India in the doldrums at 93 for 5. Any further damage was prevented by a positive partnership between VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni which took India to 139 for 5 in 38 overs at Tea.
In the last session, it was this same pair that was battling it out against a penetrative Pakistani attack. Dhoni was playing his full blooded shot to keep the scoreboard ticking. India were back on the track after an hour of solid batting which saw Dhoni race past his seventh test match fifty that came in 78 balls.
Dhoni couldn’t convert his fifty into a bigger one though after getting carried away, jumping down the track only to get a thin outside edge off Danish Kaneria to the keeper. Initially, it was thought that Dhoni (57 from 93 with 8 fours) was given stumped out but confirmation later came from the Umpires’ office that he indeed got an outside edge. Dhoni put on a crucial 115-run stand with Laxman. Pakistan ended the day’s play without finding any other wicket with the Indian Captain Anil Kumble (7 from 24) showing good technique to give the support to VVS Laxman (57 not out from 107 balls with 7 fours). Both batsmen had their share of luck against Danish Kaneria though on a couple of occasions. Like it was in the first day’s play, bad light came into play at around 4:30 to consume a few overs. India finished the day at 228 for 6 in 63.2 overs maintaining a healthy run rate of 3.60.