Related Links

By BV Swagath

The stage was set for the first of the 8 grueling encounters these teams would meet each other in a span of forty days. The Men in Blue after their confidence shattering defeat in the hands of the Pakistan A side, were now in Karachi. From Lahore to Karachi, two different cities but not two different pitches. It was time for the 1st O.D.I of the Samsung Cup to take off. And already the stadium was rocking with electrifying atmosphere.

THE FLIP OF THE COIN

Both the captains geared up for the toss and most cricket experts saying – “win the toss, bat first and put up a total”. Inzamam Ul Haq called tails and it was tails indeed !! But to everyone’s surprise, Inzamam elected to field first on a hot and sunny day. Reasons he mentioned – moisture in the wicket which can be exploited to remove 2-3 quick wickets. Bold decision but I thought he was playing into the hands of the Indian’s strengths – their BATTING. V.V.S.Laxman stayed out of the team after he hurt his knee during practice and Pakistan decided not to opt for Afridi and Saqlain.

INDIAN INNINGS

Shoaib was straight away in his groove of bowling fast and furious. But he was also guilty of bowling noballs and wides. The last ball of the 1st over, Sehwag attempted a flamboyant on the rise cover drive, and fortunately for India, Shoaib Malik at short extra covers put him down. Since then it was a serious lack of discipline shown by the bowlers. Plenty of noballs and Pakistan paid a heavy penalty when Sachin was caught at squareleg, but the outcome was another noball. Sehwag and Sachin played some blazing shots and India raced away to 50 in quick time. It was in the 9th over that Akthar finally struck after Sachin sliced the ball to gully, where Naved ul Hassan took a smart catch. Tendulkar was out for 28 from 35 balls which also includes a top edge hook for 6 of Akthar. In came the Indian skipper, Saurav Ganguly and for 19 minutes he was at the non strikers end. And in that 19 minutes, Sehwag had the strike to himself and the partnership for the 2nd wicket was already 41 with Ganguly yet to open his account. Such was Sehwag’s dominance at the wicket. He was especially severe on Md.Sami, playing a flurry of screaming shots through the offside. The big fillip to the innings came when Naved Ul Hassan was introduced into the attack. Naved was hammered for 24 runs in his 1st over, which included a series of noballs. Ganguly opened his account in grand style, pulling a short delivery from Naved for a six. Sehwag was finally cleaned up by Naved’s slower delivery and thus it was a huge sigh of relief for the hometeam. Virender Sehwag exited after scoring 79 in just 59 balls with 14 fours and a six over long on of Naved.

It was an ideal platform for Rahul Dravid to step in at 142/2 and play his accumulating innings. Ganguly played aggressively to make almost a run-a-ball 45 with 3 fours and 2 sixes. It was Naved again, inducing Ganguly into the pull shot and completing the catch himself to mark Ganguly’s end. Yuvraj Singh, didn’t have a long stay at the wicket as he failed to check his drive and was caught at mid off by Yasir Hameed to give Naved, his 3rd wicket.

India were in some spot of bother at 220/4. But with sensible batting from Rahul Dravid and Md.Kaif, India were safe and the two took the score beyond 300. Rahul Dravid was playing a classic innings with beautiful straight drives and was just 1 short of a century when he lost his wicket. Dravid in an attempt to turn Shoaib round the corner for a single to move onto what could have been his 2nd 100 against Pakistan inside edged onto his stumps. A very valuable partnership of 118 runs thus folded up. Md.Sami provided some late breaks towards the innings close as he snared Md.Kaif in front of the stumps and yorked Zaheer. India finally ended their innings at 349/7. Shoaib Akthar and Shoaib Malik were the pick of the bowlers with figures of 10-0-55-2 and 10-0-50-0 respectively.

THE PAKISTANI CHASE

Pakistan needed a miracle if they had to overcome such a monstrous target. But they could take heart from the way their A team had chased the other day at Lahore. Balaji and Zaheer stuck to a nice line and length and the two openers – Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed couldn’t get off to a flier. Balaji had the distinction of bowling the first maiden over of the match – the 57th over of this high scoring game. Soon he was rewarded when he bowled a beautiful inswinger to have Yasir Hameed’s stumps cart-wheeling. Zaheer then followed it up with the wicket of the left handed Farhat. Farhat edged Zaheer’s outswinger to Dravid to end his innings of 24. Then came the partnership between the two most experienced Pakistan batsmen – Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam. Both of them started to play themselves in and when the time came, they aptly shifted gears. Ganguly’s first over was the right launching pad for Youhana whereas Murali Kartik’s over was the time for Inzamam to flex his muscles. The pair were nicely setting up a platform for an onslaught in the final 10 overs, before Sehwag gave the much needed break removing Youhana. Yousuf Youhana was out for a dangerous looking 73 off 67 balls which also included 3 6s. Younis Khan joined Inzamam, and continued the Pakistan fightback. Inzamam, meanwhile registered his 9th ODI hundred; an innings which had both power and timing. Murali Kartik who came back for his 2nd spell, brought India back into the match taking the crucial wickets of Inzamam and Younis Khan. Inzamam ended up with a heroic 122 of just 104 balls. The match was in Pakistan’s favour, until Kaif took an unbelievable catch to end Shoaib Malik’s innings. Kaif took the vital catch running in from long on inspite of Badani running in from his left and almost colliding with him. 9 runs were required of the last over and Ganguly threw the ball to Ashish Nehra, the batsmen being Moin Khan and Naved. Nehra did the simple things right, putting the ball in the block hole. A couple of dot balls and Moin had to do a la Miandad – hit a six off the last ball to win the match for Pakistan. Nehra kept his cool and bowled a low full toss, which Moin scooped to Zaheer’s hands at mid off. With that India pulled off a 5 run victory to move 1-0 up in the Samsung Cup. Inzamam had some consolation in getting the Man of the Match award.

The two teams now battle each other at Rawalpindi – hometown of Shoaib Akthar on the 16th. The match would be a day nighter.

Top of the Page