Fading light denies India a sparkling finish

When leg-spinner Anil Kumble started bowling military medium pace at the start of his spell, one was fooled for a while into believing that the captain was merely doing a Gavaskar. But as soon as Kumble made it a habit of avoiding that usual rigorous twirl of the ball by his fingers and darted the shining cherry with a seamer’s grip, things changed. The Pakistan top order was getting a bolt from the blue and it was clear that the skipper wasn’t in the mood for joking around.

Kumble the pacer took four of his first five wickets and Yuvraj Singh chipped in with two. Pakistan were reduced to 44/2, then 73 for three and two more fell at 144.

The collective yawn that was let out 15 overs after lunch when India declared their innings at 284/6 was withdrawn. Pakistan’s chasing 374 was out of the question, but Indian bowlers had started well to take 10 wickets in 48 overs, courtesy Kumble’s brainwave of bowling ‘seam ups’ and taking the first two Pakistan wickets in the 14th over on the final inning.

The afternoon siesta that the crowd was enjoying was a thing of past now as the Chinnaswamy Stadium roof was being brought down in the evening’s fading light. With just opener Salman Butt getting out to a leg-spinner, Kumble had gone to his early days as a medium pacer to collect 11.5-1-50-5.

Yasir Hameed and Kamran Akmal got out to Kumble’s straight on-the-stumps missiles that hardly left the ground after pitching. Younis Khan and Faisal Iqbal too were victims of similar deliveries, but that was more because of their lose shots. And when Yuvraj Singh from the other end got rid of the dangerous Misbah-ul-Haq and Yasir Hameed, the only possible result was an Indian win.

That was when the clouds decided to drop over Chinnaswamy Stadium and the umpires offered light to the batsmen. Mohammad Yousuf, the last man standing, took a brisk walk to the pavilion with partner Mohammad Sami as the Indians parked on the turf waiting for the sun.

The dark clouds and gloomy conditions that had threatened the start of the Test made a late entry to spoil India’s party. The match was called off with Pakistan 162/7 and 12 overs remaining.

Despite this bad miss, there were big smiles in the Indian dressing room. The reasons were several: India had won a home series against Pakistan after 27 years, Sourav Ganguly won the Man of the Match and Man of the Series with his amazing run with the bat, and Kumble had tasted success in his first series as captain.

The day had started with Shoaib Akhtar bowling short and making the Indian batsmen uncomfortable with the unusual bounce. Rahul Dravid took a few blows on the body while VVS Laxman retired hurt when an Akhtar ball hit his elbow. Laxman was rushed for a scan but it didn’t turn out to be serious.

Ganguly missed his ton by 9 runs, but Dinesh Kaarthick completed his 50. That knock played a big role in him winning the race for the wicket-keepers for the Australian series.

Akhtar went wicketless despite touching the high 140 kmph today. But later in the day, Kumble showed what pace coupled with discipline can do. Akhtar got the ball to rise while Kumble’s efforts were directed to skidding his deliveries. If it wasn’t for the clouds, India would be shinning in Bangalore.

Scoreboard

India, 1st Innings: 626

Pakistan, 1st Innings: 537

India, 2nd Innings

(overnight: 131/2)

R Dravid lbw b Kaneria 42

S Ganguly c Iqbal b Sami 91

VVS Laxman retired hurt 14

Y Singh c Akmal b Sami 2

D Karthick c Akmal b Arafat 52

I Pathan not out 21

Extras: (9b, 24lb, 7nb, 1w) 41

Total: (6 wkts dec, 76.3 overs) 284

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-26, 3-178, 4-178, 5-184, 6-284

Bowling: Akhtar 17-5-43-1, Sami 20-2-63-2, Arafat 13.3-3-49-2, Kaneria 26-2-96-1

Pakistan, 2nd Innings

S Butt c Karthik b Kumble 8

Y Hameed b Kumble 39

Y Khan c & b Kumble 0

F Iqbal c Sharma b Kumble 51

M-ul-Haq b Yuvraj Singh 37

K Akmal b Kumble 0

M Yousuf not out 10

Y Arafat b Yuvraj Singh 0

M Sami not out 4

Extras: (12b, 1lb) 13

Total: (7 wkts, 36 overs) 162

Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-44, 3-73, 4-144, 5-144, 6-148, 7-154

Bowling: Pathan 7-4-30-0, Sharma 6-3-22-0, Kumble 14-4-60-5, Harbhajan 6-1-28-0, Yuvraj 3-0-9-2