First day first show, grand opening in Lahore

‘‘It was our day,’’ declared the two after Khan finished the day at 147 not out, while Yousuf remained five runs away from his century, living to bat another day.

The Indians tried as they could, changing spells every four overs — at an average. Appreciating the early morning conditions, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar began the day well as the moisture played its role in giving them a certain edge. But as the sun began to shine better and the ball lost some of it, the Pakistanis began to find their feet in the middle.

As things progressed, the last session of play finally left Rahul Dravid and Co in the cold, with all his bowlers — except for Pathan’s wicket of Shoaib Malik — going wicketless. ‘‘We decided that we will not play slow. Especially me, because that is usually what I prefer doing,’’ said Younis Khan, three short of his 150 now.

The Indian bowling wasn’t bad but the genuine lack of pace mattered, when despite the effort nothing came their way. Yuvraj Singh’s run out of Salman Butt — a classic piece of fielding and a direct hit had caught the batsman napping — was the only electrifying moment for the Indians on a gloomy day. The bad part was Virender Sehwag dropping Mohammad Yousuf at gully, when the latter was on 92.

That apart, the Pakistani batsmen — following a well-chalked out plan — stubbornly kept themselves away from taking any unwanted risks. They waited for lose ones, plenty of them, to get going as 38 boundaries and two sixes were witnessed in the 85 overs of play.

Picking on the lose balls, like the Younis Khan six off Anil Kumble, the Pak batsmen did well to settle themselves. ‘‘The Indians tried very hard and all credit to the effort they put in. In fact, the bowling was good in the early hours of play but later on, the pitch was only getting better for the batsmen,’’ said Khan.

Meanwhile, Indian captain Rahul Dravid remained conspicuous by his absence after the day’s play got over. Coach Greg Chappell, though, batted for his team saying that ‘‘most bowling attacks would have struggled today.’’ Chappell’s only concern was that India failed to maintain a tight line towards the end and added that Pakistan took good advantage of that.

Indians are expecting that as another day passes by, the wicket should change as is the case usually in a span of five days. But their major concern now is to stop Pakistan from mounting a mammoth total which will otherwise put enormous pressure on the Indian batsmen to chase.

3000 club

Younis Khan became the 14th Pakistan batsman to score 3000 runs in Test cricket.

3rd hundred

This is Younis Khan’s third consecutive century against India after his 147 in the second Test at Kolkata and 267 in the third Test at Bangalore