Parthiv Patel and Ajit Agarkar managed to stave off the inevitable till after lunch but all along it was a question of when, not if, Pakistani cricketers would dash for the stumps as remembrance of this dramatic victory. Don’t blame Taufeeq Umar, then, for getting a little confused and grabbing a stump at the fall of Lakshmipathy Balaji’s wicket. He needed to put on his pads and guide his team to the 40 runs requisite for victory, but, hey, the triumph was already his. On this day strung together with what are really footnotes to Pakistan’s series-levelling victory at Lahore, a couple of them merit mention. The tail may have been theirs, but on Thursday Pakistan’s pace bowlers left a few calling cards. They bowled with brute pace and lethal accuracy, and it took Parthiv Patel’s grit and Ajit Agarkar’s audacity to stretch India’s second innings to a respectable 241. Yesterday Shoaib Akhtar had announced his speed by cracking, again, the 100 mph barrier. Today he got his line right, his deliveries kept climbing on the batsmen. It takes less than a second for Shoaib to get his delivery to a batsman, and when he is bowling at full tilt even the mighty tremble. The pressure certainly melted Virender Sehwag’s overnight defiance. After being troubled for a while, he tried to cut one that was moving away, and gave keeper Kamran Akmal an easy catch. Umar Gul’s 12 overs had already rocked India on the opening day, and Mohammad Sami straighted out his act too today to give something to the batsmen back in the shed to think about. In Shoaib’s hometown, Rawalpindi, they can expect express delivery. It will remain a footnote, but Parthiv’s tenacity in Lahore was a pleasure to record. He took off for a single off the last ball of the first Shoaib over, broadcasting his confidence. Before the Multan Test he said he had been working on his batting and, in a solemnity defying his tender years, he noted that wicketkeepers are key constituents of today’s squads: to them must fall the task of keeping up team morale. He translated those words into action here. He improvised the upper-cut to get Sami away for four, he stood tall after nasty knocks and, at innings’s close, he remained unbeaten on 62. The main turns of this match, however, were negotiated another day. You don’t need to know Einstein’s theory of the curvature of spacetime to realize that two periods of play governed the shape of this encounter. All intervening and concluding cricket in Lahore simply coloured in the yawning blank spaces. The first turning point: Umar Gul’s spell on Day 1. It is not just that he sent Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid back to the pavilion cheaply. He also showed his seniors that application and faithfulness to line and length could stem the momentum against Pakistan. Pakistan’s pace attack is at last a force to reckon with in this series — for that the credit must go to the man of the match. The second turning point was just a moment: Dravid’s runout in the second innings without facing a ball. It crippled the team at 15/2, but it was no ordinary wicket. It may be time to amend that old notion that once Sachin is gone, so is the game. Dravid, for long portrayed as India’s bridesmaid, has of late been a key participant in Indian victories. At Headingley and at Adelaide, he has authored triumphs. The manner of his runout collapsed two nightmares for India. One, he was out without putting any runs on the board. Two, the death wish threaded into that hazardous single infected the air. Gul’s spell had steered Pakistan up the learning curve. Dravid’s runout hastened India’s slide. The two gradients have brought this series alive. For the first time at the Gaddafi Stadium, there were more spectators than could be contained in the shaded ring in the upper tiers. In Rawalpindi, beginning April 13, the battle will be intense. Pakistan have summoned a measure of cohesion. India, for all their sorrows in Lahore, have succumbed only to temporary lapses, the professionalism that has carried them to so many recent victories is there. Tonight they may retire in defeat, but they have shown every potential of raising their game for another contest. Yes, Rawalpindi could be electric.
