Good news: It’s all over

In the absence of any official confirmation, and going by the evidence at hand, one can conclude that Pakistan were terrified of a second consecutive home series loss to India. And so played safe with the pitches in the first two Tests.

Sources say that the curator of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had received specific instructions from captain Inzamam-ul Haq over the preparation of the wickets. The PCB, they say, had left it completely to the captain and coach to decide what they needed to stop the Indians from repeating their success of two years ago.

The 2004 defeat still rankles, and Virender Sehwag rarely wastes an opportunity to bring up his 309 at Multan that set the trend for the series.

That’s the only logical explanation of why Pakistan opted for batting pitches despite their superior bowling attack. ‘‘Pakistan knew that if conditions were difficult for batting, India would hold an advantage over them in terms of the fact that they have good batsmen who mostly depend on solid technique’’, said a highly placed PCB official. ‘‘They were not prepared to take another risk of batting failure as was the case last time, when the series loss caused a lot of embarrassment.’’

To level the playing field, they simply shaved off the grass. The Pak strategy was not entirely defensive; it was to make sure that the wickets remained hard initially so that it would help their bowlers generate enough bounce. Knowing for a fact that the Indian attack lacked quality pace, Pakistan expected the wicket to loosen up a little on the last day which would make a result possible.

But wickets obviously can’t be programmed to such a fine point, and it would appear that the plans backfired.

Initially, the trick worked; they posted big totals at Lahore and Faisalabad, allowing their batsmen to continue their good form from the home series against England.

But that success was outweighed by the heavy flak the PCB has had to take over the pitch.

Rahul Dravid added to it today. ‘‘Andy Atkinson did a better job,’’ he said after the match, referring to the much-vilified curator the PCB had roped in in 2004.

Further embarrassment came when the man-of-the-match award was given to a rookie Indian bowler (RP Singh) making his debut on this lifeless wicket.

The bottomline, says a voice in the Indian camp: ‘‘We think too many cooks spoiled the broth.’’ Let’s hope the Karachi kitchen isn’t too crowded.

RP Singh’s dream debut
• Man-of-the-match
• His figures: 47 overs, 6 maidens, 164 runs, 5 wkts
• His scalps: Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Mohd Yousuf & Abdul Razzaq
NB: RP Singh captured Younis Khan’s wicket twice in the match. In the second innings the rookie caught the Pakistani stand-in skipper plumb infront when he was on 194

KARACHI UPDATES

Inzi retained in squad for third Test
Faisalabad: An injured Inzamam-ul Haq was today retained in a 16-member Pakistan squad for the third and final cricket Test against India in Karachi although it was still not confirmed whether the captain would take the field in the series decider.

Shoaib Malik was left out of the squad following the death of his father while medium-pacer Umar Gul and middle-order batsman Faisal Iqbal were included for the match set to start this Sunday.

Left-hander Asim Kamal was not picked because of his father’s illness, a PCB spokesman said. Inzamam is struggling to recover from a bad back that prevented him from taking the field during India’s innings. Although the team management said that Inzamam had been showing improvement, there was no confirmation whether Inzamam would play in Karachi. (PTI)

Sarfraz inspects Karachi pitch
Karachi: Former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz made a surprise visit to the National Stadium in Karachi to have a look at the pitch — the centrestage in the contest between the arch-rivals so far — being prepared for the series decider. Sarfraz, considered as the pioneer of reverse swing bowling, had a close look at the green-top track. He later asked groundsman Haji Bashir about the pitch and was told it had at least half an inch of grass on it and would play much more positively than the pitches prepared for the first two Tests, according to a report in local daily The News. “Before leaving Sarfraz was heard telling Bashir that when the pitch was so well prepared what was the necessity for him to come to Karachi and unnecessarily tamper with a good Test track,” a source was quoted as saying by the daily. (PTI)