How the chicken cooked the goose

The chicken dig came from maverick former Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, who said on the eve of the match that Indian batsmen were weak-kneed at the sight of Shoaib Akhtar. quot;In fact, they have always been scared of Pakistan8217;s fast bowlers. Saurav Ganguly is so afraid of Shoaib he cannot look him in the eye. I feel sorry for India,quot; Nawaz, who some believe is slightly unhinged, told a London tabloid.

As it turned out, the Indians handled Shoaib quite comfortably, thank you, withTendulkar unleashing one trademark short-arm pull that presaged the assault to come. But Shoaib was taken off soon after, and his final figures of 10-0-54-1 said it all.

Sarfraz8217;s needling comment was compounded by Ganguly dropping out of the game with an injured knee, leading several cynical reporters to endorse the chicken theory, forgetting that some of his best performances have been against Pakistan.

But such are the pressures of modern cricket 8212; and expedient journalism 8212; that among the first callers to scribes after Ganguly dropped out was a person from India connected with his commercial endorsements. He wanted to know how bad the injury really was and moaned about the business implications of their mascot not playing 8212; and therefore not being on television.

In the event, Ganguly was hardly missed yesterday as the unsung Robin Singh stepped up to the crease and bowled and batted competently, though his stand-in S Ramesh muffed the chance to cement his place in the team.

The Pakistanisturned out to be more wildcats than tigers. There are some, including former Indian skipper Kapil Dev, who feel religion is a uniting factor in the Pakistani team. Far from it. Their onfield animosity towards each other became more and more visible as the game wore on and the nerves frayed.

As Viv Richards said, when the going gets tough, the Pakistanis go to pieces.

Skipper Wasim Akram, who has led his side brilliantly, visibly lost his cool several times, once against keeper Moin Khan. According to one account, the strain of captaincy is beginning to show on Wasim and there have been plenty of fireworks in the Pakistani dressing room.

After the game against South Africa, Wasim singled out his fast bowling protege Shoaib for his loose final spell when he got creamed by Lance Klusener. Then there is residual ill will involving Salim Malik, Saeed Anwar, and Waqar Younis.

A visibly subdued Shoaib was definitely below par against India, his fastest ball touching only 93 mph, while bowling consistentlyonly in the mid-80s. Nawaz had earlier predicted that Shoaib would break the 100mph, and the game against India would be where he could go flat out.

Still, Pakistan employed its usual bag of tricks to unsettle its normally feckless opponent. Apart from the usual rotation of substitutes to protect slouches like Inzamam, who goes off the field at the first opportune moment, they came up with a new one yesterday.

Soon after Moin Khan was dismissed following a threatening partnership with Inzamam, he was back on the field as a runner for the next man in, Abdul Razzaq, who had a slight hamstring injury.

Apart from being a motormouth and a swift runner 8212; the start he took while Razzaq was batting made the run even shorter 8212; the value of keeping the last man out in the field was considerable. The Indians, who could have insisted on a different runner, did not.

But some sides have now wised up to old Pak tricks. The South Africans, no less resourceful an opponent, asked for a ball change between the 40thand 45th over to neutralise the work8217; the Pakistanis have done on the ball to get it to reverse swing.