India take a tumble

Akhtar’s figures for the day read 16-3-70-2, Mohammed Asif’s 19.1-3-10-2, but the scoreboard doesn’t describe what the Indians went through. Akhtar bowled as well as he ever has against India, an array of short-pitched deliveries — the odd screaming yorker for good measure — that whistled through the air and rearing up to anywhere between chest- and helmet-height.

They were pitched neatly on the line of the off-stump, the swing keeping the batsman waiting till the last moment.

Shoaib’s sheer speed — most at 140+ kmph, a few above 150 — left the batsmen little time to play, gather oneself and prepare for the next ball. Faster than the eye could flick.

Back in the dressing room, every player who went out to bat would enquire of the one who returned: ‘‘What’s the speed like?’’ It was a rhetorical question; the answer was evident even from several hundred yards away.

Yet scoring was not impossible. One Indian player explained: ‘‘You cannot help but score against somebody like him. He comes at you with such speed that if you play a stroke you’ll either score or get out. You can’t defend against him.’’

Ganguly and Yuvraj, the overnight pair, had done their homework, planning what they were going to do out in the middle and doing exactly that. Both looked composed, Ganguly especially batting as if he had almost perfected the art of letting go of anything that looked dangerous.

Most of his 34 runs came square or behind the wicket, there was nothing the bowlers could lure him into. The one mistake he made — pulling Razzaq, his weakest shot — saw him out.

That’s all it takes in this match of fine margins.

‘‘The important thing is that they (Pak bowlers) did not experiment too much with the ball and maintained a good line,’’ said coach Bob Woolmer, with a word of praise for the young Asif, who picked up four wickets.

The rookie’s job was made easier, of course, by the fact that Shoaib was softening up the batsmen, and he acknowledged as much. ‘‘It helps to have somebody like him bowling at the other end. He leaves the batsman in such discomfort that it automatically helps the partnering bowler to try and look for a wicket.’’

After the day’s play, the Indians exited the stadium in silence, refusing to interact with the media. They know they have a mountain to climb now. The pitch may be getting easier by the minute but facing Akhtar and Asif — and Kaneria lurking in the shadows — in the fourth innings is a daunting proposition.

First, though, they have to ensure that the Yo-Yo — the current pair at the crease — doesn’t swing the game too much in Pakistan’s favour.