India unplugged in final

He8217;s moved on in life, and probably enjoys his round of golf at the nearby Poona Club.

He8217;s moved on in life, and probably enjoys his round of golf at the nearby Poona Club. But they remember him here in Dhaka 8212; that left-handed slasher Hrishikesh Kanitkar, whose last-ball hit to the fence gave India the Independence Cup and the moment closest to an Indian retort to that nightmare called Miandad.

Ten years on, another of Kanitkar8217;s southpaw team-mates that fading night 8212; Robin Singh, now India8217;s fielding coach 8212; would have shrugged his shoulders as the familiar target 8212; 316 8212; flashed on the giant-screen at Mirpur.

But India never got it right on the day, as Pakistan fought back gamely from the corner they were pushed into, to win the tri-series final by 25 runs.

Board secretary Niranjan Shah, present here on Saturday, can shoot off one stinging mail to the Indians, like Naseem Ashraf did to famously fire Pakistan8217;s will, but Dhoni would rather be left alone to go back to the drawing board or the practice nets to sort out India8217;s chasing woes.

Shoaib gets it right

Earlier, publicly rebuked for his general inefficiency, Shoaib Malik got the basics right. Once he8217;d won the toss, he could sit back and watch as Salman Butt and Younis Khan lit up the middle overs of the one-dayer, generally dubbed the dullest in the 50-over format, with a sustained attack. Pathan and Chawla bore the brunt, and there was little to do for the fielders, save keep their chins up, as Pakistan cranked up 315 in front of a crowd, on this day, earnestly behind Pakistan.

There was a precedent for chasing down 316, and Dhaka has vivid memories of that. But India8217;s catch-up faltered early on when Sehwag was sent back. Gambhir looked in supreme touch, carrying on from the other day, till his upper-cut didn8217;t get enough distance and landed in the hands of backward point on 40. Rohit Sharma and Raina could manage a pair of 20s, and Yusuf Pathan looked like he needed time to settle down into the national squad even as captain Dhoni held fort to finish with 64.

Chins up

Ordinarily, India8217;s chase tends to to nosedive once the openers are back in the pavilion when confronted with such 300-plus situations. But today, there was hope right until Piyush Chawla left 8212; and he left as the tenth man.

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The stage, at one point, was set for MS Dhoni and Irfan Pathan 8212; fresh from a T20 season 8212; to apply what they8217;d learnt over this summer. 81 off 60 balls was commonplace in those heady days of compact action.

But international games spread over 50 long overs are a far more challenging proposition. There were other T20 thoughts as well: For example, did the thought of avenging Chennai8217;s title-loss by smacking around Sohail Tanvir of the Rajasthan Royals ever cross Dhoni8217;s mind?

The two sides meet again in the Asia Cup, and the Indians 8212; a tad relaxed, if not downright complacent going into this final 8212; will have reasons to be fired up.