Indians bowlers put it across Pakistan

At least, four of the Pakistani top six played across the line to make a pitch with uneven bounce look all the more dangerous as India squirmed their way out of the wedge they had got into yesterday. Azhar’s men may have even started dreaming of a fantastic win with three more days on their side to work on a crucial 80-runs first innings lead.

Looking back on a chilly morning, nobody — definitely not the Pakistanis — would have dreamt of such a script as Anwar and Afridi walked into bat after the Indian tail’s guest appearance. The Pakistani dressing room was not too rattled when Anwar fell six minutes later — the man who wanted 300 in India had not even totalled 50 till then. Soon, Miandad had a smile on his face as Ijaz turned Prasad to the square leg fence and Afridi smashed Srinath to long off.

The Indian shoulders were beginning to droop by now as Afridi welcomed Kumble with a huge six off his first ball and closed that over with another to long off. Was Chennai’s hero going for a repeat? The answer, unfortunately for Pakistan, came in the next over from Harbhajan Singh.

In walked Inzamam and, five balls later, out walked Ijaz. The Pakistani procession had begun. Held up for a brief while as Malik and Inzamam cut down the risks and played for their lives, the march began again down the line in the form of five wickets and ended within the last 38 runs and 19.3 overs.

Miandad recovered from shellshock for a while when Laxman came back in 20 minutes to make it look as if the Indians would walk the Pakistani road. But Dravid and Ramesh decided otherwise and closed out play without any damage even as the Chennai left-hander picked up four sweetly timed boundaries to rub it in for Pakistan.

Then, as the eventful day came to an end, the focus shifted to the state of the pitch and real might of Pakistan’s batting line-up. The 22-yard strip had come in for lot of flak from the expert commentators here yesterday. There was even talk, the surface will crack by the end of the third day. Today, the soothsayers could afford a smile as the odd ball did keep low to plant an element of doubt in the Pakistani batsmen’s mind, almost all of whom are natural stroke players.

But hidden behind all the smoke surrounding the pitch was the fact that the Pakistan line-up had never got it right in this Indian tour till now. It was obvious during their three-day warm-up match in Gwalior and, in Chennai, it got submerged under the sheer weight of Afridi’s brilliant century. Here, after Afridi’s dismissal, their shaky middle was exposed by the Indian attack. Prasad and Srinath struck crucial blows in between as Kumble and Harbhajan worked hard and accurately on the Pakistanis’ lack of touch and the uncertain bounce.

The rewards came in the form of four wickets to Kumble, three to Harbhajan, two to Prasad and one to Srinath. For India, it all added up to a cutting edge on a day that may have decided the fate of this Test.