Miandad mad with Inzy; Kapil’s dressing down helps India

Two balls, and two mistakes, completely turned Pakistan’s innings in the Coca Cola Cup day-nighter against India. And, poor Inzamam couldn’t avoid taking his share of the blame. Pakistan seemed to have gotten over the early jitters, and at 108 for three in 29th over, were hoping for a fighting total. But, in the end, the Pakistan innings finished at a humble 146, not even lasting the full 50 overs.

Sin One: Yousuf Youhana plays the ball down to short covers and darts down the wicket, but Indian wicketkeeper Saba Karim picks up the ball and throws down the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Funnily, both batsmen, Youhana and Inzamam, are running towards that end only, and are short of the crease. The umpire says not out, the crowd goes wild, it’s referred to the third umpire and Youhana is rightly given the marching orders.

Sin Two: A clearly perturbed Inzamam tries a casual push and snicks Robin Singh to Karim, on the very next delivery. Result: An obviously nervous newcomer Younis Khan survived two balls before going back to Anil Kumble’s googly and having his stumps shattered.

After this, the Pakistan dressing room just panicked, allowing the Indian bowlers, surprisingly razor sharp today, to get a tight grip on the match and give their batsmen a clear advantage later on.

If the Indian batsmen were at the receiving end yesterday, their bowlers did well to pick up the South African bowlers’ formula of sticking to line and length. It probably had something do with the dressing down coach Kapil Dev gave to the boys, after a reckless performance yesterday. The Indians dropped a bombshell by ‘dropping’ Javagal Srinath, clearly struggling with his bowling. However, the team management tried to be a little courteous to the speedster by officially citing the resaon for his not being there as a `groin injury’.

His replacement Venkatesh Prasad was superb, as was the other seamer Ajit Agarkar. Their picking up early wickets allowed spinners Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi, by far the most outstanding bowler on view, to be aggressive and they could flight the ball fearleslly.

And, like the Indians yesterday, the Pakistani batsmen were guilty of trying to hit the cover of the ball without even getting used to the pace of the wicket.

Shahid Afridi didn’t even wait for a ball, going for a first-ball slash to be caught in the slips. Pinch-hitter Abdur Razzaq, still in shock over the demise of his father two days ago, was impetuous and paid a heavy price for that.

Young Imran Nazir was impressive though, playing his strokes with unflinching ease. Once he stepped out to loft Kumble into the stands while a couple of his straight drives gave ample demonstationd of his potential. He and Inzamam were on course for a big partnership, when Joshi produced anexcellent one, beating Nazir in the air to castle him.

After that, the Pakistanis crumbled like cookies.

PAKISTAN
Imran Nazir b Joshi (51b, 5×4, 1×6) 43
Shahid Afridi c Azhar b Prasad (1b) 0
Abdur Razzaq c Jadeja b Agarkar (7b) 2
Inzamam-ul-Haq c Karim b Robin (77b, 3×4) 41
Yousuf Youhana run out (36b, 1×4) 17
Younis Khan b Kumble (2b) 0
Moin Khan lbw Joshi (33b) 14
Wasim Akram b Prasad (27b, 1×4, 1×6) 10
Waqar Younis run out (4b) 0
Arshad Khan b Kumble (9b) 1
Shoab Akhtar not out (26b, 1×4) 9
Extras (nb1, w4, lb4) 9
Total (all out in 45.3 overs) 146
Fal of wickets: 1-1 (Afridi), 2-5 (Razzaq), 3-62 (Nazir), 4-108 (Youhana), 5-108 (Inzamam), 6-110 (Younis), 7-127 (Akram), 8-128 (Waqar), 9-131 (Arshad)

Bowling:Ajit Agarkar 8-1-31-1, Venkatesh Prasad 10-0-29-2, Anil Kumble 10-4-26-2, Sunil Joshi 9.3-1-29-2, Sachin Tendulkar 4-0-21-0, Robin Singh 4-0-6-1