It was a typical Anil Kumble response to a missed chance — head thrown backwards, eyes in a squint and facial muscles tightened — emotions oscillating between anger and desperation. Wasim Jaffer is usually a safe pair of hands — except for that particular delivery when he failed to cling on to a routine sharp catch at short-leg off his skipper’s bowling. Misbah-ul-Haq had just walked in late at No 7 and scored only a single. More importantly, the fifth wicket had fallen a run before at 161; three had collapsed in the space of 13 runs, and the pressure of another could have blown the lid off Pakistan.Three days of this Test match had seen four twists in the script already, but the dropped catch could well remain the turning point of this first Test. Within the 34 balls he faced till stumps were drawn, Misbah had smashed two over wide long-on ropes from Harbhajan, hit one along the ground off Anil Kumble to make a personal contribution of 29 and looking eager to add to the 51-run sixth wicket partnership with Kamran Akmal.The more threatening statistic than the present Pakistan surplus of 167 runs on Saturday evening is 190. That is the maximum India have ever chased successfully batting fourth at the Ferozeshah Kotla — and seven years have passed since that Test against Zimbabwe.Few are willing to even look at West Indies’ 276 record run chase in 1987-88, and also because this Pakistan attack is certainly more potent.Just how much this Indian batting card will have to deliver will be in inverse relation to the success rate of their bowlers tomorrow. Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan’s spells looked a touch flat with the new ball with no lateral offer from the wicket. Harbhajan Singh gave a responsible helping hand by scalping Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik in quick succession towards the last session to put brakes on the momentum, but cannot afford an off-day on Sunday.The spinners need to play a pivotal role and Kumble will have to lead the way again, just as he did in his 14-over long third spell to get rid of Younis Khan and Salman Butt with varying deliveries. Butt kept driving Kumble against the turn this afternoon, and eventually the risk factor in those cover-drives surfaced. An edge flew into safe hands of Rahul Dravid at first slip. But going by his shot selection in that innings of 67, the dismissal came rather tamely. Butt learnt from the mistakes of his brief previous stay in this match and presented the vertical bat this time around.With the pitch playing at its best, and the ball coming on nicely when operated upon by seamers, Butt waited for the Indian bowlers to try something different, and he maximised the errors that transpired. The left-handed opener reached his half-century off 115 balls with eight boundaries before he became Kumble’s third wicket in the Pakistan second innings — the leg-spinner had also sent back Hameed with the help of VVS Laxman at silly point to break open the opening partnership just after lunch. The openers had coasted past their marginal deficit of 45 runs.The paucity of runs in the bank came through Danish Kaneria’s three-wicket burst this morning to add to his one overnight, but VVS Laxman needs to take the principal blame if India could manage only 276, and last only 14.4 overs on the third day morning.Laxman’s unbeaten 72 was not just ten short of the best batting effort shown by Misbah in this Test, but also lagged behind in taking on responsibility in crunch time. Laxman was content in taking the singles and giving the strike even after Kumble, the other overnight and more organised looking batsman in the tail, was dismissed. Laxman played just six deliveries after Kumble’s exit, while he saw from the other end, the Indian innings folding up in 20 balls.On the contrary, Misbah, in the first innings, had shown how to bide time at the crease and graft runs. Indians have failed to learn their first lesson with the bat from Misbah, and can only hope that he doesn’t teach them one too many when he returns to the crease tomorrow.ScoreboardPakistan 1st innings 231India 1st innings: (overnight 228/6)V Laxman not out 72A Kumble c Younis b Kaneria 24Harbhajan Singh b Tanvir 1Z Khan c Akhtar b Kaneria 9M Patel lbw b Kaneria 0Extras (b11, lb8, nb5, w1) 25Total (all out, 78.4 overs) 276Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-71, 3-73, 4-88, 5-93, 6-208, 7-262, 8-263, 9-276Bowling: Akhtar 16-2-44-2, Tanveer 24-5-83-3, Sami 17-1-71-0, Kaneria 21.4-3-59-4. Pakistan 2nd innings:S Butt c Dravid b Kumble 67Y Hameed c Laxman b Kumble36Younis Khan lbw b Kumble 23M Yousuf c and b Harbhajan 18Shoaib Malik b Harbhajan 11Kamran Akmal not out 21Misbah-ul-Haq not out 29Extras (lb6, nb1) 7Total (5 wkts, 65.5 overs) 212Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-114, 3-149, 4-155, 5-161Bowling: Zaheer 11-2-32-0, Patel 9-1-48-0, Kumble 20.5-7-55-3, Ganguly 8-2-16-0, Harbhajan 15-4-51-2, Tendulkar 2-0-4-0Day III data: Salman on-song • Salman Butt scored his highest ever score against India by making 67 off 140 balls with 11 fours in Pakistan’s second innings in the first Test match at the Kotla. The left hand opening batsman’s previous best against India was 53 at Karachi in 2005-06• It was his second half century in nine innings from five Test matches against India• Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed added 71 runs in 25.1 overs for the opening wicket which is Pakistan’s highest opening stand in 21 innings of 11 away Test matches• Anil Kumble took four wickets for 38 runs in Pakistan’s first innings. It was for first time in his career that Kumble has ‘bowled’ all of his victims in an innings. For the record, he had bowled five out of six in South Africa’s second innings at Johannesburg in 1992-93• The champion leg spinner also set an Indian record of most ‘bowled’ victim in Test cricket by bowling out Shoaib Akhtar. It was his 90th ‘bowled’ victim in 119 Test matches —S Pervez Qaiser
