Pace-a-war

While comparing the two teams, Wright said, ‘‘Pakistan have a different team balance than us. They can play three quicks and Abdul Razzaq. Ours is a slightly different composition.’’

Wright was spot on in his observation, for it was only the Pakistani depth and better balance — brought about by the two established all-rounders Razzaq and Moin Khan — which helped them overcome mid-innings jitters and allowed them to chase down India’s score of 244 for 9. At two stages of the match Pakistan were in trouble, at 65-4 and then at 173-6, but their superior batting depth helped them clamber out of the holes.

For the Indians, on the other hand, the only talking points were Yuvraj’s fighting 50 and Irfan’s first spell.

When the Pakistanis chased, Razzaq and Moin worked on the foundation laid by Yasir Hameed, who continues to create waves in his very first international year. Hameed shouldered the burden of the team with a splendid 98 when it was struggling in the face of a collapse and captain Inzamam provided the right mix of brick and mortar to help Hameed’s progress.

Hameed deserved his 100, but the local lad was visibly happy to have helped the team’s cause. ‘‘The team won and I am happy about that. There was pressure on me, but international cricket is tough,’’ said the confident Pakistani opener.

Hameed deserves all the credit for succeeding where the other batsmen — from either side — failed royally. He applied himself better than the Indian stalwarts in the morning, who refused to rough it out in the tricky first hour of play. The ball did most of the talking — happily, in some senses — but the Indians didn’t have replies to give. Shabbir Ahmed — under fire over the last one month — used his height to good effect as he exploited the grass on the track and doubts in the minds of the visitors.

The top three of the order was back at 37, and none of the Indians seemed to have the stomach for a fight. Till Ganguly — batting at number five for no specified or fathomable reason — came and decided to fight fire with fire. He succeeded to some extent as he struck a few fine boundaries and a superb pulled six off Razzaq, but it never looked like it was going to last. It didn’t, and Razzaq had the last laugh.

Dravid hung around for a while but did not push the scoring along. Kaif didn’t even hang around. But Yuvraj stepped on the accelerator with new-found batting hero Balaji, who again shaped up well. Pathan too stuck it out for a bit.

All this went down well with Wright, who noted with satisfaction that ‘‘hard work has paid off’’. ‘‘The tail is finally contributing. We have worked a lot on it. Pathan, Balaji and Powar earlier have done well with the bat, and that is a very good sign,’’ the coach said.

Focus now shifts to Lahore, where things might again go back to being like Karachi and Rawalpindi; a batsman’s paradise.