Pace-a-war

While comparing the two teams, Wright said, 8216;8216;Pakistan have a different team balance than us. They can play three quicks and Abdul Razzaq. Ours is a slightly different composition.8217;8217;

Wright was spot on in his observation, for it was only the Pakistani depth and better balance 8212; brought about by the two established all-rounders Razzaq and Moin Khan 8212; which helped them overcome mid-innings jitters and allowed them to chase down India8217;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 Yuvraj8217;s fighting 50 and Irfan8217;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 Hameed8217;s progress.

Hameed deserved his 100, but the local lad was visibly happy to have helped the team8217;s cause. 8216;8216;The team won and I am happy about that. There was pressure on me, but international cricket is tough,8217;8217; said the confident Pakistani opener.

Hameed deserves all the credit for succeeding where the other batsmen 8212; from either side 8212; 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 8212; happily, in some senses 8212; but the Indians didn8217;t have replies to give. Shabbir Ahmed 8212; under fire over the last one month 8212; 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 8212; batting at number five for no specified or fathomable reason 8212; 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 didn8217;t, and Razzaq had the last laugh.

Dravid hung around for a while but did not push the scoring along. Kaif didn8217;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 8216;8216;hard work has paid off8217;8217;. 8216;8216;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,8217;8217; the coach said.

Focus now shifts to Lahore, where things might again go back to being like Karachi and Rawalpindi; a batsman8217;s paradise.