Pak krumbled

Pakistan spent all of Wednesday delaying the inevitable, India are tingling to a novel sensation. The day began with a first-ball wicket and...

Pakistan spent all of Wednesday delaying the inevitable, India are tingling to a novel sensation. The day began with a first-ball wicket and at close of play Pakistan8217;s last men are standing just a dismissal away from their first home defeat to India in 50 years of chequered engagement.

In the past four days this lifeless track has separated the long-distance runners from the sprinters. Anil Kumble has extracted eight wickets thus far. But even as he anticipates a 8216;8216;historic win8217;8217;, he admits that the pitch remains as placid as it has been. 8216;8216;Whatever we have achieved is thanks to the huge score put up by Indian batsmen8217;8217;, he said later. 8216;8216;This built up enormous pressure on the opposition. The wicket is still the same.8217;8217;

As Kumble says, much of this match was won in the first five sessions. Between them, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar gave India 503 runs. Ever since they were put in to bat, Pakistan8217;s batsmen have tried too hard to catch up with India.

Indian batsmen waited for bowlers to hand them loose deliveries; Indian bowlers waited for batsmen to make mistakes. In those contrasting approaches can be discerned the tumble of Pakistan wickets today.

The day began with a celebration for India. Abdul Razzaq gloved a rising Irfan Pathan delivery to the keeper. The tail thereupon wagged for 80 minutes and 43 runs, fetching Tendulkar, a surprise opening partner to Pathan, his second wicket of the match, Shoaib Akhtar caught and bowled.

Interesting aside: in this match of copious records and curious patterns, Sachin the bowler troubled Shoaib the batsman much more than Shoaib the bowler troubled Sachin the batsman.

Once stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid asked Pakistan, still 268 runs short of India8217;s first innings total of 675, to follow on, the collapse came fast and thick. Never mind that India had already been rendered a pacer short, with Zaheer Khan retiring to the massage table with a strained leg muscle, having bowled just a single over.

Story continues below this ad

Dravid shuffled his pack furiously, never giving the hosts time to settle down, to get too comfortable with his bowlers8217; rhythm on this unaccommodating wicket.

It paid off. Sehwag and Tendulkar honoured this unspectacular track by holding back the fireworks, by expunging extravagant shots from their list of options and surrendering to common sense cricket. In Pakistan8217;s second innings, Kumble showed that he had learnt well from them. Instead of being too ambitious or attempting too many variations, the Karnataka leg-spinner just kept coming at the batsmen, disciplined and within himself. And wickets just kept tumbling.

8216;8216;Fielding is the easiest way to judge the motivation level of a team8217;8217;, coach John Wright said on match eve. Today he must have detected inspiration streaming off his fielders8217; faces in the hot south Punjab sun. Aakash Chopra took a blinder of a reflex catch to bundle off Razzaq in the second innings. Yuvraj Singh, at short mid-wicket, fired that ball back to catch Inzamam-ul Haq short of his crease.

Multan has a tradition of heroic salvage operations remember Alexander the Great too was almost felled here by a local spear. Last year Inzamam staved off defeat to Bangladesh by escorting his number 11 bat to the finishing line. Today Yousuf Youhana remains unbeaten on 107. He has prepared for tomorrow by taking a single on the second last ball of the day, counting on Shabbir Ahmed to fend off a Sachin delivery so that he takes first strike in the morning.

Story continues below this ad

But failing the most gritty number 11 performance in Test match history or a freak downpour in this parched landscape, saving the game appears impossible.

This has been a match studded with Indian milestones, it has been rife with rumour and controversy. But the most cherished memory of these Multan days will be that they unfolded so amicably, that they held the hope that cricket8217;s keenest rivalry has been irrigated. The rivalry has had too many droughts. It would not be too optimistic to say that this time it could be different.