Pak two good, India one short

Although Tendulkar had dropped down the order to accommodate VVS Laxman, this excellent delivery made a mess not only of the stumps, but also the classic theory that a class batsman should try to avoid facing the new ball, “in case he gets a good one”.

The Indian innings was built around a persevering Sourav Ganguly and then the unfashionable, but effective Robin Singh. Ganguly struggled early when the Pakistan pacemendenied him any deliveries to drive, but his patience looked as though it might bring him the breakthrough big score he seeks in Australia, until he was deceived by a good change of pace by Akhtar.

Robin is a determined player and makes a lot of his runs when they are desperately needed. Judging by the way the Indian middle-order crumbled during the Test series, the selectors could do worse than consider his combative methods for the longer game as well.

The Indian batting may have been a bit shoddy, but the bowling was right up to the mark. Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar further cemented their liaison, both making early inroads into the fragile Pakistan top order. Agarkar has tightened his line and length in Australia and he also enjoys the bounce in the pitches. His ability to swing the ball away from the right-handers has netted him a few leg before decisions this summer and he fooled Inzamam ul-Haq with a good off-cutter that trapped him not playing a shot.

Srinath has specialised in making anearly breakthrough on this tour and he added to other great scalps in getting Saeed Anwar and the dangerous Moin Khan. Srinath did beat Moin for pace and he slightly mistimed the pull shot, hitting it near the splice, but Rahul Dravid displayed amazing reflexes to drag in the catch fielding only a few metres from the bat.

Pakistan is going to run into this sort of determined effort a lot during the series, because both opponents know their top order batting is so fragile that any total around two hundred is going to be competitive.

Coach Intikhab Alam is convinced that the problem is caused by not playing off the back foot enough and he’s probably right, but that is not the sort of technical change that can be made overnight.

Youhana was the one batsman who benefited from the coach’s advice and he played a mixture of well-timed shots and wristy placements to get Pakistan close to India’s total, but it was left to the bowlers to apply the finishing touches.

Scoreboard
India: V V SLaxman c Afridi b Younis 9, S Ganguly b Shoaib 61, R Dravid c Moin b Shoaib 8, S Tendulkar b Razzaq 13, H Kanitkar c Moin b Saqlain 0, R Singh c Younis b Saqlain 50, S Dighe lbw b Shoaib 6, A Kumble run out 16, A Agarkar run out 2, J Srinath b Akram 0, V Prasad not out 0; Extras (b1, lb8, w14, nb7) 30.
Total 195.
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-50, 3-76, 4-77, 5-143, 6-150, 7-186, 8-194, 9-195
Bowling: Akram 9.5-1-45-1, Younis 8-0-30-1, Razzaq 8-1-31-1, Shoaib 8-1-19-3, Saqlain 9-0-35-0, Afridi 6-0-26-0. Pakistan: Saeed Anwar c Singh b Srinath 24, Shahid Afridi c Laxman b Srinath 0, Ijaz Ahmed lbw Agarkar 13, Inzamam-ul-haq lbw b Agarkar 4, Yousuf Youhana c Dighe b Srinath 63, Abdur Razzaq lbw Kumble 6, Moin Khan c Dravid b Srinath 3, Wasim Akram b Ganguly 24, Saqlain Mushtaq not out 27, Waqar Younis not out 13; Extras (b1 lb9 nb3 w6) 19.
Total (for eight wickets, 49 overs) 196
Fall of wickets: 1-7 2-36 3-42 4-55 5-64 6-71 7-120 8-153
Did not bat:Shoaib Akhtar
Bowling: Srinath 10-0-49-4 (nb1 w2), Agarkar 10-0-39-2 (nb1 w2), Prasad 10-2-27-0 (w1), Kumble 10-0-35-1 (w1), Ganguly 6-1-26-1 (nb1), Robin Singh 3-0-10-0.
Result: Pakistan won by two wickets