Tags:
Journalism of Courage
GWALIOR, JAN 23: The cameras finally turned away from the sten guns towards the 22-yard strip bang in the middle of the Roop Singh Stadium here. A 24-year-old Pakistani Christian, Yousuf Youhanna, then ensured that they stayed that way for the rest of the day with an impeccable 124. As Pakistan took off smoothly today on this historic Indian tour, India’s junior talent were given a fair idea of what their seniors will run into in the days to come.
Declaring his intentions very clearly at 334 for six in just 70.5 overs, Wasim Akram gave the Indian selectors a fresh headache by bouncing out Test-openers-to-be S Ramesh and V V S Laxman in 35 minutes. At close of the opening day of this three-day tie, left-hander Amay Khurasia and Debang Gandhi were holding fort for India A at 63 for two.
For the fascinated crowd here, there was that extra bit to talk about in the way Inzamam batted and the manner in which he fell two runs short of a century. The Pakistanis believed that the burly bat had reached his 100 –as one of the two manual scoreboards indicated — with a savage swing off Dodda Ganesh to the mid-wicket fence. Inzamam immediately ambled back to the pavilion as Akram declared the innings. Unfortunately, that particular scoreboard turned out to two runs faster than the official tally and Inzamam was left hanging. Why the Pakistani think-tank failed to notice the disparity in the two scoreboards will remain a mystery.
That incident, and the early return of openers Saeed Anwar and rookie Wajahatullah Wasti, might keep the Pakistan tour management a bit busy tonight. But the India A brainstrust has much more on hand. Their bowlers, save Harbhajan Singh to an extent, were a complete disappointment and never looked to be in the wicket-taking mode.
Sanghvi just didn’t have the sting, Ganesh dropped the ball a couple of yards shorter than where he should have and Laxmi Rattan Shukla’s medium pace failed to match his aggressive body language. There was just that second ball of the day from Ganesh which deserveda wicket and got it via Anwar’s edge to second slip. The rival batsmen had to be thanked for the rest of their rewards; Wajahatullah mis-hooked a ball from outside the off-stump, Malik went for an airy on-drive and Youhanna stood up on his toes for a square drive when he had no reason to touch the ball.
SCOREBOARD
Pakistan: Saeed Anwar c Laxman b Ganesh 0, Wajahatullah Wasti c Khurasia b Shukla 0, Yousuf Youhanna c Jacob b Shukla 124, Salim Malik c Kotak b Harbhajan 36, Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 98, Moin Khan c&b Ganesh 5, Wasim Akram c Ramesh 40, Shoaib Akhtar not out 0; Extras (19nb, 1w, 5lb, 6b): 21. Total (decl. for 6 wickets, 70.5 overs): 334
Fall Of Wickets: 1-1, 2-23, 3-126, 4-203, 5-219.
Bowling: Ganesh 17.5-3-67-2, Shukla 16-2-89-2, Sanghvi 14-3-67-0, Harbhajan 31-4-86-2, Laxman 2-0-14-0.
India A: V V S Laxman c Wasti b Akram 2, S Ramesh c Moin b Akram 17, Debang Gandhi batting 14, Amay Khurasia batting 21; Extras (5nb, 4b): 9. Total (for 2 wkts, 15overs): 63.
Fall Of Wickets: 1-10, 2-31.
Bowling: Akram 5-1-22-2, Waqar 3-0-15-0, Akhtar 3-0-16-0, Saqlain 3-1-3-0, Mushtaq 1-0-7-0.
