Tondulkar!

It is an irony of sorts that two of the best centuries made in the one-day game were made by batsmen on the losing side, Inzamam at Karachi ...

It is an irony of sorts that two of the best centuries made in the one-day game were made by batsmen on the losing side, Inzamam at Karachi and Sachin Tendulkar at Rawalpindi. A case of love8217;s labour lost? Tendulkar became the first Indian batsman to make a hundred on Pakistani soil. Dravid had come perilously close at Karachi but was it written in the stars that the honour belonged to Tendulkar as a matter of some divine right?

We knew in Pakistan that sooner or later Sachin Tendulkar would make an impact on the series. As they say, you can8217;t keep a good man down. If Sachin had been somewhat apprehensive at Karachi, he is human after all, he was the master at Rawalpindi, the piper who made the bowlers dance to his tune.

It was not so much a dazzling innings as a measured one. He paced his innings, no great hurry but he never got bogged down and never played and missed. When India started its innings, the asking-rate was 6.6. It was a good batting wicket, perhaps, too good but it was a slow wicket and the odd ball kept low.

How well Tendulkar read it and he made adjustments and made himself at home. If India had to come even close to Pakistan8217;s 329, it needed Tendulkar at his best and that it was such a tight match in the end was entirely due to his starring role.

It would appear that a score of 300 is just about par for the course. This is partly because the wickets are so good but also due to the fact that the batting of both teams is formidable and the bowling not enough even for nourishment, leave alone joy. India is missing Anil Kumble very badly and Pakistan may have Shoaib Akhtar but they lack a quality spinner 8212; Saqlain Mushtaq seems to be sulking, still in search of elusive form.

There is bad news for Ashish Nehra. He has injured his hand and will be out of action for about a week. He looked to be India8217;s best bowler, his 3 for 44 commendable on its own but not doing justice to just how well he bowled. He compensated for a wayward Zaheer Khan, whose body-language suggests that he is low on confidence. He gave 72 runs in his seven overs; he is a better bowler than that but Murphy8217;s Law is operating in his case 8212; if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Pakistan finally took the bit between its teeth and played Shahid Afridi. He did not let them down. It was not a swashbuckling innings but he did manage to make 80 runs off only 58 balls and between him and a more sedate Yasir Hamid put on 138 runs for the first wicket, which provided the platform for Pakistan8217;s big score.

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One can8217;t help feeling that Inzamam got his batting order wrong. Surely Abdul Razzak should have got a promotion. Instead, he was demoted but still managed to blast 31 runs of 18 deliveries.

Once again, the crowd was magnificent and one expects that the standing ovation that Sachin Tendular got when he reached his hundred must still be ringing in his ears. He would have had to pinch himself to believe that he was Rawalpindi not his beloved Mumbai. The tour is going well. Going into the third ODI at Peshawar, the series is tied at one all. The matches have been so close, they should carry a health warning: watching the cricket can give you heart failure

The security has been tight but not intrusive and, though Big Brother may be watching the cricket fans through closed circuit television cameras, it has not stopped the fans from having fun and a carnival-like atmosphere prevails. It must be said too that matches have been played in the spirit of the game and Rajan Madugalle, the match referee, hasn8217;t had much to do besides docking the teams for slow over-rates.

If Karachi was a great match so too was the one in Rawalpindi. Neither side has deserved to lose but each team has won a game each so that one can say that justice is being done in its own way.