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First Innings failures cost India the match |
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Written by Akshay
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Thursday, 02 February 2006 |
Although it may seem like Pakistan piling on the runs in the second innings took the game away from India, it was actually much earlier that the match slipped from India's grip.
As captain, Rahul Dravid's game plan on winning the toss would've been : Bowl first to give his bowlers the best conditions in which they can make the ball talk , restrict Pakistan to a low first innings total, bat during the relatively easier batting conditions, take a lead and put pressure on Pakistan in the second innings.
It all seemed to be going according to plan, in fact much beyond expectations, with Pakistan down for the count at 39-6. But then the all too familiar scene, the oppostion lower order adding valuable runs against an attack that has always struggled to clean up the tail. It is no secret that India lack firepower in their pace attack. The three medium pacers chosen in this team are no exception, Pathan relies on swing, Zaheer on seam movement and R.P.Singh on hitting the deck and suprising the batsmen with deceptive movement and bouce. Considering this Dravid would've known the only way his attack could pick up 20 wickets was help from the pitch in the first innings and pressure ( of conceding a first innings lead ) in the second innings. Thus it was all set up, Pakistan were set to be bundled out below 150, India wouldve got a lead and Pakistan would crumble under the pressure of that lead in the second innings. But Kamran Akmal played the innings of his life and a couple of good partnerships with Razzaq and Akhtar rescued Pakistan. Still Dravid wouldve settled for a score of 245 if he was given a choice before the match started. It seemed a decent enough effort with the standout being the hat-trick for Irfan. All India had to do was apply themselves and weather out the stormy spell with the new ball, ofcourse easier said than done, but then a series win away from home was at stake. India faultered and faultered badly, conceding a 7 run lead to Pakistan instead !
Pakistan then had the opportunity which India shouldve had in the first place : pressurize the oppostion with a big total to chase in the last innings. By now the wicket had eased out and the task for the Pak batsmen became easier. This is where the lack of depth in the Indian bowling showed. Nobody looked like picking up a wicket, since the early assistance in terms of seam and swing movement was missing. The bowlers seemed clueless about where the next wicket would come from. It was evident from the fact that all the top seven Pak batsmen got 50s, a record in itself. Anil Kumble the true competitor, alone looked like stopping the flow of runs and picking up the odd wicket but that clearly wasnt enough.
The Indian batting in the second innings also wasn't too flattering but then batting out almost 2 days to save a match and series against any attack would'nt be easy, let alone the Shoaibs and Asifs. Special mention for Mohammed Asif, who I believe was a much superior bowler to Shoaib in this test. Bowling at decent pace, he stuck to the basics of line and length, kept the ball in the corridor of uncertainty, where the batsmen struggled to go forward or back and it paid him rich dividends.
Credit to Pakistan for coming back from 39-6, but in my view Pakistan did not win the match, India lost it.
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