Scorecard

The formalities were over… India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets. To me it was a boring test match with very ordinary cricket played. The score line indicates a tough contest and yes, it was tough for both teams but I am generally disappointed by the quality of cricket played. There were flashes of brilliance in every department but was also lost in very ordinary batting from both the sides. At the end of the day, India came through because they had a better batting line-up than Pakistan and the difference looking at the performances were only marginal.

Sachin and Ganguly resumed the day to knock off the 30-odd runs required. Shoaib Akhtar who was good through out this tour bounced Ganguly out for 48. The Pakistani bowlers decided to try and bounce them out or maybe even hurt them as a parting shot but Sachin quite nicely hooked and pulled to reach his fifty and ended the match on 56 with a boundary. Anil Kumble picked up the man-of-the match award… he might even consider buying this ground :), for everything good in his cricket career has happened at the kotla.

Pakistan may feel better looking forward to the fact that Umar Gul will be fit for the next match and add to their pace firepower. Gul has remarkably improved his fitness over the years and is one of those really rare bowlers who have actually started bowling consistently faster than what he used to earlier. Hopefully, Mohammed Asif would have recovered by then and add to their firepower, because Pakistan could actually look to strengthen the bowling power to compensate for the lack of depth in their batting line-up. Besides, if Shoaib Akhtar breaks down, it would spell huge trouble for Pakistan.

Pakistan’s batting woes is clearly on the form of Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan. They both are actually in good nick but then even the greats of the game have to go through passages of ordinary play. The fortunes of posting a good score heavily revolve around these two and so far, the rest of the young but talented line-up has not shown enough promise. But a couple of good knocks by these two can put Pakistan into the game by a long way.

India must also be worried by the form of their batting line-up. Karthik’s technique just isn’t the one an opener should use. He may be useful in the middle-order and he won’t quite be able to dislodge Yuvraj waiting in the wings. But he is a hard-working and a fighter who gives it all for his cricket. Perhaps, we should give him some more lead time before every fan jumps to conclusions on baying for his head. I have always been impressed with Wasim Jaffer, solid as ever. This was one match where he played quite positively and for the time I realized that he actually has a good variety of stroke play. Like him, Rahul Dravid was good and did not carry on to post any sizeable score, after those good starts. But he is looking good and there don’t seem to be any worry as such in the number 3 slot.

India may now strongly feel as favourites for this test series unless Pakistan springs back a strong surprise, which they are capable of doing. But I can see it happening only with the 2 Ys come good.