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Deepti Patwardhan, rediff's special correspondent, hosted a chat on how the Lahore match is looking after play on the second day of the first Test. Below is the transcript:
nenu : Hi Deepti, Do you think the track will offer some turn from Day 3?
Deepti : Hi nenu. the track has been offering slow turn from day 1..nothing drastic but Kumble bowled a pretty good spell in the morning today.
ajit : what about indian bowling murdered today
Deepti : Very entertaining batting I'd say...only if it wasn't against India!
ChamanBhai : Deepti i dont think the bowlers would be able to take wickets unless the batsmen throw them away as we have seen in the Pak inns. So do you call this a real contest between the two teams?
Deepti : Its not a contest in any sense. The batsmen have taken over the wicket...but for the brief opening spell from Shoaib Akhtar
sanjay : yes it was a horrendous day but wat is ur opinion for tommorrow
Deepti : Another run-feast. doesnt look like the pitch is going to wake up soon
Tanuj : The pitch has been designed in an unfavourable fashion for the bowlers. The management thinks that cricket can gain popularity and revenue only if teams make runs and not take wickets. This pitch is biased against bowlers I believe.
Deepti : Very true. i think people still believe only big runs can be entertaining and draw crowds to the stadiums..dont think thats true for Test cricket
Laha : why did dravid open the innings instead of ganguly
Deepti : It did look unlikely that Ganguly would open the innings...it would put both India and Ganguly on a tricky wicket
JL : Sure we Ozies would have loved one like that
Deepti : Any batting team would have loved it..dont think it makes for exciting cricket though
usman : my suggestion is to send irfan pathan
Deepti : He's a good option. Good defence and has been in good form with the bat lately.
GAGAN : hI Deepti what are indian prospects now? is it a belter pitch
Deepti : The Test looks like heading for a sure draw unless Kanreria comes up with something special tomorrow
lobo : heyy deepti..about tomorrow morning do u think there needs to be like a period of consolation before our batsmen decide to step on the gas?
Deepti : India is up against a big score..the match would mostly end in a draw but they shdn't take it for granted..they have three whole days to bat..so just try and get themselves some good batting practice rather than trying to accelerate
parmar : hi deepti afradi played really well how will you rate his innings
Deepti : Well? He went ballistic! It was fun to watch..there is a charm to his hit-and-hit batting strategy
mau : Deepti yuou forgot the reverse swing factor.....we still don't know what Pakistan can conjure up in that area...though it looks unlikely from the way our bowlers struggled at it the whole time. Your take?
Deepti : Ya havent seen any reverse swing in the match..despite the fact that both Agarkar and Pathan are good exponents of it. Dont think the Kookaburra ball is going to afford any reverse swing because the seam is not as pronounced
Naj : do u think India lacking an experienced fast bowler?
Deepti : Do we have a genuine fast bowler? Zaheer and Pathan have also dropped their pace..but doesnt look like anything's working on this pitch
Asif : U r not replaying mam, who u is the key player india tomorrow?
Deepti : I am trying my best.As i had said yesterday Dravid and Sehwag will be India's key players tomorrow..more so now because they are opening. They need to give confidence to the batsmen to follow since India's chasing a mountain of a total
vishalkk : deepti, do u think the pitch is gonna be unpredictable on the last 2 days of the match?
Deepti : Maybe the last day..doesnt look like cracking up soon
tt : hi deepti can u pls tell me what was the min score to save fallowon
Deepti : 200 runs difference minimum..so for India it would be 479
Khan : hi deepti what u think regarding the ganguly selection dropping other main opener
Deepti : India has never believed in picking specialist openers
lallu : Hi deepti.At what position is our beloved gangu dada going to bat??
Deepti : Hi. It will be a toss-up between him and Yuvraj at five and six
borivali : will sehwag and another batsmen be able to counter shoiab sami rana kanneria afridi malik
Deepti : Kaneria and afridi are the potential dangers..though India looked a little dodgy against Shoiab and Rana in the beginning they saw off the new-ball well after the early jitters..so its bascially how the spinners would perform tomorrow
vyas : hi deepthi do u think there shud be one more fast bowler in the team?
Deepti : No not here..maybe some other venue where the pitch assists the pacers
Muraleedharan : Hai Deepti, how are you? We seen 4 players of Pakistan made Centuries. Can we expect centuries from our Super Stars like Sehwag, Dravid, Lakhman & Sachin?
Deepti : Hi Mauraleedharan. Am fine. I think it will depend on how India start..but think one of them is going to score a big hundred..my bet is on Sehwag
krikcetkrazy : Deepti !!! please reply ....... what do you think... will sehwag and dravid be able to face of the seamers in the morning... we are yet to see pakistani seamers in the morning .... and we all know how quickly the ball and wicket change once in pakistani hands !!
Deepti : True. the difference in pace between the Indian and Pakistan bowlers was cruelly exposed today. Yes Dravid and Sehwag will have to be pretty cautious..even if the wicket is benign India might lose the battle in the mind if they lose too many wickets in the morning
lallu : I put my money on gangu bhai to score a double hundred.safe bet ....
Deepti : :) why not?
jut : deepti, you r just a journalist, have ever holded a ball in your hand, I am surprised how all these stupids are claering their doubt from u
Deepti : In the end its all conjecture. Can the best cricketer in the world tell you exactly what's going to happen tomorrow?
rao : rahul is great captain. he is leading the team front and he is ready to take any challenge hattsoff. ganguly should hav opened the innings comment
Deepti : I dont think Ganguly should've opened the innings..it shoudl've been a specialist opener especially since we have carried three of them!But yes Dravid took a very brave decision to open...and maybe the right one under the circumstances
viper : tendulkar has opened several times with sehwag..why not again? why is he being protected as opposed to dravid who is in better form
Deepti : Tendulkar has opened with Sehwag in Tests...and you bring in your best batsman at three and four in Tests. There's no point pushing Tendulkar in to open just for the sake of it
viper : we lacking in bowlers this time it seems...pathan, bhajji, kumble...and agarkar....u agree?
Deepti : India has always played with four bowlers and most of the int'l teams are also going that way. what India lacks is a genuine all-rounder to fill up the gaps
samariya : Hi Deepti, What do you think is the most amazing moment of this match so far...for my point of view...Its a RUNOUT on 199!!!
Deepti : :) it was a real anti-climax for Younis. not sure what afridi was trying to do over there..
viper : well the best batsman faces the best bowlers...then they really arent the best if they need to be protected. i disagree with your point that there is no point pushing tendu out...if he is that good, he shud be able to play all sorts of bowlers...more so the pace.
Deepti : i think Tendulkar has proved enough that he can ply both pace and spin... the question here is whether he is mentally tuned to be an opener
ramjanam : Hi Deepthi,What score do u think India will make and what do u think is the score that India should give Pakistan to chase.
Deepti : To chase? India are still only 65 runs into their first innings
adsr : Hi Deepthi.. Watching pakistan bowl I just got a feeling that Pakistan bowlers did not bowl well really.. I have hardly seen line and length bowling.. what do u think????
Deepti : Ya they had the pace but Shoaib was trying to do too much too soon. The first ball was a peach and Sehwag didnt have a clue where that one was flying and Shoiab follows it up with a slower one on the leg-side! Guess the Rawalpindi Express should've tried to do India in with pace rather than trying too many things
bluffmaster : DEEPTI GENRALLY U R ASKING QUESTIONS FROM PEOPLE ..HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TABLE ..LOLZZ
Deepti : Ya now i know that sometimes we are unreasonable expecting eloquent answers to each of our questions!
dasariharishkumar : hai deepti why media is so intrested on ganguly .chaapel should give atleast 3 chances to ganguly.ganguly is correct in doing his batting
Deepti : Hi. Why are so many people here asking about Ganguly? That's precisely the reason the media is so interested.
Harsha : Pakistan prepared such a beautiful batting track instaed of a wicket that assists bowlers which was the hype before the series started. Was it because they feared that their batsmen werenot better equipped to face quality swing from Indians where as the Indian batsmen were far more better batsmen than the Pakistanis?
Deepti : It still hasn't sunk in that Pakistan would offer their bowlers such a adud!
deepti_ka_pyar : deepti why are you not answering my question about saurav...i am a big fan of ganguli...do u think the pitch is good enough for ganguli to score high
Deepti : Does Ganguly need a good pitch to score big runs? No but just hope it helps him get back to form
batboy2@rediffmail.com : well what i think is dravid made a stupidity by opening innings no matter he is still hanging there. A class batsman like him should not battle to survive in the middle in the first few overs.Rather dhoni or yuvraj shld have been used as a trump card. What do you say deepti???
Deepti : I think Dhoni or Pathan would've been a good idea. Dravid has played his best cricket at number three..why try to disturb that since this is just a stop-gap arrangement
orangestreet : Hi Deepti, we fans always rant and rave when a square turner is made which is hopelessly loaded in the bowlers (spinners) favour. Do you think there is a case for all parties concerned to raise the issue here where it is higly loaded in the favour of the batsmen ? What good can this kind of a pitch do to test cricket ? I doubt if there was any bowler anywhere who would be keen to pick up a ball ever after watching this game.
Deepti : Yes pitches like these kill the game...and the answer to your first question is that batsmen are a lot voacl about these issues than bowlers...nowadays in international cricket big favours for batsmen are taken for granted
lallu : I think we have one of the worst bowling attacks in the world
Deepti : Wont go to that extent but it is clearly our weaklink outside India
a1akhil : younis khan have hit so many runs against us...but we dont seem to have formulated a strategy against him...
Deepti : True..the Indian bowlers were playing to his strengths..feeding him a lot of balls outside the off-stump..but he is a lot more solid than most Pakistan batsmen
prakash9255 : Hi Deepti! What you think about the opening by Indian captain Rahul Dravid? Don't you think if he gets out early, the team would come under the tremendous pressure because he is "The Wall" in our team?
Deepti : Yes but he's the one batsman who's had reasonable experience of opening the innings. there are never easy answers when you decide to go into a key match like this with only one opening bat
adi : hi Deepti, do you think Zaheer was a better choice than two spinners by removing Bhajji?
Deepti : Harbhajan hasn't bowled that well in the Test but I am not sure Zaheer coming in would've made a big difefrence..i mean see what happened to Pathan and Agarkar
Dravid : HI, if ganguly plays well in this test what'll happen to the combination? Will Dravid become a permanent opener?
Deepti : Like he became a wicket-keeper? No my guess is Yuvraj Singh will be dropped If Ganguly goes on to make a hundred or more
pbl : As per my knowledge about cricket I think that we have good seem bowlers in our team now a days in comparisan with the time of Kapil
Deepti : We had in 2003-04 a very good pace attack with Irfan, Zaheer and Nehra all doinf well..so was Balaji.pity that India hasn't been able to sustain that
mike1240 : A well known cricket personality says that the match is almost heading towards a draw. Ur comments on that ?
Deepti : Hmm Imran Khan said even before the toss that the match would end in a draw..so far nothing that has happened in the match has suggested otherwise
Harsha : In the interests of the Indian cricket Ganguly must be in his home playing with his daughter and not in Lahore playing cricket.But for the politics of Indian Cricket that would have been the situation. Right Deepti?
Deepti : The fcat is that he is in Pakistan and for India's sake lets just hope he does well
Dravid : Inzi said he had asked for seamer friendly tracks. This is certainly not what he hoped for. India has a good lineup and can make him pay the price. Why did't the PCB listen to Inzi?
Deepti : Its a nothing track..dont think either team will benefit from it..
lulu01 : Though Ganguli bowled well, why he has been stopped doing more? Is that Dravid's poor captaincy or something personal anger?
Deepti : Dravid has played defensively throughout..Ganguly was basically used to change ends...Dravid was just more comfortable playing it safe
Deepti : Ok guys..was fun chatting with you. Will catch you tomorrow after the end of day's play.
Chat transcript: Day 1: 'No intensity in the Indian attack'