This series began in Lahore, where 13 bowlers bowled 220.5 overs and managed to take just 8 wickets between them. It finally came to life on day one of the third Test at the National Stadium in Karachi where, in bowler friendly conditions, six wickets fell in the first session and seven in the last for a total of 14 overall. Talk of the ridiculous and the sublime.
By rights, India should have been starting its reply some time in the second hour of the afternoon session, when it was easiest for batting -- and not in somewhat dodgy light and under overcast skies after tea. And it certainly shouldn't have been starting its response to Pakistan's 245 all out with VVS Laxman facing the first ball of the innings.
For both of those factors, India had itself to blame -- its seam bowlers with the honorable exception of Irfan Pathan lost the plot in the middle session; Dhoni slept through the simplest stumping chance you could possibly imagine; vice-captain Virender Sewhag failed to come out after tea for the 8.1 overs the Pakistan innings lasted and found himself relegated to number three in the batting lineup, and Laxman joined Dravid in the opening slot with India needing to see off 27 overs in the session.
The opening overs were always going to be tough on this deck and against this attack -- but it was the technically well-equipped Rahul Dravid (dismissed just once before this for a series average at that point of 236; 236 runs off 484 and dismissed just once before this) who was first to go.
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Mohammad Asif in his second over bowled a peach of a delivery, angling in to off bang on good length to draw the batsman forward, and with just enough late movement the other way to find the edge of the defensive bat through to the keeper.
An indicator of just how much the ball did was evident from the replay -- the line into his off prompted Dravid to choose the push off his pads on the on side, before the seam away forced him to check and push in tentative defense (9/1 India).
More sensation was to follow as Akthar, one ball after being clattered over point, made one lift and seam off length outside Sehwag's off stump; the batsman shaped to push hard, tried to pull out as the ball grew huge on him, and as has happened before, ending up with the ball glancing off the bat face for Akmal to hold well in front of his face (14/2).
Tendulkar, who 17 years back had made his debut on this ground to a trial by extreme pace, was nailed on the helmet by a 151.1 kmph bouncer from Akthar (the ball took 0.51 seconds to traverse the distance from bowler to batsman) to the second ball he faced -- as he had then, Tendulkar took the blow, stood back on his hind legs, and refused to let the bowler see him flinch.
Akthar should have got Laxman in his next over when he made another kick off length -- Laxman, always a bit tentative early in his innings, hung his bat out like a tyro, got the thick edge, and was lucky to see the ball flash between Akmal and a first slip standing ridiculously wide considering who was bowling, and how.
Laxman never really looked at ease throughout his innings, time and again being too late in bringing his bat down. Asif put him out of his misery with a brute of a delivery bowled from wide of the crease, angling in onto off and darting further in off the seam like a very fast off break. Laxman's bat was in position to defend a normal ball on that line -- against what was in effect a Muralitharan off break bowled at extreme pace, he was hopelessly late (56/3).
The early blow to his head appeared to have gotten Tendulkar's creative juices flowing -- from that point on, he batted with a minimum of fuss and a good sense of what was hittable and what he could leave without any trouble.
The fall of his wicket was against the run of his play -- the ball from Razzaq bowled from wide of the crease was angling down leg stump; Tendulkar uncharacteristically stayed rooted to his crease and aimed an onside push into vacant space with too much of a shut bat face for the conditions, but managed only to inner edge onto his pads and from there onto middle stump -- the only dismissal thus far that could be put down entirely to batsman's error (56/4 in 13 overs).
That brought together two batsmen who have been vying for one slot in the batting order. After the two faced a total of three deliveries, light was offered, and gratefully accepted. Moments later, the cloud that obscured the sun moved away, and back they came with 13 tricky minutes to negotiate and theoretically, 14 overs left in the day.
Sourav Ganguly, hemmed in by six close catchers, showed good grit and good technique to not just survive one final over in fading light from Shoaib Akthar, but to knock him for a four to fine leg and a fine push square on the on for a brace to bring the curtain down on the day with India on 74/4 after 16 overs.
When India analyzes the day, it will know that its collective lethargy in the afternoon session, when it failed to finish off the Pakistan innings, not only gave the home team the momentum, but also ended up forcing it to begin its innings in inhospitable conditions.
You don't with your foot on the accelerator stand on the brake -- that's how you skid off the highway.
Akthar's first spell (5-1-20-1) was searingly fast -- luck as much as skill prevented more Indian wickets from tumbling. And of all the deliveries he bowled in that spell, including a ferociously fast 153.6 kmph effort on the stumps to Sachin Tendulkar, the standout was the ball that signaled drinks at the end of the first hour -- a 151.5 kmph yorker that swung impossibly late, landed in the blockhole while Laxman's bat was still halfway down in its approach, and didn't uproot the stumps only because the swing took it past off.
Mohammad Asif was less spectacular -- anyone would be -- but he bowled with a lot of control, making the ball move both ways and keeping a very tight line.
Earlier in the session, India put the pieces back together the right way immediately after tea, with Pathan once again striking the right line and length. Bowling, as he has almost throughout this innings, from very close to the stumps, the left arm seamer pushed the ball through on a fullish length and used angles, curves in the air and movement off the seam to probe the defenses.
The delivery that did the seemingly impregnable Kamran Akmal was a beauty. Bowling from very close to the wicket, Pathan shaped a nicely disguised slower ball away from the batsman through the air, and got it to nip back in off the seam to find the edge through to Dhoni, who made amends for his earlier lapse by holding as the ball died on him.
The batsman walked back to a standing ovation, with even the Indian fielders showing their appreciation for a batsman who walked in with the score on 13/4 and nursed it through to 236/8. 58 runs through the covers and eight more through mid off testified to his mastery in that region; 29 runs through midwicket including 5 fours were indicator of the many short deliveries the bowlers pitched short to him on a pitch that called for the fuller length.
The only bowler who earned Akmal's respect was Anil Kumble, who gave him just 16 runs off the 43 balls bowled at him; Pathan too bowled to him with a fair measure of control. Rudra Pratap Singh was the biggest sufferer, being hit about for 43 runs off 41 deliveries, a lot of them square on both sides as the tyro repeatedly pitched short.
Singh broke through at the other end, with a delivery down the off corridor that straightened to take Mohammad Asif's tentative edge on the way through to the keeper.
With only Danish Kaneria for company, Shoaib Akthar, who till then had shown good sense in picking what he would defend and which deliveries he would blast back down the ground, decided to try for that elusive maiden 50 -- and managed only to swat Pathan down the throat of Yuvraj Singh at long on to end the Pakistan innings on 245, Akthar contributing an invaluable 45 off 60 deliveries to that total and more to the point, batting with a composure remarkable in one so volatile.
Pathan, incidentally, seemed to have taken Akthar's natter in Faisalabad, in course of which he reportedly needled Pathan about deliveries that didn't get to the batsman, to heart -- the left arm seamer had Akthar ducking and weaving to some good bouncers, and on each occasion he ran down the length of the pitch to glare at the batsman, whose wicket eventually gave him a richly deserved five-for.
Pakistan's 245 was, given the conditions, a good 60, maybe 70 runs, more than they should have been allowed to get -- and India's batsmen could still have cause, before this Test is over, to rue their bowlers' prodigality of the middle session.
Report on the morning session and the afternoon session here; other cricket here.
