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Pakistan go 2-1 up

During the Kenya-Bangladesh-India triangular earlier this year, skipper Mohammad Azharuddin kept inserting the opposition, his stated reason being that since the team was known to be bad at the chase, he wanted them to have practise in the air of going after a target.

Fair enough, those kind of games are meant for you to sort of test your engines out. But given that the captain himself was admitting, there, that the team -- the full Indian team, mind you -- was not quite as adept at chasing as he would like, what was the point, here, of inserting Pakistan for the third time running?

After all, you aren't playing Kenya and Bangladesh here. You don't have your full team. You have a suspect middle order. And you know, from previous experience in Toronto, that during the last outing, the best of your wins came while defending scores, as Pakistan crumbled despite seemingly modest targets.

Today's insertion was, perhaps, justifiable -- only just -- by the fact that the thunderstorm of the previous evening had meant that there would be some 'sweating' of the pitch, and therefore something in it for the quicks.

But off-setting this was the fact that in the last two games, the quicks, barring Srinath, had not shown any remarkable aptitude for making use of such conditions. This, allied to the suspect batting in the middle, might have made batting first the better option -- but as the cliche goes, the captain knows best, I guess.

In any case, Pakistan and India each made one change, the former bringing in Saqlain Mushtaq for Abdul Razzaq (a bit hard on the latter, I thought, given that he had bowled very well in the first two games) and India bringing back the now-fit Saurav Ganguly for Sanjay Raul.

Shahid Afridi did his bit to justify Azhar's decision by aiming a wild pull at the first ball he faced, from Ajit Agarkar -- only to miss it completely and be caught plumb in front.

Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar then settled down to the rescue act, both players looking distinctly uncomfortable against the steepling bounce, pace and movement of Srinath. However, at the other end, Agarkar let slip the leash by being, as he has been in the last couple of games, a bit wayward. I've been trying to figure out what's happened to a lad who started out showing a lot of promise -- and I would think that it is merely a question of Agarkar trying too much. He is so eager to take wickets that in any given over, the young quick bowls inswingers, outswingers, off cutters, you name it. He would do to take a leaf out of the experienced Srinath's book, stick to a good length, find the right line for each batsman and attack him on it.

As it happened, the pressure put on the batsmen by Srinath was relieved by Agarkar, and Pakistan pulled away to 43/1 in 10. It didn't help, either, that Venkatesh Prasad, as in the previous game, sleepwalked through his stint at the crease. His forte is length and line -- the one commodity he appears to have omitted to pack into his kitbag while packing for Toronto, this time. With Prasad, like Agarkar, spraying it all over the place, Azharuddin's gambit -- or gamble, if you will -- in inserting the opposition had sprung a very big leak right there.

Then came the break -- Srinath bringing one back in with the arm, Sohail playing for the one to leave him, and ending up playing outside the line to be trapped plumb in front.

Anwar, batting well within himself and eschewing his normally flamboyant strokeplay in favour of calm consolidation, and Inzamam ul Haq, looking hell bent on staying out there, then showed the value of experience as they worked the ball around for singles. The progress was slow, but very steady, Pakistan going on to 58/2 in 15, 80/2 in 20 and a 109/2 in 25. And at the halfway mark with just two wickets down, Pakistan had to be favoured to put up a 250 total, given the depth in their batting.

During the first 10 overs, I found Azhar's field placing somewhat inexplicable. Three slips to Sohail is fair enough -- the Pakistan skipper drives and, at the start of his innings, doesn't always drive too cleanly. But why, for instance, two slips to Anwar for one delivery, then one slip for the next? There being only one slip, the lone fielder spread himself out a bit from the keeper -- and Anwar promptly edged Srinath right into the gap between keeper and where an orthodox first slip would have been. At which, Azhar promptly brought two slips back, even before we had finished asking ourselves why the slip cordon had been decimated in the first instance. I mean, what's the point of inserting the opposition -- an attacking move -- if you then set a defensive field?

It was finally left to Saurav Ganguly to do what he always does at Toronto -- to wit, break through. He straightened one into the dangerous-looking Anwar, the batsman went to play to on, the ball slid through the gate and back went the stumps.

Salim Malik looked in fine nick, but in this tournament he has developed a habit of drawing away to leg, leaving all three stumps exposed, and trying to hit over cover. Malik is a classical strokeplayer, and such methods as this are not part of his cricketing vocabulary. All that Venkatesh Prasad had to do, thus, was to bowl full and on middle stump, and Malik was guaranteed to play all over it and loose middle stump.

Inzamam was very, very impressive today. A man who, by repute, hates running singles was sprinting like a hare for short ones -- often, much to everyone's surprise, being the one to initiate short singles, and running to the danger end. Interspersed with the short stuff were the classical drives and power-packed thumps on the on side, and a century looked inevitable when he aimed to pull a not so short ball from Agarkar, played all over it, and lost his stumps.

And then India proceeded to make a complete meal of it. Pakistan, going into the straight, were 149/3 in 35, 170/3 in 40. And that was when Agarkar, normally the steadiest of bowlers at the death, attempted experimentation. The result, 12 runs in the 43rd, letting Pakistan post 206/4 in 45. And in the final three overs, Srinath and, more particularly, Prasad and Agarkar as Ijaz Ahmed got a good grip on his bat and slogged the ball to all parts of Toronto, Pakistan ended up with 257 on the board and India were effectively out of the contest.

As for the bowling, the less said the better -- though frankly Kanitkar, who had managed to check the Pakistan batsmen in the middle, seemed a much better bet for the end overs than Prasad or Agarkar.

India started fluently thanks to Saurav Ganguly, who seemed to be timing them in his man-of-the-match mode. But then, his partner at the other end was Navjot Singh Sidhu. A recipe for disaster if ever there was one -- Sidhu's calling being perhaps the most iffy in international cricket.

A couple of close calls had Ganguly glaring at his partner. And then came the clincher, as Sidhu played straight to Saqlain Mushtaq at a very squarish square leg, called his partner over as if for a midday meal, then decided against it, and looked the other way while Ganguly, run out by a mile, did his best to bore holes in his partner with his eyes.

Nayan Mongia came along at number three -- an obvious indication that the team had little if any confidence in Rahul Dravid. Which brings up a point -- I think that if you pick a player, you could do much worse than show some confidence in the bloke. Remember, a batsman coming back is under enormous mental pressure to start with. Being tacitly given to understand that the team doesn't think him capable of doing his bit isn't exactly calculated to boost that confidence noticeably.

In any case, Mongia came in. And Sidhu, on whom that run out must have been preying, went out. It is not in Sidhu's stylesheet to play across the line, any more than it is in Malik's to step to leg and whack to off. However, the knowledge that it was now up to him to get runs prompted Sidhu to go against the grain, resulting in his playing all over a straight one from Aqib Javed and taking it on his pads in front of middle.

Mohammad Azharuddin came in, but didn't last long enough to do anything significant, thanks in large part to umpire Peter Manuel. Javed bowled one on middle and off, leaving the batsman with the arm, Azhar went a long way forward to play at it, took it on the pad, and then looked up with a wry smile as the umpire pointed skywards. That one was missing leg, but Azhar this time took an adverse decision in his stride, without the histrionics that had characterised some earlier LBW dismissals of the past.

Rahul Dravid came, gave an opportunity for Mohammad Zahid to prove that even if he is not yet at his fastest, he is getting there, and departed. The quick bowler who, in his pre-injury days was rated the fastest in the world, slipped in a lightning fast inswinging yorker that Dravid, in his present state of mind, was about a lifetime too late in coming down on, and the off stump went flying.

21/0 in 5, 43/1 in 10, 57/3 in 15, 63/4 in 20. There seems little point in continuing the tale beyond this point, really. Jatin Paranjpe had, in the first over of the Pakistan innings, twisted his foot going for a simple catch off Saeed Anwar at midwicket, and came out limping. For a left hander, Saqlain can be a handful. For a left hander with impaired foot movement, he is impossible -- a lovely looping delivery pitched on off, drew Paranjpe forward, spun enough to take the edge and slip did the rest.

Hrishikesh Kanitkar has at times done enough with the bat to make you wonder if he could fit the all-rounder slot. But today, he gave the lie to any such thoughts, with a reckless heave that aimed at depositing an Afridi delivery somewhere outside the stadium over long on, only for the swirling top edge to descend into square leg's hands.

Agarkar came, batted quite sensibly and, just when Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box was reminding everyone that the lad had actually started off as a batsman, played one to backward point, casually took off for a run that just wasn't there, and found the stumps broken by the direct hit.

Joshi for his part very clinically slogged Mahmood into the hands of Salim Malik, and it was left to Javagal Srinath to provide an entertaining little cameo at the end, with a blistering 40-something.

Not that it did much good -- the defeat was even more comprehensive than the previous one. And with it, I would think Pakistan have put themselves into perfect position to win the Sahara Cup -- winning one of two games, which is all they have to do, is a heck of a lot less pressurising than knowing that you have to win two out of two.

Which brings up the question of the four stars -- Sachin, Jadeja, Robin and Kumble -- who, early tomorrow morning Toronto time, should be landing there.

India have been blithely factoring their presence into its gameplan -- but I suspect there could be a catch in it. As per the rules, you are allowed to name 14 players for a tournament. You are then allowed to substitute any of those players, but only in case of injury.

Paranjpe was injured, so a case can be made out for taking him out of the lineup, and replacing him with Sachin or Jadeja. But unless a couple more players suddenly clutch their hands or legs and feign injury at the next nets, I am not sure the four Kuala Lumpur returnees can be accomodated in the team -- remember, the Pakistan coach, Javed Miandad, is shrewd as they come, and not likely to miss such a simple bet as that.

Or will he? Will the foursome make the side? (It is easy enough to accomodate them -- Sachin for Sidhu, Jadeja for Dravid, Robin for Kanitkar and, I would think, Kumble for either Prasad or Joshi (remembering that the wickets are getting older, I would think leaving Prasad out would be the better bet).

And assuming the four do make it back into the team, will Pakistan promptly roll over and play dead? The team is now brimming with confidence, it's out cricket is the best I have seen from Pak in a while now, and the batsmen are all doing enough to ensure that there are no collapses, as happened during the previous edition of this trophy.

I don't know about you, but to my way of thinking, what the Indian team needs just now is more Santa Claus than Sachin Tendulkar.

But come the weekend, we'll see for ourselves, anyways...

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