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Pakistan win in a canter, Jadeja impresses

Late Tuesday evening, a player who was relaxing in his Calcutta flat gets a phone call. You are playing for India in Mohali, he is told.

Follows a scramble -- Calcutta to Delhi, then a wait and some heavy-duty fingernail-chewing as he waits with a wait-listed ticket to Chandigarh, hoping they will find place for him on the flight.

That is how Syed Saba Karim finally made it, to Mohali, on Wednesday evening. To replace Nayan Mongia in Thursday's ODI, the final league match against Pakistan.

I'm sorry, but I don't get it, I really don't. Was Nayan Mongia injured? No. He was being rested, because the national selectors finally woke up to the fact that Nayan Mongia, as the only keeper in the Indian shortlist, might end up completely drained by the time the World Cup finally kicks off.

So why did it take the very last minute for them to name Karim for the game? Four of the five wise men -- Ajit Wadekar, Ashok Malhotra, Madan Lal, Shivlal Yadav -- have played at the highest level. Two of them have even managed the Indian squad. And yet, it does not occur to them that whistling up a player on the eve of a match is done only in the most dire of emergencies? That a player playing in an international -- more so in a high pressure game against Pakistan -- deserves as much notice as possible?

The five selectors, of course, travelled first class, from Pune via Bombay to Chandigarh, their travel arrangements duly taken care of well in advance. They knew they were going to every single venue. Which is symbolic of the state of Indian cricket today -- the selectors and administrators are sure of their places, it is only the cricketer who never knows, who remains in a state of suspended animation until the selectors decide, on a whim, to jerk his strings.

And still we beat our breasts after every outing and wonder why the team is not doing well!

Meanwhile, the two sides approached the inconsquential tie in two different frames of mind. Pakistan fielded its first 11 -- and captain Wasim Akram said before the toss that he wanted to ensure that the team stayed in the winning habit.

India, meanwhile, made wholesale changes. Gyanendra Pandey got back into the squad, as did Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Virendra Sehwag meanwhile got to make his debut -- the selectors, I guess, will expect some applause for having managed to give the World Cup probable at least one trial ahead of the final pick.

Saba Karim opened with Saurav Ganguly, which not only seemed a bit unfair to a player suddenly pitchforked into the topmost level, but also appeared to abdicate an opportunity to try out Shukla in that role. Had the youngster been given a run at taking on Akram and Akthar with the new ball, the Indian think tank would have got an opportunity to assess his skills, with a few to using him, if and when needed, as a pinch-hitter.

India got off to a rather alarming start when Shoaib Akthar went round the wicket to Ganguly and made one kick and come back to the left hander, taking him squarely in the ribs. When you get the chance, check out videos, or at least a still, of Ganguly batting -- you'll see that his chest-protector is actually covering his back.

The only reason for this, that I can think of, is that Ganguly finds it uncomfortable swinging his arms with that gadget strapped to his ribs -- it surely couldn't be because he is worried about the opposing wicket-keeper stabbing him in the back could it? But if that is the case, if the equipment doesn't give Ganguly any comfort, perhaps he needs to modify it, not push it away onto his back.

In any case, he crumpled to the ground, and had to be helped off the field and rushed to hospital for a precautionary x-ray.

That brought Rahul Dravid to the wicket, for all of three deliveries. The third one was angling middle to leg, the batsman leaned forward and flicked and Afridi, at a slightly backward square leg, dived full length to his left to take a very good catch.

Saba Karim understandably showed signs of the rust he must have accumulated during his prolonged absence from the big time. He's been in good form on the domestic circuit, sure -- but then, the likes of Shoaib Akthar and Wasim Akram don't play Ranji Trophy do they? Taking bowlers of that calibre on a pitch that had something in it for quick bowlers is a different proposition altogether. Karim sweated it out and, when Azhar Mahmood came on to bowl, launched into a sliced drive away from his body, to a ball outside off, that deposited the ball nicely in the hands of point. Ijaz did a bit of juggling, but managed to cling on to a simple take.

Ganguly walked back out, at that point, to a huge roar from the crowd. And resumed his innings with one of his trademark off drives, all timing and languid grace. At the other end, Jadeja despite the confidence of a century in his previous outing was finding the going rather tough. The pace bowlers were on fire, and their replacements -- medium pacers Azhar Mahmood and Shahid Nazir -- bowled a tight, wicket to wicket line that gave the Indian skipper no scope for strokeplay. Mahmood finally got the wicket, with a yorker length delivery well outside off that Jadeja, with bat well away from body, tried to run it down to third man and only managed to drag it back onto his stumps.

Amay Khurasia's USP is an appearance of absolute confidence as he takes his very first ball. That confidence was on show here, as he opened with a boundary. Another facet is a willingness bordering on eagerness to look for the singles. However, his confidence, here, proved to be his undoing as Khurasiya, without waiting to get a good feel for Saqlain Mushtaq, came dancing down the wicket to be beaten in the air and off the track by the offie, the ball angling across him and then straightening to give Moin a very easy stumping.

With Robin Singh looking rusty, Ganguly -- who for his part appears to have come back into the top of his form -- played the dominant role in a slow 72 run partnership. Both batsmen struggled against some tight bowling and alert fielding.

With runs at a premium and the overs rapidly diminishing, Ganguly attempted to step up a gear, but perished in the process as he moved away from his stumps and slashed one from Shahid Nazir straight to sweeper cover.

When Robin is struggling for touch, it shows most clearly in his running. Easily a top-draw runner between wickets when going well, Robin here was involved in some uncharacteristic mixups. One of them finally saw the back of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, as Robin first called, then reneged, leaving his partner stranded with no hope of getting back.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla came in with too few overs to play himself in. From the little we saw of him, he appears to have the right attitude -- aggressive from the outset, moving across his stumps and hitting with a full flourish. However, given the compulsion to hit at pretty much everything, the teenager fell trying to swing Saqlain from outside off towards the midwicket region -- Shukla was playing for the turn, Saqlain produced the one going through with the arm, and the result was a simple catch to midwicket.

It came as no surprise when Robin was run out -- the dismissal having a touch of the Keystone Kops about it. Gyanendra Pandey pushed to mid on, the bowler raced around yards and fielded and Robin, at the non-striker's end, stood calmly watching it all. Pandey, meanwhile, had come halfway down the track, calling frantically, and then retreated. At which point, with the ball already fielded, Robin took off like a startled hare -- with predictable results.

Venkatesh Prasad, one of nature's tailenders, never one to unduly trouble bowling sides, got himself out in quick order and the Indian innings ended on 196. A measure of the heavy weather the batting side made of it comes from the fact that there were only 9 fours in the entire innings.

From the Pakistan point of view, the highlights were the bowling of Shoaib Akthar and Azhar Mahmood (Saqlain's class has been written about too often to merit reiteration). Akthar has developed wonderfully over this last month -- here, he was bowling flat out, very aggressive, but with a lot of thought going into it. It was interesting to see him come round the wicket to the left-handers, swing wide of the crease and produce some toe-crushing yorker-length deliveries, cleverly mixed up with very well disguised slower deliveries.

Azhar Mahmood meanwhile appears to have rediscovered his touch with the ball, hitting a tight, niggardly, wicket to wicket line. This taken in tandem with his batting gives Pakistan an interesting middle order option, in the build up to the World Cup.

Again from the point of view of the World Cup, Pakistan increasingly has a good feel to their outcricket. The catching is sure, the ground fielding aggressive, with the fielders really attacking the ball. Though Mohali is a big ground -- which brings with it the possibility of running twos and the odd threes -- the fielders kept it admirably tight, Imran Nazir being outstanding.

In passing, I can't help but wonder why the ICC has rules and codes and stuff, if it doesn't have the will to implement it. Glenn McGrath abuses Brian Lara, deliberately bumps into him, and gets away scot free. Closer to home, the Indian innings takes 57 minutes more than scheduled -- and Pakistan is docked a mere 3 overs.

Some five minutes were lost when Ganguly was felled. A further 10 minutes were lost (and this is a generous estimate, mind) when a brief burst of stone-throwing, for no apparent reason, interrupted play around the 40-over mark. And if you factor in about 5 minutes lost for the inevitable ball change, that is 20 minutes of playing time that can be officially accounted for.

That means that Pakistan were at least 27 minutes over the allotted time. At the rate of four minutes per over, which is the ICC-established norm, that is a good 6, nearly 7, overs in deficit.

Mind, this is not intended to run down Pakistan -- both India and Sri Lanka, earlier in the tournament, have similarly dawdled. Either there are no rules, or the rules that exist are enforced uniformly. But this kind of in and out running does no good to anyone -- I remember instances when a side that overshot the time by 10, 15 minutes got docked three overs.

The ICC keeps complaining that it has no teeth. On this evidence, it doesn't deserve any, considering that it doesn't have the will to use the teeth it does have.

The Pakistan innings Scoreboard