NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Snake charmers, and Saqlain Mushtaq!

Between Madras and here, 28 Indian wickets have fallen -- and Saqlain Mushtaq has taken 15 of them, including the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar thrice on the trot.

This, against a team rated the best players of spin in the world -- though if you ignore the hype, the reality is that it is Sri Lanka, not India, that has handled Saqlain well, Aravinda D'Silva in particular being outstanding against the offie during their face offs.

Whatever -- the bottomline, at the end of day one of the second Test between India and Pakistan, at the Firozeshah Kotla, is that the home side, yet again, find themselves battling for survival after seeming to be in a very good position at one point.

Five degrees on the temperature scale, a nippy wind, humidity on the low side at 20 degrees -- weather conditions at the Kotla were radically different from what was available at Madras.

The full house crowd was augmented by 30 snake charmers -- security consciousness raised to the ridiculous, here?. Proceedings kicked off with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee walking out to the middle to meet and greet the two teams. And not to be outdone on the political front, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit were seen in animated conversation in the VVIP box, perhaps debating the merits of an umpiring decision -- then again, they could just possibly have been wondering how long they needed to sit there to make their point.

Both teams made a change apiece -- India bringing in Harbhajan Singh for Sunil Joshi, probably keeping the turning nature of this track in mind, and Pakistan similarly bringing in Mushtaq Ahmed in place of left arm spinner Nadeem Khan.

The pitch produced by curator Radhey Shyam -- the same one that was dug up by Shiv Sena activists in the run up to this series -- looks underprepared. Brown, no grass, the odd damp patch, uneven bounce -- the whole making you wonder about the hype that surrounded BCCI pitches committee chairman Kapil Dev's many, highly publicised, visits to the ground ahead of this Test, ostensibly to check out pitch conditions.

It was a good toss to win, and Azharuddin did the needful for his team, promptly electing to bat first. Halfway through the first hour, with India's openers taking the side to 19/0, it was already apparent that there was little in there for the quick bowlers. Twice, Akram deliveries scooted through at ankle height, and both batsmen were seen coming easily onto the front foot even to deliveries of three quarter length, unthinkable against Akram and Younis on anything but the slowest of tracks.

Quick bowlers, on this track, have only one option -- bowl as close to the wicket as possible, keep it straight and hope the low bounce beats the bat on the downswing and gets the pad or stumps. Akram in fact indicated there was nothing for him on this track, bringing on Mushtaq Ahmed after a spell of just five overs with the new ball.

The double spin attack of Mushtaq and Saqlain saw the Indian openers in their best touch, both using their feet well, refusing to get bogged down in defence, and rotating the strike very intelligently.

India went in to lunch very well poised, at 82/0 with Ramesh batting on 42 and Laxman on 35, the runs coming off 27 overs.

It is not that Pakistan did not have its chances, however. With the score on 30/0, Akram brought one in off the seam, straightening it and taking Ramesh on the pads in front of off and middle. Given the low bounce, that LBW appeal was a natural, but Umpire A V Jayaprakash thought otherwise, and got it badly wrong.

Saqlain came into the attack after a seven over opening spell from Younis, and floated one on middle stump. Ramesh pushed at it, without quite getting to the pitch of the ball, Youhanna at silly point grabbed at the catch low down, only to fluff it. The score then was 48/0.

At 55/0, Mushtaq bowled one way wide of off. Laxman, who had been playing the leg spinner with ease, with wristy drives through the on side against the turn, slashed at it, throwing the bat at the wide delivery, got it in the air and Afridi at coverpoint lunged overhead, got one hand to it, failed to grasp the hard chance, dived and took another clutch, only to end up putting down what would have been a blinder had he managed to hold on.

At 77/0, a flighted one from Mushtaq on middle and off had the ball stopping a shade after pitching, Laxman drove too early at it, and Mushie, running diagonally away on his follow through, stopped in his tracks and lunged for the catch, but couldn't get there in time.

The second over after lunch, however, produced the breakthrough, Akram returning with the 28 overs old ball, getting some reverse swing and seam movement. A faster ball pitching off and middle and seaming in had Laxman attempting to play across the line, the pace and nipback defeating the stroke for the ball to sneak through the gate and take out middle and leg.

Ramesh, meanwhile, looked in very good touch. His innings was characterised by a calm assurance, the batsman looking very laid back and relaxed out in the middle. In this knock, he was seen making a noticeable effort to play off the front foot, reading the lack of bounce well and changing his style to suit the conditions here. But just when it looked like he was in complete control, the left handed opener threw it away in a soft dismissal. An on drive for two, and a delectable late cut for four, had got him 6 runs off the first two balls of a Saqlain over. To the third ball, not short enough in length for such heroics, he swung into a huge pull, played all over it and lost his leg peg.

Tendulkar started off with a delectable flick to a reverse swinging delivery from Younis -- but fell, for the third time in three innings, to Saqlain in circumstances that were a shade controversial.

Saqlain bowled it wide of the stumps, from the edge of the crease, floated it on leg, the ball taking the pad on the half volley, and hitting the batsman on the outside of pad on line of leg stump. Given the angle, that means that the ball would be drifting outside leg, but Jayaprakash favoured the appeal, and Sachin was gone for 6.

Tea was taken with India 169/3 off 55 overs, having added 83 runs in the session after lunch off 28 overs, for the loss of three big wickets. Saqlain bowled unchanged, except for the last but one over before the break, while at the other end, Younis bowled an extended spell of 6 overs before yielding place to Akram.

A characteristic of Azharuddin when he is feeling good about himself is that he drives very well through the off -- and that was on view during the half hour just before tea, as he spanked first Akram, then Afridi, through that region. During the early part of his innings, Azhar looked very uncomfortable out there, against both seam and spin, but as his tenure extended, he visibly grew in confidence, epitomised by the last ball before the tea break when Mushtaq pitched a flipper way too short, Azhar rocked back, set himself, got right under the ball and blasted him over midwicket for a six.

In Mushtaq's first ball after tea, Azhar was foxed into playing a drive too early -- the ball stopped a shade, and Mushie, after getting both hands to a simple return catch, fluffed it.

Rahul Dravid, too, had his problems early on, particularly against Akram whose ability to make the ball move both ways without perceptible change in action seemed to be causing the number three some confusion. Very subdued during the afternoon session, Dravid appeared to be coming to terms with himself after the break, as he kept rocking back to shorten the length of the spinners, and thumping them on both sides of the wicket.

A combination of the vagaries of the pitch and the wiles of Saqlain however ended his innings, the offie from close to the crease pushing one through quicker, slightly short, Dravid rocking back yet again only to be deceived by the quicker pace and the lower bounce, to get the ball onto his pad before he could bring his bat down. A clear cut decision for the umpire there, and Dravid departing just when he looked to have settled down.

At the other end, however, the Indian skipper appeared to be gaining immensely in confidence. With no bounce to bother about, Azhar's footwork was a lot more certain. More to the point, he appeared to have read the pitch very well -- as witness a certain statistic. When he was on sixty, he had got 23 of those runs through the arc between point and extra cover, and a mere four runs (that, too, off the boundary that took him to 60) in the half-V between the bowler and mid off. Indicating that with the ball not really coming on, he had figured that the front foot drive was not really on, and had opted, through this innings, to play predominantly off the back foot and square of the wicket.

The new ball became due with India looking good on 228/4, both Azhar and Ganguly seemingly at terms with the spinners. Akram however, persisted with the old ball -- and whether thanks to happenstance or shrewd thinking, the move paid off.

The next 9.5 overs were to see the backs of 4 batsmen, for the addition of just 19 runs.

Ganguly was the first to go,playing outside the line to a full length ball on off from Saqlain, the ball straightening and sliding past the bat onto pad, the strike was in front of off and Bucknor had no problems with the decision.

Mushtaq, who throughout the day had bowled beautifully with little luck, then produced the best delivery of the day. A looping delivery pitched middle, squared Azhar up, kicked and turned square, the ball taking the glove and Ijaz at slip diving to pull off a great catch, Mushie taking out Azhar after a superb innings of 67 from the Indian captain.

Anil Kumble has been woefully short of form with the bat in recent times, and he didn't do much to reverse his form here, pushing blindly forward at a ball from Saqlain that was not full enough for the front foot defense, getting it onto the top of the bat for Youhanna at short square to be in business. And Srinath, rather needlessly going back to a fullish one from Saqlain, was trapped in front when the ball turned in fractionally, beat the bat and crashed into the pads about a couple of inches in front of the stumps.

With that wicket -- which signalled the end of play for the day -- Saqlain had got his third successive five wicket haul -- an extraordinary exhibition of off spin bowling it is impossible to overpraise.

With only Prasad and Harbajan to follow, with the new ball overdue, there seems very little chance of India's closing score being extended much further on the morrow, so it does appear that India after winning a vital toss and playing reasonably well through the first 80 overs of the day, have batted themselves back into jail in the game's closing moments.

On the other hand, this wicket is already turning into a dust bowl. The bounce will get lower, the pitch will turn more -- the only unpredictable bit here is whether the pitch will crumble (as the dust being kicked up towards the end seems to indicate) or merely slow down. If it crumbles, then batting last here is going to be a nightmare -- if it merely slows down, then the spin will get negated and patient batting by the Pakistanis will help them take the initiative completely away.

One thing is already clear, though -- no draw in this game, no way, we are looking at a result here, on a track that is, by no stretch of the imagination, and ideal Test track.

Scoreboard

Commentary Transcript:
• Sixth Hour
• Fifth Hour
• Fourth Hour
• Third Hour
• Second Hour
• First Hour