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Afridi's ton puts Pakistan 250 ahead

Prem Panicker

Two hours of play between lunch and tea. 111 runs added in 28 overs, with just the wicket of Youhanna to show for it. And Pakistan go in on 266/4, exactly 250 runs ahead of India.

Shahid Afridi -- a player yet to cross 50 in Tests -- took the game away from India with a superlative 100. Barring a touch of initial hesitancy, Afridi took full advantage of the chances that went unaccepted, settled down and dominated an attack that, faced with his bludgeon, appeared completely bereft of ideas.

What was crucial about Afridi's innings was the pace of run-scoring -- his unbeaten 134 at the break came off just 182 balls, and that kind of rate meant that Pakistan were not just putting up a big score, but doing so quickly enough to be able to leave themselves with plenty of time to turn the screws on India in the final innings.

From the Indian point of view, well, on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's death, the team adopted a non-violent policy. Defensive fields, defensive bowling, wasted resources, dropped catches -- there was never, at any time, an attempt to put pressure on the batting side, to try and take wickets.

Symptomatic of the wasted resources is Venkatesh Prasad. He bowled two overs today -- one, the first one of the day. The next, the penultimate one before tea. Which would have been ridiculous for an occasional bowler -- and is completely inexplicable for one of the four main bowlers.

In the event, the only point of curiosity about the final session coming up is the question of just what Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram will think is a good enough target to set the Indians.

Lunch report

Pakistan went in to lunch at 155/3 at lunch, with Afridi batting 66 and Youhanna unbeaten on 15.

That total should tell the tale, Pakistan having resumed at 34/1 and, in the two hours of play this morning, added 121 runs for the loss of two wickets at a cracking 4.62 runs per over rate off just 26.1 overs.

India, needing a tight, disciplined performance in the field in the morning session, ended up making just about every mistake possible.

The home team got off to a great start, though, when off the second over of the morning, Ijaz lunged forward to a Kumble flipper that was three quarter length. The ball took the bat on the half-volley, Ijaz scooping it back to the bowler.

Strangely, what was a straightforward decision seemed to involve lots of agonising for Steve Dunne and the third umpire.

Dunne, standing at the bowling end, is in the best position to rule on caught and bowled decisions, yet he seemed to have lost this one completely. He first checked with Ramaswamy -- who would not be too well placed at square leg to figure out if that was a bump ball or no.

The third umpire was then called in and after much agonising -- and some gamesmanship from Ijaz, who laughed and acted as though that was a bump ball -- the right decision saw Ijaz walk back, caught and bowled Kumble for 11.

That should have signalled an aggressive attitude from the Indians -- but what we got was the reverse. Srinath, who was having Afridi in all kinds of problems, found himself bowling with just two slips. Twice on the trot, Afridi hung his bat out and the edges flashed through where the third slip should have been -- and after much angry gesticulation from the bowler, a third slip was finally brought in. After the horse had bolted -- twice!

To add to the bowler's misery, he then produced the perfect leg cutter, Inzamam was completely beaten, the edge was found and Ganguly at slip put it down. What was even more difficult to understand was that at that point, there was only one slip in place -- obviously, the Indian effort was not aimed at taking quick wickets.

Afridi and Inzamam, with the pressure off and the field spread, began opening out their shoulders, the Indian bowlers helping the good work along with at least one bad ball per over. Afridi in particular was in full form, launching Joshi over long on, then Kumble over long off, for towering sixes.

With the Indians looking completely bedraggled, it was left to Tendulkar to do the damage yet again. Off the second ball of the first over, he got Inzamam lunging forward. The ball appeared to go off the pad, the bat was behind pad at the moment of impact and coming forward as the ball bounced away -- even after half a dozen replays, it was impossible to say whether there was a touch of bat, but as it turned out, Dunne raised his finger with admirable promptitude to an iffy appeal, where he was in such doubt on the earlier, much clearer, one.

Inzamam walked off, for 51 off 74 balls after figuring in a 97-run partnership, the best in the match so far by either team, with the ponderous gait of a pallbearer at a funeral -- and his disappointment was understandable, given that there was a strong element of doubt in that decision.

At the break, Afridi looking set after the mandatory bout of early nerves, and Yousuf Youhanna middling the ball well, were in the middle.

The pitch, contrary to the picture presented by the scoreboard, has not eased -- if the Indians find themselves on the back foot, bad captaincy, bad bowling, and atrocious catching are the sole causes.

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