NEWS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

Where do you reside? USA UK UAE Singapore Hong kong Australia Canada North America South America Europe Africa Bahrain Kuwait Qatar Philippines Indonesia Asia New Zealand

It's Pakistan again, at Sharjah

If this were a boxing match, the report would go thus: India came out of its corner swinging and, with a display of neat, efficient, scientific boxing, had its opponent on the ropes. At which point it remembered that it is the land of Gautama the Buddha and Mohandas Karamchand 'Mahatma' Gandhi, apostles, both, of non-violence. And so it stepped back, shed its gloves, and courteously extended its chin in the direction of its opponent, who promptly landed the knockout blow.

Moral of the story? Agression -- pure, undiluted aggression -- is the only way to force wins. Whether in the boxing ring, or on the cricket field.

First thing in the afternoon, Sachin Tendulkar got it right when he won the toss. He added right on right by batting first. We were into the fourth day of competition, the pitch was being used for the second time. In these last four days, the pitch had been not been watered, so whatever moisture there was, would have dried up. Result -- ball comes onto bat in the early part of the innings but as the innings progresses and the white ball gets softer, the ball keeps lower and gets harder to hit around. That, in turn, means that the team chasing begins to feel the pressure in the latter half of the innings.

India chose to go in with the same team that played the first game, against England. Since neither our selectors, nor the team management, is much into explaining things, I guess the mystery of Venkatesh Prasad will remain insoluble for all time -- like the riddle of the Sphinx, or the wreck of the Marie Celeste.

Saba Karim, again, opened with Saurav Ganguly. Again, a point needs making. This word "pinch hitter" has, these days, been overused to the point of abuse. I wonder if think tanks have even bothered to check out the origin of the phrase, and the reasons behind the use of pinch-hitter as strategy?

They do it in baseball. In specific situations. Like, when all three bases are loaded, you hold back a regular player and send in an expendable, a reserve, to have one healthy slog -- on the "nothing to lose, everything to gain" principle. The pinch hitter in baseball is not a regular member of the playing side -- he is, effectively, a wild card, a loose cannon.

In cricket, it might make sense to send out a batsman early to take advantage of field restrictions -- but as in baseball, so in cricket, such strategies need to be used keeping in mind the opposition, not as a norm. Asking Karim to swing out against England's relatively inexperienced, slower, bowlers is one thing. Expecting him to do the same against the likes of Wasim Akram and Aqib Javed (preferred to the out of form Waqar Younis), both bowlers of quality and enormous experience, is at best half smart thinking.

In the event, Karim did his best, and thanks to a let off at mid off in the third over, managed 18 off 30 deliveries faced, before Umpire Cooray, who after his heroics of the previous game found himself in the third umpire's chair on this occasion, sent him back on a run out appeal. Ganguly drove Akram straight, the bowler on the follow through lunged for the ball, the ball thudded into the stumps at the non-striker's end with Karim out of his ground, and Cooray went for the red button. In such decisions, there are two things to look for -- one, was the batsman out of his crease when the ball hit the stumps. The answer -- yes. Two, did it go off a fielder's hand or any part of his body? In this case, no -- Akram's fingers, as clearly seen on the slow-mo replay, did not touch the ball. The umpire on the field giving the decision is understandable, since it all happens so fast. But why an umpire with the benefit of slow motion replays couldn't spot what every fan in front of his TV screen could is, well, "one of those things".

Navjot Singh Sidhu, unlike in the previous game, batted with immense sense. In his first outing, he had apparently let the need to get quick runs in the first 15 overs get to him, and ended up playing a ridiculous slash to sky a catch. Here, he concentrated on working the ball around, taking singles, hitting out only when the ball was in the slot but relying on good placement and running to go along at a good rate of 54 off just 64 deliveries.

At the other end, Saurav Ganguly provided more scope for superlatives. What strikes the observer these days is the amount of thought that is going into his batting. When Karim was around, Ganguly concentrated on gently guiding the ball into a gap and taking a single at the first opportunity, so as to give the pinch-hitter as much strike as possible. When Karim got out, Ganguly took the pressure off Sidhu by taking on himself the onus of keeping the scoreboard moving, first dancing down to Aqib Javed and lifting him effortlessly for a six to long off, then repeating against Azhar Mahmood. And when Sidhu began timing his shots, Ganguly promptly throttled back and let his partner take the bulk of the strike. A perfect example, this innings, of how an in form batsman can guide an innings and keep the momentum going.

The partnership realised 112 runs, going along easily the rate of 38/1 in 10, 71/1 in 15, 92/1 in 20, 116/1 in 25, 143/1 in 30. And then Sidhu got out, calling and running to a Ganguly drive to cover, the throw getting to the danger end before the batsman did.

At which point, the Indian management embarked on a gamble the reason for which, frankly, I for one could never understand. Robin Singh walked out ahead of Sachin Tendulkar. Why? Coach Gaikwad said in course of the match that the thinking was to see if a few quick runs couldn't be achieved at that stage -- given that India was cruising nicely, the thinking would have been to maintain the momentum, send in Sachin, let him take a few overs to get set, so that he and the in form Ganguly would be batting towards the crucial slog overs. Instead, Robin came in, heaved blindly at the very first ball that he got from Azhar Mahmood, and skied a catch to keeper Moin Khan. Even granted that you have been asked to hit out, does it mean you swish blindly without taking even a delivery or three to get used to the pace of the pitch?

When two wickets go down in two balls, it effects both the batsman coming in next, and the non-striker. Ganguly, for a while, went into a shell, visibly struggling to rediscover his touch. And Tendulkar, attempting to make up for the perceived lapse in momentum, played the kind of innovative stroke that again leads to disaster early in an innings before you are quite used to conditions -- Manzoor Akthar's ball was outside leg stump spinning in, Tendulkar flicked against the turn attempting to get runs on the on side, the ball came slower off the pitch than the batsman bargained for, took the edge, and Inzamam ul Haq at midwicket took a superb diving catch, in the process damaging his ribs.

Three wickets falling in the space of four runs meant that Azharuddin and Ganguly perforce had to spend some time getting their act together again, and thus the five overs between 30 and 35 produced a mere 15 runs -- in effect, the pace was checked at the very stage when batsmen would have been looking to step on it.

And from that point on, the innings sort of derailed. I am not quite sure what the Indian players do when other games are going on -- if, as I suspect, they were watching, I wonder if they noticed a curious fact about this tournament? Without exception, the second half of each innings in the first three games has been slower in momentum that the first half. It owes to the pace of the pitch, the softness of the ball, the slowness of the outfield and the fact that it is not possible to hit the older ball around.

Had this fact been taken into account during strategy meetings, the team would have realised that the best way to play the latter overs was to refrain from thumping the ball unless it really was in the slot, and concentrate instead on working it around, looking to get a stream of singles going. That puts pressure on fielding sides and bowlers, and almost inevitably, the loose balls come along and can be hit.

Here, the Indians went for shots. And got increasingly frustrated as the ball went to the fielders too quickly to even think of runs. Ganguly thus played a most uncharacteristic shot, coming down the wicket to Wasim Akram, moving away to leg to try and make room to hit over cover. Akram is enormously experienced in bowling at the depth -- spotting the move, he fired in a swinging yorker that crashed into the base of middle stump. Jadeja and Azhar put on a brief demonstration of running between wickets -- on three seperate occasions actually running for the throw and converting singles into twos before the former drew back to try and hit Saqlain Mushtaq across cover. In the event, he gave himself too much room, the ball drifted in and pegged back off stump. And Azhar went off the very last ball of the innings, trying to swing Saqlain out of the ground and ending up skying one to Akram. India 239 for seven in 50 overs and any way you look at it, about 25, 30 runs short of what they should have made with the kind of platform the side had going for it thanks to the second wicket partnership.

The key, for India in the second half of the match, lay in keeping Anwar and Afridi quiet. Both are dangerous when allowed to free their arms, and Srinath -- taking a leaf out of Courtney Walsh's book, bowled a superb line, just short, angling in, rising into the ribs and cramping both batsmen for room.

At the other end, Kuruvilla blew it. The bowler apparently figured that he had a chance of getting Anwar out flicking off his pads and being caught in the backward square region -- and so we were treated to three overs of constant bowling on the left-handers pads, and Anwar capitalised with a stream of fours and a lovely flicked six over midwicket. What was even more surprising was that even after seeing his line handled with ease -- Kuvurilla has neither the pace of Srinath nor the movement of Prasad to induce the error to that line -- he persisted with it for yet another over. Not good thinking, that, and it allowed a batsman struggling for form to get his eye back in.

Rajesh Chauhan has grown -- visibly so -- in confidence during the recent Test series against Sri Lanka. And as a result, has earned his captain's confidence as well -- so much so that it is to him, rather than Kumble, that Tendulkar now turns when he needs a breakthrough. Chauhan was brought on for Kuruvilla as early as the 8th over, and he drew blood immediately. Afridi's confidence sometimes crosses the line into arrogance, as evidenced by the way he came down to the very first ball he got from Chauhan, to swing him high over long on for six. And off the next ball, I got to see one of the best catches I have ever seen held.

Chauhan, going round the wicket, tossed one up on off stump. Afridi stood tall and with a free swing of the bat, hit the ball with the velocity of a tracer bullet, back past the bowler. Chauhan at the time was, in his follow through, going towards the midwicket side of the pitch. Checking in his stride, he flung himself across and to his left, cover the length of the pitch with his airborne dive, taking the stinging shot in his left, realising that he was in danger of landing on that hand and quickly rotating in the air to land on his right -- all that at blinding pace. Star Sports runs a classic catches contest and if, at the end of the tournament, any catch other than this one gets the top ranking, I would be very, very surprised.

Ijaz Ahmad has been struggling for form for a while now, and the struggle continued here against Chauhan and Kumble. The Indian skipper, attacking for all he was worth, kept a field of slip, silly point and leg slip for Kumble, the leg slip moving square to become forward short leg for the off spinner. Ijaz began feeling the pressure and, as usual, tried walking across the stumps to try and convert the line and hit over leg. Twice on the trot he was rapped on the pads. Ball three, ditto, and this time he was bang in front of middle stump when he took the Kumble flipper on his pads to earn the LBW.

Pakistan keeps producing these young boys, touted as budding geniuses, and Akthar Sarfaraz is yet another in that mould. Mohammad Wasim, seen briefly earlier in the year, looked a good technician -- the same, unfortunately, can't be said for this boy. His defensive technique looks shoddy, and Sarfaraz shows a distinct penchant for trying to swing his way out of trouble. Chauhan tormented him with a stream of well flighted deliveries on off turning away from the left hander, who kept sweeping and missing. Then the bowler let one drift a fraction further outside off, Sarfaraz saw the chance to blast a hole through the covers, slogged, the ball turned, took the edge and Azhar at slip, blinded by Mongia moving to cover the ball, dived to his right to hold a catch that was a model of anticipation.

Mansoor Akthar comes from the same stable as Sarfaraz -- and plays his cricket the same way, attempting to force bowlers off line and length. Kumble kept it up, doing nothing fancy, concentrating on bowling wicket to wicket, Akthar -- ringed again by a circle of close in fielders -- figured the on side was where it was happening, looked to flick across the line, and Kumble had one more leg before wicket to his credit.

That brought the injured Inzamam to the wicket. And to my mind, the game went out of India's pocket immediately thereafter. In 22.2 overs, Pakistan were 93/4 (keeping in mind that they were 50/1 in 10, 79/2 in 15). Even Anwar, after his explosive start courtesy Kuruvilla, had begun to feel the pressure to such an extent that Tendulkar felt confident enough to keep two close in fielders on the off when he played Chauhan, and a slip and bat-pad on the on for Kumble. When Inzamam came on, Tendulkar carried his aggression even further, ringing him with slip, silly point, short square leg and short cover.

It was superb attacking captaincy, and just the right thing for the situation because another wicket at this stage would have meant that India was firmly in the driving seat. And then Tendulkar (when I say Tendulkar, I mean the genre 'think tank', because noticeably, former skipper Azhar, former deputy Kumble, current deputy Jadeja and the captain himself were heavilly into conferencing out there at this stage, so one presumes some kind of collective input went into what followed) gave the game away.

He took Chauhan and Kumble off, and brought Ganguly and Robin Singh on. Why? I suppose the thinking was, it is okay if the Pak batsmen took singles, we can still turn the pressure on later by bringing back the singles. But hey, that is half smart thinking -- if you get a guy down, you boot him in the ribs, you don't give him a pillow to lay his head on. And what Anwar and Inzamam got here was a pillow -- a nice, soft little cushion of easy singles to be pushed against the two medium pacers, while the two bowlers who had done all the damage, and who threatened to do much more, were picking daisies in the outfield.

What prompted the change of bowling? Tendulkar wanting to preserve his spinners for the end? As I see it, the "end" is when you get your rivals all out -- and the way to do that is to keep taking wickets when the conditions favour you. At the very least, Tendulkar could have kept attacking with either of his spinners on at one end, and blocked the other with Ganguly -- instead, he took the pressure off at both ends, and Pakistan took the game away.

Karim contributed, when Ganguly induced Inzamam to edge behind and the ball popped into and out of the keeper's glove. Inzy was in fact to be dismissed in identical fashion, by the same combination -- but by then, he had scored 19 off 29, from the four that he was on at the time of the let off, and more important, kept Anwar company in a partnership of 42 runs that took the score to 144.

That brought Moin Khan to the wicket. And produced yet another instance of bad thinking. Seeing Khan and Anwar taking runs with ease against the support bowling, Tendulkar brought Chauhan back. Moin played some of the strangest shots you want to see -- lunging forward a long way down the pitch, his bat held like a paddle in one hand, he kept jabbing at the off spinner, letting ball hit bat and balloon on the leg side to fine leg. In one over, I counted four deliveries played in identical fashion, three going for twos and one going for a three. If you see a batsman repeating a tactic, don't you block him with a fielder -- in this instance, leg slip -- and force him to revise his gameplan? Apparently not, if you are the Indian team.

And from that point on, Moin and Anwar, who eventually went on to his hundred, the 7th in Sharjah alone, took the game away with a sensible accumulation of singles, running well between wickets and gradually chipping away at the target. When Anwar finally fell caught behind off the faint edge to Srinath, it was all too late, and Pakistan were home with four wickets, and 2.4 overs, to spare.

It's like we said in the beginning -- India had its foot on the throat of the opposition. Then it stopped to tie its shoelaces -- and next time it checked, the prey had turned the tables.

So where is the tournament going from here? Pakistan plays England tomorrow. If England wins, it goes through to the final with ease. If Pakistan wins, it ties with England with two wins apiece. And if, on Tuesday, the West Indies defeat India in the final league match, that leaves three teams tied on two wins apiece.

Alternate scenario: if England wins, Pakistan finishes its leage round with one win and two losses. If India wins on Tuesday, then both India and the West Indies join Pakistan with one win and two defeats.

Either way, I suspect that the calculator, as much as bat and ball, will come into play here to determine the teams for Friday's final.

Scoreboard