NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

The Pakistan innings

Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a dream batting pitch awaiting them at Jamshedpur -- hard, flat, flawless. And Wasim Akram, winning the toss, promptly opted for first strike. Both teams, interestingly, went in to the game with an attack balanced between pace and spin -- indication that the team managements, aware of the flat nature of the track, were leaving themselves with plenty of options either way.

The way Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi started, though, one got the feeling Lanka could have packed the side with 10 bowlers without making much of a difference. Anwar was his usual self -- on a track where he could come onto the front foot without any hesitation, the left-hander's pickup and easing of the bat through the shot was a treat to watch. Afridi, meanwhile, did what he does best -- used his impressive musculature to send the ball travelling, in directions most batsmen wouldn't dream of attempting.

What is noticeable about the new, improved version of Afridi -- we've been hearing, incidentally, about how coach Javed Miandad has made it his personal business to get him to go easy on the adrenalin, to make his stint in the middle last longer -- is that unlike in the past, he doesn't get carried away too often. Previously, if he hit one ball for a six, you could bet good money he'd try to send the next one further. Bowlers in fact banked on it and exploited that tendency to take him out. Now, he tends to follow a big one with a gentle push for a single, and that is a good sign for Pakistan.

Chaminda Vaas and Pramodaya Wickremasinghe did the right thing early on when they denied Afridi width to go blasting -- the batsman's impatience got the better of him and an agricultural slog produced a swirling skier that Marvan Atapattu, at mid off, put down -- apparently, the Lankans haven't quite wiped all the butter off their fingers yet.

From then on, it was all Afridi and Anwar. 29/0 in 5 became 71/0 in 10 and 119/0 in 15 and the way they were shaping, 300 was the least the Pak dressing room would have been happy with. Anwar, outscoring Afridi, got to his 50 off just 36, the first Pakistan 50 took all of 46 deliveries and the next, a mere 34.

The paucity of Lanka's bowling resources, meanwhile, were underlined by the introduction of Hathurasinghe in the 10th over -- too prominent a position, one would think, for a bowler averaging above 50 for each of his wickets.

Credit Wickremasinghe with the turnaround. Having gone for 34 in his first four overs, he came back and bowled noticeably slower, which meant the batsmen began struggling to get the ball off the square.

The first wicket fell against the run of play, when Upul Chandana held one back, forcing Anwar to drive early, the bowler diving to his left to take a great return catch just when the stylish opener was looking good to cream the attack for a century-plus.

Afridi's dismissal was more predictable. He seemed obviously irritated by the fact that Wickremasinghe, whose bowling he had feasted off in the first spell, wasn't putting it there to be clubbed. And rather like a petulant kid, Afridi stood up on his hind legs and belted one that didn't come on the way it was supposed to, managing only to waft it down the throat of long off.

Good captaincy got Lanka its third wicket. Inzamam came into this game with that double hundred at Dhaka backing him -- but throughout the tour of India, he has been struggling with his footwork and timing. Seeing him tentative to his first few deliveries, Ranatunga promptly brought in a slip, Wickremasinghe put one in the corridor around off and Inzamam pushed at it with feet set in cement, putting the slip immediately in business.

Wickremasinghe was into a nice rhythm by this stage, and in his next over, he struck two vital blows in rapid succession. Ijaz who, like Inzamam, hasn't of late looked too sure around the off stump region, was tested in the corridor and like his predecessor, pushed at the ball with bat well away from body for the keeper to hold well as the ball died in front of him. And off the very next ball, Moin Khan tried to flick at a slow incutter, to be trapped plumb in front. 147/0 to 160/5 at that stage, and the advantage of a great start had been well and truly squandered.

Pakistan's propensity to crack suddenly and inexplicably came to the fore here. Having stood there and watched two wickets fall off two balls should have induced sobriety in Yousuf Youhanna. But off the very first ball of the next over, he pushed straight to point, kept his eye on the ball, completely ignored his non-striker and took off down the pitch -- a needless run out if ever there was one.

Wickremasinghe must have appreciated the irony of trying for a hat-trick against Wasim Akram, the guy who had taken two against the Lankans just recently. He did produce a good shout for LBW, but it wasn't good enough for the decision. But Akram didn't last long in any case, pushing one to extra cover and taking off for the single. The throw was a touch wide, stand-in keeper Tillekeratne's gather wasn't of the cleanest and it was all rather a mess -- the available evidence indicated that the batsman could have been given the benefit, but umpire Gupta ruled him out without even reference to the third umpire.

Chalk up, right there, the first umpiring controversy in a series that is going to have more than its due share. Next man in, Saqlain Mushtaq, took his own time to get to the wicket, and was lucky not to get timed out. Worse, he marched straight to Gupta and did some frantic gesticulation -- judging by what we saw, he seemed to be indicating to the umpire that he should have referred that to the third umpire. At this point, Azhar Mahmood, the non-striker, also got into the act, and the umpire stood there, looking flummoxed and unsure about how to proceed.

That incident underlines the problem of using unfit officials. Any good umpire would have called for the video verdict on that one for starters, since the take by the keeper was not particularly clean. Having given his decision, for better or worse, a good umpire would have simply ordered the batsmen to their respective ends -- the kind of protest Saqlain and Azhar indulged in was in clear violation of the code of conduct, but Gupta seemed too overwhelmed to do more than stand there and take it.

To make matters worse, Saqlain then snicked one -- a clear, and very audible, edge -- from Hathurasinghe through to the keeper. The appeal was good, but the umpire, who by then was looking completely rattled, ruled otherwise. (Pakistan was to add to the pressure on the officials later in the day, with some frenetic appealing -- it seemed a bit over the top to watch midwicket, at one point, joining in a huge shout for LBW against Aravinda, to cite one example).

Azhar Mahmood has been in bad touch for a while, and the two run outs he was involved in seemed to have got under his skin -- producing a third fatal mixup. This time it was Saqlain on the push behind square, straight to the fielder, Azhar -- who till then had tended to turn down more obvious singles -- suddenly took off, and was well short when the direct hit broke the stumps (this one went to the third umpire, incidentally, and with the batsman about two yards out, that worthy took a good three, four minutes to give a decision).

Pakistan, 149/1 in 20 overs, had slumped dramatically to 198/7 in 40, 217/8 in 45. Where the third 50 of the innings had come off 44 balls, the fourth took 121 -- and cost 7 wickets. Only an obdurate partnership of 36 for the ninth, between Saqlain (who was let off on the backward square fence during this period) and Arshad Khan took the Pakistan total to some respectability -- though at the end, 246/9 didn't seem anything near defensible on this track.

The Lankans did very well to weather the early onslaught and come right back into the game, thanks to some thoughtful bowling by Wickremasinghe in particular -- his last six overs went for 14, for 4 wickets. However, better outcricket would have seen Pakistan bowled out under the 50-over mark, and this tendency to drop catches at the rate of two, three per game is liable to cost the islanders dear as the tournament moves along.

The Lankan chase

Scoreboard