If at all, there could be two chances now for the match. It's either going to be a draw, that is, I mean, the Indians too play some nice cricket and stay in the game. The second chance is the Pakistanis will try to make a match out of it, in which case the Indians could also be coming to a close draw.
But then, if the last two hours of play could have been saved on Saturday, a draw would have been inevitable.
Now, at this score and run rate, there is enough time for the bowlers to get 20 wickets out in the match.
Coming to Pakistan's innings, hats off to a guy like Mohammad Yousuf. I think we have to give full credit to him. He was the one who really built up the run rate early in the innings.
And of course Younis Khan played a brilliant innings. He played very matured cricket, which helped the team get its innings together.
Md Yousuf's brilliant knock really impressed me. To get a run rate of more than 6 runs is amazing, it's just like one-day cricket. And when you have almost seven fielders on the boundary line and still get that run rate is an amazing achievement from Pakistan's batting point of view.
I thought Afridi played a superb innings. Afridi usually gives some kind of chances earlier in the innings. But this time, he played a little bit of sensible knock. Just imagine if Afridi's sensible knock gets him 100 of just 73 balls, if he goes crazy, what kind of a knock he will be capable of!
Kamran Akamal seems to be going from strength to strength. This is probably his fourth hundred in a match in just about 45 days, which is really amazing. He has got two hundreds in one-day internationals, two hundreds in Test cricket in just one-and-a-half month, which goes on to show the kind of confidence this guy has.
And he gets this hundred in just 81 balls. It's fantastic. It's a great achievement. This is what usually guys like Viv Richards used to get in the good old days. Remember, Kamran Akamal didn't really play too many big shots. He played more of intelligent cricket than anything else.
Overall, it was a great batting performance from the Pakistanis.
As for our bowling, as I said earlier on, it's not a great wicket for any bowler. There was no support or any help for any kind of bowling, be it medium pace or be it spinners.
But the important thing that I would still like to stress is there are times when we are going to find this kind of wickets. So, even in this kind of a wicket, you should have something extra to deliver - something at least to trouble the opposition.
You can't simply go on saying the wicket is dry and I can't do anything. That's not international calibre.
So, what I want to stress is that our medium pacers need some extra net, need extra swing, which is what is lacking on the Indian side. They neither have the extra swing nor do they have the extra net. They have to develop this if they want to be really great, successful bowlers.
That's one thing people like Irfan Pathan has got to learn fast. As for people like Ajit Agarkar, unfortunately it seems, he can't survive in this level for long.
Coming to Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, yes, the wicket had no life. But then there were times when the ball did look like turning a bit.
But, like I said earlier, they could have tried to cut down the run rate. They should have bowled a little bit more intelligently. After having played so much of Test cricket, after having played so much of international cricket, I thought they could have used a little bit of their experience, which I felt was not utilised very well.
Coming to India's approach, yes it's a good reply the Indians have given so far. Especially, I would like to support Virender Sehwag. That's the way he should play.
That should be the approach against people like Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami and Naved ul Hassan, who are all fit bowlers. The best way is to play reasonably, play positive cricket and go for a counter-attack.
If you go on defensive, you are going to have it.
Because, they already have runs. You are going to play very positive cricket. When I say positive, it should be positive to the extent of playing good cricket and at the same time saving wickets which, I am sure, the Indians are capable of.
I would also suggest the Indians should play session by session. They should not think about 600 or a follow-on. They should just go and play it as a normal match. Because the wicket still looks very good from batting point of view.
The only factor here is the Pakistanis have the advantage of coming back to the game. At any given point of time, even assuming that they have a 150-run partnership between Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, or any good partnership for that matter, the moment the Pakistanis get two quick wickets, the Indians will be in trouble.
That's the only plus point for the hosts as of now. So, we have to be very clear on that - we shouldn't lose wickets, which means we need some good partnerships. That's going to be a very important factor.
The Indian batting lineup - at least on paper - looks very fantastic. They are all very solid cricketers. I don't find any reason why we should not develop some good partnership and try to level it off.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:January 14, 2006, 20:59 ISTlast updated:January 14, 2006, 20:59 IST
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The second day's play went reasonably as expected from the Pakistan's point of view. The only thing I did not expect was the rate of scoring. That's where I think the Indian bowlers could have done better. Granted, the wicket was pretty placid, but yet, I think, the Indians just let the Pakistanis do their job at will.
If at all, there could be two chances now for the match. It's either going to be a draw, that is, I mean, the Indians too play some nice cricket and stay in the game. The second chance is the Pakistanis will try to make a match out of it, in which case the Indians could also be coming to a close draw.
But then, if the last two hours of play could have been saved on Saturday, a draw would have been inevitable.
Now, at this score and run rate, there is enough time for the bowlers to get 20 wickets out in the match.
Coming to Pakistan's innings, hats off to a guy like Mohammad Yousuf. I think we have to give full credit to him. He was the one who really built up the run rate early in the innings.
And of course Younis Khan played a brilliant innings. He played very matured cricket, which helped the team get its innings together.
Md Yousuf's brilliant knock really impressed me. To get a run rate of more than 6 runs is amazing, it's just like one-day cricket. And when you have almost seven fielders on the boundary line and still get that run rate is an amazing achievement from Pakistan's batting point of view.
I thought Afridi played a superb innings. Afridi usually gives some kind of chances earlier in the innings. But this time, he played a little bit of sensible knock. Just imagine if Afridi's sensible knock gets him 100 of just 73 balls, if he goes crazy, what kind of a knock he will be capable of!
Kamran Akamal seems to be going from strength to strength. This is probably his fourth hundred in a match in just about 45 days, which is really amazing. He has got two hundreds in one-day internationals, two hundreds in Test cricket in just one-and-a-half month, which goes on to show the kind of confidence this guy has.
And he gets this hundred in just 81 balls. It's fantastic. It's a great achievement. This is what usually guys like Viv Richards used to get in the good old days. Remember, Kamran Akamal didn't really play too many big shots. He played more of intelligent cricket than anything else.
Overall, it was a great batting performance from the Pakistanis.
As for our bowling, as I said earlier on, it's not a great wicket for any bowler. There was no support or any help for any kind of bowling, be it medium pace or be it spinners.
But the important thing that I would still like to stress is there are times when we are going to find this kind of wickets. So, even in this kind of a wicket, you should have something extra to deliver - something at least to trouble the opposition.
You can't simply go on saying the wicket is dry and I can't do anything. That's not international calibre.
So, what I want to stress is that our medium pacers need some extra net, need extra swing, which is what is lacking on the Indian side. They neither have the extra swing nor do they have the extra net. They have to develop this if they want to be really great, successful bowlers.
That's one thing people like Irfan Pathan has got to learn fast. As for people like Ajit Agarkar, unfortunately it seems, he can't survive in this level for long.
Coming to Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, yes, the wicket had no life. But then there were times when the ball did look like turning a bit.
But, like I said earlier, they could have tried to cut down the run rate. They should have bowled a little bit more intelligently. After having played so much of Test cricket, after having played so much of international cricket, I thought they could have used a little bit of their experience, which I felt was not utilised very well.
Coming to India's approach, yes it's a good reply the Indians have given so far. Especially, I would like to support Virender Sehwag. That's the way he should play.
That should be the approach against people like Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami and Naved ul Hassan, who are all fit bowlers. The best way is to play reasonably, play positive cricket and go for a counter-attack.
If you go on defensive, you are going to have it.
Because, they already have runs. You are going to play very positive cricket. When I say positive, it should be positive to the extent of playing good cricket and at the same time saving wickets which, I am sure, the Indians are capable of.
I would also suggest the Indians should play session by session. They should not think about 600 or a follow-on. They should just go and play it as a normal match. Because the wicket still looks very good from batting point of view.
The only factor here is the Pakistanis have the advantage of coming back to the game. At any given point of time, even assuming that they have a 150-run partnership between Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, or any good partnership for that matter, the moment the Pakistanis get two quick wickets, the Indians will be in trouble.
That's the only plus point for the hosts as of now. So, we have to be very clear on that - we shouldn't lose wickets, which means we need some good partnerships. That's going to be a very important factor.
The Indian batting lineup - at least on paper - looks very fantastic. They are all very solid cricketers. I don't find any reason why we should not develop some good partnership and try to level it off.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
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