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India's
Tour Of Pakistan 2004 |
CricketFundas
Highlights for the 4th ODI at Lahore
Presented
by B.V.Swagath
Thousands
of Indian fans crossed over to Lahore from Delhi
for the 4th ODI at the Gaddaffi
Stadium. India was in a “must win” situation
or the Samsung Cup would be with Inzy and his
boys. With just a day in between the last match
at Peshawar and the Lahore match, the men in
blue had to drastically lift their game and sort
out all their woes. For Inzy and his boys, this
match serves them to shut the door for the men
in blue and take the series 3-1. A festive crowd
with the largest Indian contingent so far in the
series turned up and the stadium was packed with
high noise decibels.
THE
FLIP OF THE COIN
Inzamam must be having a special coaching
session for winning tosses from magicians. For
the fourth time in a row, Inzy won the toss and
Pakistan would bat first on a hard and dry
Lahore wicket. Pakistan for the 3rd
time stuck with the same eleven; India made a
surprise change in bringing back Murali Kartik.
Kartik replaced Ramesh Powar who I must say was
unlucky to be dropped.
THE
PAKISTANI INNINGS
It was Irfan Pathan/Balaji against Yasir Hameed/Afridi
and on this flat track, the Pathan/Balaji had to
be very precise in their line and length. Pathan
has made this wonderful habit of giving early
breakthroughs for his team and Afridi was one of
those early breakthroughs. Afridi couldn’t put
his cut shot down and was taken by a leaping
Yuvraj at Point. Yousuf Youhana was trapped in
front with a beautiful late in swinger from
Irfan, and this happened just minutes after
Rameez Raza was commenting that “it’s
difficult to get Youhana out lbw”. The two
inform batsmen, Yasir Hameed and Inzamam had a
big responsibility of reconstructing the
innings. The Indian bowlers had finally done
their homework on Yasir Hameed and today
wasn’t a day when Yasir was getting his runs
in full flow with those spanking drives. Murali
Kartik was too good for Yasir, as the bowler
deliberately released the ball late and beat the
batsman in the air. With Younis Khan, Inzamam
added another good partnership for Pakistan and
the home side was back on the railings. Inzamam
took his time to reach his fifty and after that
it was the “whack whack whack “ from Inzy to
the bowlers. From Murali Kartik to Sachin
Tendulkar to Balaji, everyone got the taste of
Inzy’s big hitting. Kartik ended the hundred
run partnership dismissing Younis Khan. Razzaq
continued to have a wonderful year and was
striking the ball cleanly. Balaji had his
revenge finally when he had Inzamam inside
edging onto his stumps. That ended a wonderful
knock of 123 off 121 balls, which included four
massive hits. Balaji then yorked the “out of
form” Moin Khan for a duck. Pakistan finally
ended their innings at 292/9 with Sachin and
Zaheer bowling well in the Death. Pakistan was
surely 20-30 runs short but still 293 was a good
score with their bowlers doing well.
THE INDIAN CHASE
Millions of hopes were wrested on Sachin
Tendulkar, and Tendulkar disappointed all of
them falling to Shoaib. Sehwag and Laxman hit
some fours to keep the tempo going but Shoaib
wasn’t going to keep the party going for the
Indians. Laxman’s stumps were castled by the
Rawalpind Express, though one should applaud
Laxman for reaching his first “double
figures” score against Pakistan. Veeru was
taken at slips off Sami and that brought in
Rahul Dravid with Ganguly. The run rate was
still good with Ganguly playing some sweetly
timed shots. Razzaq like in the last ODI at
Peshawar accounted for the wicket of the Indian
skipper, forcing the left-hander to nick one
behind the stumps. Yuvraj Singh joined his Vice
Captain and had to build a partnership with the
run rate still good for the Indians. Yuvraj with
some gorgeous cover drives and Dravid with his
steady batting at the other end brought Indian
back in the game. Yuvraj struck a clean pull
shot, which was heading towards the ropes but
for Yousuf Youhana who came in the way at short
midwicket to pull off a sensational catch.
“Shell Shocked” was Yuvraj and millions of
Indian fans. Kaif walked in and his critics not
giving him any chance of seeing things through
for India. But with a cool head and with the
able support of THE WALL – Rahul Dravid, the
pair took India past the daunting target of 293
with the team at 90/4 at one stage. With still 5
overs to spare and 5 wickets in hand, I must say
that this was a convincing victory!!! Man of the
Match was Inzamam ul Haq for his 10th
century in his career.
What a series it has
been!!! The series has gone now to the decider,
which is at the same venue on Wednesday.
Whichever team commits fewer mistakes on that
day should win the Samsung Cup 3-2. Looking
forward for the final ODI on Wednesday, it’s
time to end this Cricketfundas Highlights for
this match.
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