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Light saves Pak
from Kumble's fire and from going down 0-2 |
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Pakistan
had batted out more than 168 overs in their
first innings, in terms of hours, it was close
to 12 hours! In their second innings, they had
to bat out just a little more than a session.
But that was almost enough for a breathtaking
result - an Indian win which was halted only by
bad light with Pakistan having just the three
wickets in hand and over 10 overs to go. Anil
Kumble did the turnaround for all the bowlers in
this test match with a completely changed
bowling strategy. While the caption for his
bowling is leg break/googly, Kumble was more of
a leg cutter and an outswinger bowler today
which sent five Pakistani batsmen walking back
to the pavilion in a hurry.
Light literally played spoilsport for the
Indians but they are already a satisfied team as
they could achieve a home series win against the
arch rivals after 27 years! Pakistan did deserve
a draw because of their beautiful fightback ever
since they were bludgeoned for 626 runs by the
hosts. Light came into play at around 4:25 PM
IST. Both teams prior to the series had declined
to use artificial lights to continue play in
case of bad light. And with no chance of the sun
breaking through the clouds, the result was loud
and clear - a draw. The stadium authorities
acted quickly in displaying all the essential
updates on the big electronic screens to have
the crowd informed. The nets over the stands
were also pulled down as precautionary measures.
The crowd got a good game overall, lot of great
batting display and the occasional good bowling
spells.
India had started the final day thinking of
securing the game further, they were 131 for 2
with a lead of 220. The overnight pair of Dravid
and Ganguly weathered any early morning storms
to further take the game away from the hosts. As
the first hour passed by, India took the lead to
264 with both Dravid and Ganguly still hanging
in there. The partnership was broken by a googly
from Kaneria which beat Dravid's defence to rap
him up on the frontpad. Dravid made just 42
(from 121 balls with 6 fours) but figured in a
vital stand of 152 with Ganguly. The next over
after Dravid's wicket, Ganguly too departed back
to the pavilion missing out on a rare feat of
getting a double and a century in a test match.
He was gone for 91 (from 134 balls with 12 fours
and a six) after cutting Mohammad Sami straight
to the fielder at gully. A couple of overs
later, Umpire Rudi Koertzen gave a bad decision
to end birthday boy Yuvraj Singh's stay at the
middle.
Yuvraj was given caught behind off Sami but
what happened was that it was a case of the bat
hitting the boot that foxed the umpire. Things
became quite dramatic with three wickets going
down in a short space of time. India finished
the first session at 221 for 5 in 62 overs
taking their lead past the 300 run mark. In the
post lunch session, India received a big blow
with VVS Laxman getting hit on his unprotected
elbow to a bouncer from Shoaib Akhtar which just
didn't get up at all. Laxman (14) had to retire
hurt, the biggest worry now was his availability
for the Australian tour. Later in the day, the
news came that there was no big damage to rule
out VVS. The declaration from Kumble came in
after an hour's batting from Dinesh Karthik, who
came up with an entertaining half century. Soon
after reaching his half century (52 from 67 with
8 fours and a six), Karthik got out nicking one
behind off Yasir Arafat. Pathan stayed unbeaten
on 21 and India declared its innings after
Karthik's wicket at 284 for 6 leaving a daunting
target of 374 from a possible 47 overs.
Pakistan batted out 10 overs before tea
without any problem. The two opening batsmen
Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt looked in control
and the match was expected to become an
inevitable draw at around 4:00 PM. But Kumble
probably had other ideas. He almost bowled like
a medium pacer and gave the breakthrough with
one 109kmph skidder that went past the bat off
Hameed (39 from 41 balls with 8 fours) to
disturb the furniture. In the same over, which
was the 14th over, Kumble caught and bowled
Younus Khan off a loose on the rise drive to
make the match exciting. For the next half an
hour or so, normalcy was restored through Salman
Butt and an attacking Faisal Iqbal. Once again
Kumble came up with the breakthrough, this time
getting Salman Butt (8 from 58 balls) to under
edge a cut shot which was taken well by Karthik.
Another tiny partnership kept the Indians
waiting with Faisal Iqbal and Misbah-ul-Haq
holding the fort. It was ended by a quicker one
from Kumble which induced a miscued pull shot
from Faisal Iqbal, who had raced away to 51
(with 8 fours) in nearly as many deliveries. An
Indian win was looking possible when Kumble
cleaned up the stumps of Kamran Akmal in the
very next ball with a leg cutter. Seven balls
later, Yuvraj joined the party with an armer
that crashed through the Wall of Pakistan,
Misbah-ul-Haq (37 form 40 balls with 7 fours).
Yuve bowled a similar kind of delivery that sent
Yasir Arafat for a 2-ball duck to leave Pak at
154 for 7. Yousuf, who came at no.7 was the only
man capable of saving the Test, he was helped by
the light factor soon. Anil Kumble had
destructive figures of 5 for 60 in 14 overs and
Yuvraj seems to be a very useful part timer as
he got 2 for 9 in 3 overs. The Man of the Match
and the Man of the Series both were taken by
Sourav Ganguly.
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