Most feel Pakistan is looking more positive than Indiaat this stage. The reason is obvious -- as we play more and more against India,the players feel less pressure. We do badly against India in the World Cupbecause we only seem to remember our defeats to them in the premier tournament.These are negative strains. As the matches become regular, Pakistan tends todominate like in Sharjah. Pakistan is a 'lambi race ka ghoda' in thecontext of the two teams.
What Pakistan did in this game was to expose the Indianbatting. I do not think V.V.S. Laxman should be playing one-day game. Instead,they should have played an extra bowler.
They need to rearrange their batting line-up. YuvrajSingh and Mohammed Kaif need to come up the order. Kaif is not the sort ofbatsman who can slog bowlers in the end overs. His technique is good and heneeds to bat in the first 15 overs. India now has good sloggers in Romesh Powar,L. Balaji and Irfan Pathan down the order. They can bring the more organisedbatsmen atop the order. Pakistan is also in a way repating the same mistake,Shoaib Malik, with a better technique, is not suited for the slog overs.
Most of us must were surprised to see Shoaib Akhtar taken off the attack when SauravGanguly walked into the middle. It is because Shoaib gets exhausted after fourovers. Some were also shocked to see him coming around the wicket to Balaji. Hisintention was not to hurt the tail-ender, but to cut down on the angle so thathis edges did not run down to third man for fours. He did the same against ChrisCairns of New Zealand in Sri Lanka a few seasons ago.
Indeed, Shoaib and other fast bowlers should have donethe same to Ganguly. He should not have been afforded that room on theoff-stump.
The Indians ran into Shabbir Ahmed in this game and itwas only expected what unfolded. Shabbir, with his height and high arm action,was able to get good lift from the pitch. The Indians are very good when theball is swinging or the wickets are flat -- but when it bounces, it is adifferent tale. Shabbir has a better Test and ODI record than either ShoaibAkhtar or Mohammed Sami. He is truly a world class bowler in the making.
The Indians were able to put up a good total on theboard, but Yasir Hameed put them on the backfoot with his sparkling play. I donot think any batsman on either side can hit cover drives with so much of elanas Yasir. If Zaheer Abbas was Asia's Bradman, Yasir has it in him to bePakistan's Tendulkar. But the Indians did not bowl him the right line. They alsoneeded an extra fielder on the off-side to curb him.
I was also surprised to see the Indians take off the slip fielders when ShoaibMalik was dismissed. Yasir straightaway was relieved to see a ball fly throughthe vacant slips. The Indians were trying to curb scoring whereas they shouldhave been aiming to get Pakistan out.
Ganguly really needs to fire for his team now. As thewickets kept falling and the fast bowlers looked menacing, he kept pushinghimself down the order. You do not send the right message to your team with thisattitude. Captaincy is all about leading from the front. At present the Indianslook to be down whereas Pakistan appears like a hound which has tasted blood.
On a finishing note, the umpiring was a bit dodgy inthis game. Powar and Inzamam-ul Haq could feel done in by poor judgement of theumpires. Yasir though was lucky with a leg-before shout against him.
Imran Khan said his man-of-the-match was Yasir Hameed.My choice would have been Abdul Razzaq. This man proves his worth with the bator ball in every second or third match he plays. His runs were critical and whenthe Indians were batting, he got Ganguly out when the Indian captain looked setfor a century.
PTI
