'Don't Count Us Out Yet'

It is a do-or-die situation for the Indian team in theSamsung Cup after Pakistan moved ahead with a four-wicket victory at Peshawar.One certainly cannot count this Indian team out as we have lived up to thechallenges before when faced with similar situations.

Pakistani bowlers especially Shabbir Ahmed made use ofthe early morning conditions pegging back our batsmen. Yuvraj Singh played amatured knock well supported by the lower order batsmen. L. Balaji was arevelation with the bat in the final overs and every time I see Irfan Pathan atthe crease he looks an improved batsman.

Pathan started off successfully by bringing one backinto Shahid Afridi and celebrated a well planned Yousuf Youhana's dismissal. Theother Pakistani opener Yasir Hameed looks a class act, he played some delectablecover drives often coming at the bowler.

I thought Balaji and Zaheer Khan, who bowled a well-disguised slower ball, couldhave used it to good effect against Yasir early in his innings.

The experienced duo of Moin Khan and Abdul Razzaq tookthe Pakistanis home to register a comfortable victory in the end.

The contests so far in this series have beenwell-fought and have been really close and considering the fact that the earliertour match with Pakistan 'A' at Lahore was a high-scoring drama, one can lookforward to another run-feast.

One aspect our batsmen should address would be to goafter the Pakistani spinners in the middle overs. Our batsmen have not been ableto spoil the bowling patterns of Inzamam-ul Haq in the middle overs, more so inthe last two matches.

The other area of concern would be to come up with aplan to restrict Razzaq. He has been in great form since his devastation of theKiwis in the final overs during their tour of Pakistan recently. His battingrevolves mainly around creating enough room to swing the bat.

With the exception of Inzamam and Youhana, the rest ofthe batsmen love to play inside out and I believe if our bowlers bowlconsistently in areas to cramp them for room, we would have a better chance ofrestricting their batsmen.

The ideal result would be 2-2 going into a grand finaleat Lahore. One hopes that the Indians would be able to raise their game andprovide entertainment and joy to millions of followers.

PTI