'Let There Be A Fair Contest'

Now that India and Pakistan have had a good look ateach other's strengths and weaknesses and are level in this five-match series,from an Indian perspective, it will be good to start afresh and treat this as athree-match series and look to win the next match. This would put enormouspressure on the hosts as we go to Lahore for the double-header.

After the second one-dayer in the Samsung Cup, thehonours are even with both teams looking up to their bowlers for someinspirational spells. The pitches so far -- both at Karachi and Rawalpindi --have been too good for any bowler to make an impact. In fact, one hopes that itwill be a fair contest between bat and ball from now on.

Once again Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag got offto a flier with the former carrying on to make a fine century, in the processcrossing yet another milestone -- 13,000 runs in ODIs. Unfortunately for India,none of the other batsmen were able to support Tendulkar and go on to make a bigscore, which was the need of the hour.

Firstly, India had to overhaul a huge score and secondly there had to be onebatsman right through the end and that batsman had to be one of the top four.

Both Sachin and Yuvraj Singh got out to shots timedbeautifully but found the fielder in the deep. While the Pakistani bowlers keptgetting wickets at regular intervals, debutant Ramesh Powar batted sensiblyalong with Lakshmipathy Balaji at the end to give a glimmer of hope. In a runchase such as this, it is important to bat the full quota of 50 overs andprobably the margin of defeat would have been even smaller had we battedthrough. Or maybe, we would have squeezed through with some luck.

Our bowling fell apart in the first 15 overs withShahid Afridi and Yasir Hameed giving the right kind of start Pakistan waslooking for. I had mentioned previously the usage of the short-ball, especiallyto someone like Afridi who is certainly uncomfortable early on in his innings. Ithought Ashish Nehra bowled a superb line and varied his length effectively.Yuvraj mixed his deliveries and varied his pace to good effect.

So far in this contest, where the lowest score has been 317 runs, it isimportant for the bowlers to back their abilities and stick to the basicprinciples of line and length. It is easy to feel disheartened and heed tovarious theories and advice that come from different quarters but what remainsimportant is to feel good about one's rhythm and keep the thought processsimple.

It was nice to read reports about Rahul Dravid, MuraliKartik and some of the other players visiting historical sites. On tour it isvery vital to take time off, this certainly helps relax the mind to getrefreshed. While music is the most sought after option, only a few indulge inventuring out.

Another player joins the 500 club: My congratulationsto Muthiah Muralitharan for this outstanding feat. While my colleague Tendulkar will most certainly rewrite battingrecords, Murali shall ensure that his wicket taking counter will only jump in fives!

PTI