One All With One To Go

In the end there were no heroics and the faint hopes ofa fightback vanished with the early dismissal of Virender Sehwag as Indiacapitulated to give Pakistan a series-levelling nine-wicket win in the secondTest at Lahore today.

The odds were stacked heavily  against thevisitors when they resumed their second innings on the fourth morning at 149 forfive but optimists were hoping for a miracle from the Multan Testtriple-centurion Sehwag, overnight on 86. He added only four runs beforeperishing to Shoaib Akhtar, who bowled at his best in the series to take 3 for62.

A gritty unbeaten 62 by baby-faced Parthiv Patel and afew lusty blows from Ajit Agarkar (36) enabled India to avoid the humiliation ofan innings defeat. The visitors were all out for 241, leaving Pakistan to make40 runs for a victory which they achieved for the loss of Imran Farhat's wicketshortly after lunch.

The Indians managed to dismiss Farhat (9) to reduce the margin of defeat even asfellow opener Taufiq Umar played the winning shot to mark the victory amidstvociferous cheers from the thin crowd that had gathered at the Gaddafi Stadiumto witness a remarkable victory by the home team in a do-or-die encounter.

The defeat also meant India failed yet another time tobreak their jinx of squandering the lead in an away Test series, a shortcomingwhich captain Rahul Dravid had promised to set right ahead of the crucialencounter.

In recent years, the Indians have thrice won a Testonly to lose the next match in the series. The trend started in Zimbabwe threeyears ago and continued in the West Indies in 2002 and in Australia late lastyear.

Resuming at the overnight score of 149-5, the twoovernight batsmen Sehwag and Patel, who desperately needed to survive the firsthour's play, when conditions favour the bowlers, played out the first six overswithout seeming to be in any discomfort.

But the seventh over from Shoaib spelt doom for Indiaas the tearaway sent back Sehwag (90) and Pathan (0) in the same over to bringhis team within sniffing distance of a win.

After the excellent spell, it was leg-spinner Danish Kaneria who found India'stail easy meat in taking 3 for 14. The massive first innings lead of 202 byPakistan, which made 489 against India's 287, proved too much in the end for thevisitors.

Medium-pacer Umar Gul was named man-of-the-match forhis 5 for 31 on the opening day when India self-destructed with the decision tobat first on a lively wicket coupled with some irresponsible batting by the toporder in both the innings.

The visitors now go to the deciding Test at Rawalpindistarting April 13 after giving a desperately-needed boost to the Pakistanibowling which had neither clicked in the one-day series nor in the Multan Testwhich India won by an innings and 52 runs.

Earlier, Sehwag played a rather rash shot, fishing at an outgoing delivery fromShoaib and nicked it to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps much to the jubilation ofhis teammates who needed his wicket to close all escape routes for the visitors.His 134-ball 90 came in 214 minutes and contained 14 boundaries.

The left-handed Pathan, promoted ahead of Agarkar afterhis gutsy 49 in the first innings, managed to survive just four balls as he fellprey to a rising delivery from Shoaib. Pathan tried to fend off a short pitcheddelivery but could not keep it down as the ball ballooned up for Umar to takethe catch in the slip cordon.

With the Indians slumping to 160 for seven by theseventh over of the morning and with no other recognised batsmen to come, thevisitors had absolutely no chance of saving the match. It was whether they couldavoid an innings defeat and make the opposition bat again.

Patel and Agarkar unleashed some amazing shots to wipeout the deficit as they sought to give India a decent lead by playing attackingcricket.

Patel also executed some superb shots on both sides ofthe wicket and took three runs off Gul to notch up his second Test half century.

The pair put on 75 runs for the eighth wicket beforeKaneria brought an end to their association by getting the scalp of Agarkar whoedged the ball to Umar.

The remaining two Indians wickets fell quickly as bothAnil Kumble and Lakshmipathy Balaji failed to even open their account, leavingPatel undefeated on 62, equalling his highest Test score.

PTI