The Tormentor

For Pakistan and its countless fans, the sight of Shoaib Malik walking in tobat at the fall of the first – or second – wicket against India must bereassuring. For the Indians though, the tall batsman evokes different emotions.

India's bugbear has left Team India scratching its collective head, wonderinghow his prolific scoring ways can be curtailed. Pace bowler S Sreesanth seemedto have opened up a chink in the solid armoury when he got Malik to edge adelivery to second slip but Gautam Gambhir spilled a simple catch on a day whenIndia missed some straightforward chances.

Dropped at 12, Malik faced no more hiccups as he went on to keep his datewith a battling century that would have made the thousands of Indians in theGaddafi Stadium stands marvel at his consistent displays against the Men inBlue. Come to think of it, India's tormentor is just 24 years of age and cankeep adding to his wonderful tally.

For someone who was released from the team to attend on his ailing fatherduring the second Test against India – and recalled in a hurry only to be sentback upon hearing of his father's demise – and for someone who was not pickedfor the third Test in his hour of grief, Malik has celebrated his return with somefine efforts.

In the three matches in the series, he has strung together scores of 90, 95and 108, making many question former Pakistan captain Imran Khan's decision topick on Malik's continued presence at No. 3 as one of the reasons for the team'sloss in Rawalpindi. Of course, Shahid Afridi opened the innings on Monday,pushing Kamran Akmal and Malik down the order.

Some figures may be in order now. In 19 matches against India, he has made961 runs at an average of 53.38 runs each innings, crossing 50 as many as 10times and picking up his second century on Monday. Contrastingly, he has scored2932 runs at an average of 34.90 runs in his career spanning 110 one-dayinternational matches (95 innings).

The turning point really was his knock of 143 in the Asia Cup match inColombo in 2004 when he batted at No. 3 for the first time against India. Forsomeone who had made only 122 runs in his first six innings against India, hethen proceeded to rustle up 839 in the next 13 innings at a whopping average of64.38 runs with as many as nine 50-plus scores.

A mature approach rather than the simply bustling methods that a Afridi iswont to apply, marks Malik's game. To be sure, he can hit the ball really hardwhen he chooses to – in fact, when he was first sent up the order, he wasassigned the role of a pinch hitter – but he now prefers to work the ball inthe gaps.

In the first two games at Peshawar and Rawlapindi, he was dismissed in the90s. There was not a hint of tension or alarm as he coasted through to thetriple figure mark for the fifth time in 110 one-day games.

The crowd cheered every run that Malik added for the seventh-wicket withAbdul Razzaq, roaring each time either batsman found the boundary. Pakistan rodeon the calming influence of Malik and the blitzing abilities of that wonderfulfinisher called Razzaq to raise 89 runs in the final 10 overs.

Tiring as he may have been, he would be the first to admit that he wasdismissed at a critical stage but then Pakistan would be grateful that he hadput his hand up against India one more time.