Too Hot To Handle

The Indians put up a commanding all-round performancewith Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid blasting centuries to propel them to achallenging 281 for eight before Sachin Tendulkar picked up his secondfive-wicket haul to skittle out the visitors for 194 with nearly five overs tospare.

It was not a convincing batting display with captain SauravGanguly's first ball dismissal being a black spot in the bright glow and thefailure of the middle order resulting in a scoreline significantly less than thehosts would have settled for on a benign pitch.

But Tendulkar's star turn with the ball, five for 50,combined with the Pakistani batsmen's reluctance to apply themselves gave thehosts a facile victory at the packed Jawarharlal Nehru stadium.

Incidentally, Tendulkar had grabbed his first five-wickethaul also at the same venue, a match winning 5-32 against the Australians in1998.

The victory also helped India narrow their win-lossrecord against Pakistan at home to 5-11 and buck the sequence of fourconsecutive ODI defeats.

Earlier, India seemed to run out of gas as they suffered a middle order collapseimmediately after the record third-wicket stand between Sehwag and Dravid.

Sehwag cracked a typically aggressive 108 from 95 ballswhile vice-captain Dravid made a steady 104 but the hosts lost their way afterthe former's departure towards the closing stages.

The duo put on 201 runs from 199 balls, which betteredthe previous best between the two teams -- 161 put up by Dravid and MohammadAzharuddin at Toronto in 1996.

Yet, the total, on a perfect batting strip, at bestcould have been termed as competitive and something the bowlers could defend.

The fall of quick wickets on either side of thepartnership undermined Ganguly's decision to bat first.

Off-spinner Arshad Khan finished with four for 33 toslice through the tail while Rana Naved-ul-Hasan (2-38) did the early damage,removing Tendulkar (4) and Ganguly (0) off successive balls.

India were 205 for two at one stage before they lostsix wickets for 64 runs in the last 15 overs.

The extreme heat and humidity, a sudden shift from thecooler climes of Bangalore, had a debilitating effect on players of both theteams.

Shahid Afridi and Rana, suffered cramps while India's scoring rate was affectedas Dravid seemed drained from his effort. The vice-captain did not take thefield during the Pakistan innings.

The 'Wall' might have expected the young guns to takecharge as he approached his century, but he was let down by Yuvraj Singh (16),Mohammad Kaif (7) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (3), who all perished to innocuousshots.

Dravid found the task of providing the late thrust toomuch to handle, and was run out to a direct hit.

India thus lacked that big kick in the last lap andsimply crawled towards the final post.

The Indians, however, were cruising at jet speeddespite the twin dismissals of Tendulkar and Ganguly in the second over.

Tendulkar was caught at mid-on as he top edged Ranawhile attempting a big heave off the bowler. The right arm pacer then got abonus when Ganguly shuffled across and lost his leg stump the very nextdelivery.

Sehwag and Dravid did more than a recovery job as theygradually increased the tempo before launching into the rival bowling.

Sehwag, dropped twice on zero and eight, punished thePakistani attack with three sixes and nine fours before losing his stumps toRazzaq.

The 200 came in the 35th over, but with Sehwag went the momentum and the scoreboard ticked ata snail's pace from there on.

Pakistan were off to a flier with Salman Butt (26) and Kamran Akmal (17) blasting 45 runs in less than seven overs.

But three wickets for fours runs in successive overs quickly changed the complexion of the game.

Lakshmipathy Balaji (2-32) provided the breakthrough when he had Akmal caught by Sehwag before Ganguly held on to a difficult catchat square leg to see off Butt.

Shoaib Malik, playing his first match of the tour, flashed at outside of the off stump for a straight forwardcatch at point.

But the biggest blow came three overs later when Yousuf Youhana played early at a full length delivery from ZaheerKhan and the bowler dived to his right for a superb return catch.

Then Tendulkar came on to cast a spell on the batsmen with his vicious leg breaks. Bowling around the stumps, the senior-most member of the team trapped them in a web. First to go was captainInzamam-ul Haq (37) who was beaten for pace by a straighter one that clipped his off bail.

Abdul Razzaq (5) played all over a leg side full toss and top edged it to Sehwag at shortfine-leg. Shahid Afridi (8) was in a hurry and mistimed a sweep shot for a well judged catch by Zaheer at deepsquare-leg.

Mohammad Sami returned a simple catch before Mohammad Hafeez (42) became the maestro's fifthvictim.

PTI