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Rahul Dravid shows his appreciation towards Rudra Pratap Singh
© AFP
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It's been a tense few days around Pakistan with Danish cartoons
instigating heated reactions in various parts. Multan, officially at
least, was on strike today and speculation was rife about whether this
match will take place at all. An India-Pakistan cricket match, though,
brought with it a certain vibrancy and nobody who saw the ocean of people
make their way to the ground, bringing traffic to a standstill and
overwhelming policemen by their sheer numbers, could believe that this was
actually a day of protest.
A moot point, though, might have been Pakistan's spectacular
implosion. It was a game they had to win, their chance to make amends for
some loose batting in the previous two games, a chance to take the series
into the decider. Considering their improvement in the one-day format over
the last 15 months, they were bizarrely defensive, absurdly suicidal and,
often, shockingly reckless. India's bowling was tight - nothing more,
nothing less - and their fielding was quite exceptional, but none of this
can account for 29 for 4 and 161 all out.
The danger signals were there for all to see - rashness at Rawalpindi had
reduced them to 68 for 4, sloppiness at Lahore had them struggling at 82
for 4 - but there's only so much Shoaib Malik can do. Salman Butt might
have avoided Irfan Pathan's first-over horrors, by preferring to start at
the non-striker's end, but the poke away from the body wasn't too far
away. And one also needs to investigate what Imran Farhat was thinking
when, coming on as a Supersub with Inzamam-ul-Haq well ensconced at the
other end, he succumbed to an ambitious pull, finished up using just one
hand and ballooned a simple catch to mid-on.
India's tactics wouldn't have been too tough to predict (win toss, field,
bowl accurately and catch everything within range) and they had often
induced Sri Lanka to switch on the self-destruct mode during the recent
home series (debacles at Mohali and Rajkot ran on similar lines). And
their batting performance at Lahore would inevitably have created a few
demons in the Pakistan batsmen's minds, knowing that no target might be
safe and eagerly trying for too many runs too early.
Rahul Dravid continued to strangle Pakistan with some innovative fields -
for the second time in this series Kamran Akmal uppishly cut to a fielder
at short point - and he led an inspired catching effort that further
tightened the noose. In Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, India
have an offside cordon to rival any and the catching powers of Dravid, at
slip, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, behind the stumps, and Pathan, at square
leg, contributed to an outstanding effort.
India's bowling attack, their biggest concern before the series, has gone
from pop-gun to semi-dangerous and the gradual evolution of Sreesanth must
be a heartening sign. His superb opening spell at Lahore went unrewarded,
with three catches being fluffed, and he carried on with another
methodical display today, hardly giving any four-balls and controlling his
pace impressively. Their only blemish, a plague that India has avoided in
recent months, was the 17 wides that they conceded but it was never going
to make too much difference in the eventual outcome.
India were never going to break too much sweat chasing 162 but unlike at
Rawalpindi, when Pakistan appeared listless on the field, they faced a
sterner test. The enigmatic Mohammad Sami justified his selection with
fine bursts, accounting for the top three with swing, bounce and pace
respectively. But neither this, nor Mohammad Asif's large-hearted effort,
was going to make too much of a difference with Dravid controlling the
chase and Raina blazing to the finish. It was the first time the
floodlights were being used at Multan but the unfortunate part for the
locals was that they were hardly required.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is staff writer of Cricinfo