India vs Pakistan 2006 Karachi Cricket Test Postscript
The cricket series between India and Pakistan which was supposed to be one of the most interesting and most intensly fought cricket series turned out to be a no-show specially after 2 boring tests at Lahore, Faislabad and last at Karachi which provided a contest probably for no more than 2 days.
When Pakistan started bowling in their second innings at Karachi it became pretty clear that Indians will need to pull out something out of this world to even save the match. Suddenly the pitch which seems to be dead when Indians were bowling became unplayable. Specially the deliveriy from Mohammed Asif which took Virender Sehwag's wicket almost sealed the match atleast in the minds of Indian batsman.
What India missed was probably a genuine fast bowler and a genuine opener. As long as the pitch was not doing much Rahul Dravid was doing pretty well as an opener and probably he was best suited to accompany Sehwag among the eleven that played in the final test. But then we need to understand there is a specific job, opener is supposed to perform which a One Down batsman can probably fill in but may not succeed always and that made the difference as Indians needed Dravid more than anybody else in the middle order to save the match. Not to say that Tendulkar or Laxman or Ganguly could not have done that. But they would have still required somebody at the other end like Dravid to hold the innings.
India definitely needs a genuine fast bowler in the league of Shoaib Akhtar who can rattle the batsman from the other end and have them guessing about the next delivery. In the first innings when Shoaib hit Tendulkar on the helmet it was probably another blow to a batsman confident. It might not take a wicket but gets you near to it. Similarly the first ball of Mohammed Asif's first over in second innings moved outside and left Sehwag's bat. It was probably one of those balls which were supposed to move to one side as even the Wicket keeper Kamran Akmal moved to the leg side but ball went the other way. The next ball then came sharply in and Sehwag managed to just hang on to it. By the time Mohammed Asif delievered the 3rd ball of the over Sehwag to me looked like had his foot glued to the ground because of the doubts that the earlier 2 deliveries had created and the ball uprooted the middle stump.
There can be lot of other factors which can be said like Indians were fatigued with 2 previous tests with a lot more overs bowled as compared to Pakistan bowlers and they played with 3 left arm seamers and should have played with atleast a Right Handed seamer but then you can't expect your team to win a test where one team bats for more than 250 overs and other gets out in a little over 100 overs. Most of the people expected India to if not win atleast draw this match, but in the end it was a performance much below what they promised in the earlier 2 matches.
When Pakistan started bowling in their second innings at Karachi it became pretty clear that Indians will need to pull out something out of this world to even save the match. Suddenly the pitch which seems to be dead when Indians were bowling became unplayable. Specially the deliveriy from Mohammed Asif which took Virender Sehwag's wicket almost sealed the match atleast in the minds of Indian batsman.
What India missed was probably a genuine fast bowler and a genuine opener. As long as the pitch was not doing much Rahul Dravid was doing pretty well as an opener and probably he was best suited to accompany Sehwag among the eleven that played in the final test. But then we need to understand there is a specific job, opener is supposed to perform which a One Down batsman can probably fill in but may not succeed always and that made the difference as Indians needed Dravid more than anybody else in the middle order to save the match. Not to say that Tendulkar or Laxman or Ganguly could not have done that. But they would have still required somebody at the other end like Dravid to hold the innings.
India definitely needs a genuine fast bowler in the league of Shoaib Akhtar who can rattle the batsman from the other end and have them guessing about the next delivery. In the first innings when Shoaib hit Tendulkar on the helmet it was probably another blow to a batsman confident. It might not take a wicket but gets you near to it. Similarly the first ball of Mohammed Asif's first over in second innings moved outside and left Sehwag's bat. It was probably one of those balls which were supposed to move to one side as even the Wicket keeper Kamran Akmal moved to the leg side but ball went the other way. The next ball then came sharply in and Sehwag managed to just hang on to it. By the time Mohammed Asif delievered the 3rd ball of the over Sehwag to me looked like had his foot glued to the ground because of the doubts that the earlier 2 deliveries had created and the ball uprooted the middle stump.
There can be lot of other factors which can be said like Indians were fatigued with 2 previous tests with a lot more overs bowled as compared to Pakistan bowlers and they played with 3 left arm seamers and should have played with atleast a Right Handed seamer but then you can't expect your team to win a test where one team bats for more than 250 overs and other gets out in a little over 100 overs. Most of the people expected India to if not win atleast draw this match, but in the end it was a performance much below what they promised in the earlier 2 matches.
posted by Googlogger at 2/02/2006 12:02:00 AM
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