The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Balaji & Co. rattle Pakistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Balaji & Co. rattle Pakistan

By S. Dinakar

Pakistan: 224
India: 23 for 1

RAWALPINDI, APRIL 13. There was some gripping action on the opening day of the third Samsung Test at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, with the Indian pacemen led by L. Balaji calling the tune on a seaming track.

India, despite some resistance by the tail, did well to dismiss Pakistan for 224 after winning the toss, but lost the in-form Virender Sehwag who was held in a spectacular fashion by Yasir Hameed at gully, off the first ball of the innings from Shoaib Akhtar.

A determined Parthiv Patel who opened the innings and a solid Rahul Dravid then saw off a fiery burst from Akhtar (5-4-4-1) and India ended the day at 23 for one. The first session on Wednesday might hold the key to the Test.

Earlier, Balaji, with a career best four for 63, supported well by left-armers Irfan Pathan and Aashish Nehra reduced Pakistan to 137 for eight before a 70-run ninth wicket partnership between Mohammed Sami (49) and Fazl-e-Akbar provided a measure of respectability to the Pakistani total.

There was no dearth of green on the pitch and Sourav Ganguly had little hesitation in putting Pakistan in. His wretched luck with the toss had finally taken a turn for the better.

As Balaji and Pathan began their opening bursts, it became clear that there was pace, bounce and seam movement in the surface. However, in their first spells of 3-1-6-0 and 5-2-10-0, Balaji and Pathan did not really make Taufeeq Umar and Imran Farhat play enough. The openers on their part were circumspect.

Nehra who replaced Balaji from the press box end made a fairly wayward start, straying down the leg-side and not quite getting his length right. It was also clear that the Indian pacemen would have to pitch the ball up to reap the rewards, even on a helpful wicket.

It was good captaincy from Ganguly when he replaced Pathan with Balaji from the Pavilion end. Umar departed soon, missing the line and being trapped leg-before as a Balaji delivery on the leg and middle stump held its line. The left-handed pair of Umar and Farhat had done well, on this pitch, to stay unseparated till the tenth over but now Balaji had opened the sluice gates.

Farhat left at the same score of 34, undone by a Nehra delivery that swung in from outside the off-stump to crash into his pads. The left-armer had by now settled into a much better rhythm and the Indian pace attack was humming.

Ganguly applied pressure on Inzamam-ul-Haq, and there was an interesting field placement with a short mid-off for the Pakistan captain. Inzamam responded with a lovely cover-drive off Balaji and the contest was heating up.

At the other end, Yasir Hameed, who resorted to the bold course, reached 26 in good time when he reached forward to drive a well-pitched up delivery from Pathan angling across him and Laxman held on to the speeding ball in the slip cordon.

Nehra maintained the pressure, getting the ball to swing away from Inzamam, from over the wicket, and also getting the odd ball to straighten. He came agonisingly close to winning a leg-before decision before he scalped Inzamam, who pushed forward to a delivery that swung away from him for Patel to hold a regulation snick. This was a prize scalp and Nehra, with his lively pace and movement had made a definite difference to the attack.

Pakistan went into lunch at an uneasy 96 for four, and the sequence of events in the first session bore a striking similarity to the happenings of the first two hours of the Lahore Test, the only difference being that the home team was at the receiving end this time around.

Ganguly had Nehra sending down ten overs from the Press Box end before lunch and four more after the break and the paceman turned in a strong and spirited performance in a spell of 14-2-44-2. And Pathan's second spell of 11-4-23-2 meant that Pakistan was hard pressed to wriggle out of troubled times.

Pathan struck a crucial blow for India after lunch when he had Yusuf Youhana playing on. The Pakistan vice-captain played for the away movement, but the ball held its line to rattle the timber.

It soon became 120 for six, when Asim Kamal, a compact left-hander missed the line of a clever straighter one from Balaji - a difficult delivery to send down on a seaming pitch - to be caught right in front of the wicket.

Balaji's post lunch spell of 9-3-29-3 had the Pakistan innings in further mess. He was hitting the seam and moving the ball away, indicating how much he had worked to get his wrist straight while delivering the ball. This has been a key aspect in him becoming a bigger threat since he is able to move the ball consistently away from the right-hander.

It was with a ball delivered from wide off the crease which straightened that Balaji nailed Kamran Akmal, brilliantly held by Laxman, diving to his left in the slip cordon. He picked up his fourth wicket with a similar delivery of a more fullish length that brooked no response from Shoaib Akhtar.

As the sun beat down on the pitch, the surface lost some of its sting, and Sami, playing with a cool head and a straight bat, and a determined Fazl-e-Akbar retrieved the situation somewhat in a 70-run partnership in 135 balls for the ninth wicket.

Balaji, without luck, searched vainly for his first five-wicket haul in Tests, and Nehra saw Patel put down a skier when Sami top-edged a hook - it was a bad miss for someone with the big gloves - before Anil Kumble finally ended the partnership when Akbar padded up to a delivery that was going to hit the stumps.

Sami turned Kumble to the fine-leg boundary to be just one run short of his first Test half-century before scampering for an attempted single and seeing Pathan score a direct hit from mid-off. By then, he had exceeded expectations for Pakistan with the willow.

PAKISTAN — 1st innings

I. Farhat lbw b Nehra 16

(39b, 3x4)

T. Umar lbw b Balaji 9

(32b, 2x4)

Y. Hameed c Laxman
b Pathan
(38b, 4x4)
26

Inzamam c Patel b Nehra 15

(28b, 2x4)

Y. Youhana b Pathan 13

(37b, 2x4)

A. Kamal lbw b Balaji 21

(46b, 4x4)

K. Akmal c Laxman b Balaji 17

(28b, 4x4)

M. Sami (run out) 49

(122b, 7x4)

S. Akhtar b Balaji 0

(2b)

Fazl-e-Akbar lbw b Kumble 25

(55b, 4x4)

D. Kaneria (not out) 4

(13b, 1x4)

Extras (b-14, lb-5, w-7, nb-3) 29

— —

Total 224

— —

Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Umar), 2-34 (Farhat), 3-77 (Hameed), 4-77 (Inzamam), 5-110 (Youhana), 6-120 (Kamal), 7-137 (Akmal), 8-137 (Akhtar), 9-207 (Akbar).

India bowling: Pathan 22-7-49-2 (nb-2, w-1), Balaji 19-4-63-4 (nb-1, w-3), Nehra 21-4-60-2 (w-3), Ganguly 2-0-9-0, Kumble 8.5-2-24-1.

INDIA — 1st innings

V. Sehwag c Hameed b Akhtar 0

(1b)

P. Patel (batting) 13

(46b, 2x4)

R. Dravid (batting)
(43b)
10

— —

Total (for one wkt.) 23

— —

Fall of wicket: 1-0 (Sehwag).