After a brilliant start by Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and good support from Yuvraj Singh, the Indian lower order messed up. What should have been a total of above 350 was restricted to 328 by the Pakistanis as the Indians threw away their wickets. How can a team that has got such a great platform lose seven wickets for just 23 runs?
That is where India lost the match as they could not play the full 50 overs and were bowled out in 49.4 overs. Our lower middle order was exposed today when all they had to do was just apply themselves and stay at the crease. But all of them just threw away their wickets.
If India has put up 350 on the board the opposition would have lost the match mentally. No team has scored 350 to win a match.
When the Pakistan team was going back into the pavilion after the Indian innings they were a very happy bunch. Their body language showed that they were confident of reaching the target as they realised that they had restricted India to a gettable total after it looked like India would easily go past the 350-mark.
The difference of 25-30 runs meant that they had a realistic chance of getting to the target.
Indian bowling also proved to be very ineffective even though they had a cushion of a huge total. It has been proved that unless a bowler can move the ball in the air and off the pitch he cannot succeed. Mohammad Asif showed that today when he bowled brilliantly in the morning.
Line and length also mattered and Ajit Agarkar showed that later in the Pakistan innings. Other Indian bowlers were ordinary and pedestrian and I cannot understand the reason why S Sreesanth was picked up. He is a very ordinary bowler and has been tried before without much success. In my opinion RP Singh should have been in the team as he has shown good form on the tour. The choice of Sreesanth over RP Singh is shocking!
This is not to say that we lost because of Sreesanth but he was one of those bowlers who gave Pakistan the confidence.
Another shocker from the Indian camp was the total lack of planning. The Indians should have know that Duckworth-Lewis could come into play and Pakistan were always ahead of the target. They should have speeded up the over rate and finished the 50 overs.
This goes to show that India went into the match without taking into account all the aspects of the match.
In the Indian innings, Sachin Tendulkar played very well although he started his innings slowly. He had realised that he was not striking the ball very well so he played a waiting game and then came into full flow.
At the other end Irfan Pathan and Dhoni went on hitting the Pakistan bowlers all over. They made sure that the run rate was always very healthy and even Tendulkar rotated the strike intelligently.
Pathan was not very confident in the begining but he realised that offence if the best defence and then batted with great flair.
What can one say about Dhoni's batting? He is simply amazing and fantastic. He has all the cricketing shots in his armoury. His powerful hitting almost took the game away from Pakistan. But all the hard work was undone by the Indian lower order.
But we must also give credit to the Pakistani bowlers who came back strongly to restrict the Indians.
Asif has proved that if you are able to move the ball then it does not matter if it is an ODI or a Test match, wickets will fall.
If you have the art of moving the ball the nature of the wicket becomes immaterial. Even Naved-ul-Hasan was able to make a good come back.
Shoaib Malik played a brilliant knock along with Salman Butt. Athough he did not go boom-boom like Afridi but he was scoring at a very fast rate.
Butt played like Sachin. His innings was a superb innings but in my opinion it was Malik who took the game away from India and he is my man of the match.
India had a chance when Pakistan almost gave away the match to India by throwing away three wickets. Shahid Afridi, Inzamam and Yousuf threw their wickets. Otherwise it would have been a cake walk for Pakistan.
I don't completely blame the bowlers as they will have to pick up the art of moving the ball either in the air or off the pitch. Unless there is a lateral movement the batsmen will find it very easy.
Now the momentum is with Pakistan as they have won the last two matches against India.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:February 06, 2006, 20:23 ISTlast updated:February 06, 2006, 20:23 IST
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I thought it was very sad that a great match like this should come to an end in such a manner. India should have won the match but it lost due to the lack of planning.
After a brilliant start by Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and good support from Yuvraj Singh, the Indian lower order messed up. What should have been a total of above 350 was restricted to 328 by the Pakistanis as the Indians threw away their wickets. How can a team that has got such a great platform lose seven wickets for just 23 runs?
That is where India lost the match as they could not play the full 50 overs and were bowled out in 49.4 overs. Our lower middle order was exposed today when all they had to do was just apply themselves and stay at the crease. But all of them just threw away their wickets.
If India has put up 350 on the board the opposition would have lost the match mentally. No team has scored 350 to win a match.
When the Pakistan team was going back into the pavilion after the Indian innings they were a very happy bunch. Their body language showed that they were confident of reaching the target as they realised that they had restricted India to a gettable total after it looked like India would easily go past the 350-mark.
The difference of 25-30 runs meant that they had a realistic chance of getting to the target.
Indian bowling also proved to be very ineffective even though they had a cushion of a huge total. It has been proved that unless a bowler can move the ball in the air and off the pitch he cannot succeed. Mohammad Asif showed that today when he bowled brilliantly in the morning.
Line and length also mattered and Ajit Agarkar showed that later in the Pakistan innings. Other Indian bowlers were ordinary and pedestrian and I cannot understand the reason why S Sreesanth was picked up. He is a very ordinary bowler and has been tried before without much success. In my opinion RP Singh should have been in the team as he has shown good form on the tour. The choice of Sreesanth over RP Singh is shocking!
This is not to say that we lost because of Sreesanth but he was one of those bowlers who gave Pakistan the confidence.
Another shocker from the Indian camp was the total lack of planning. The Indians should have know that Duckworth-Lewis could come into play and Pakistan were always ahead of the target. They should have speeded up the over rate and finished the 50 overs.
This goes to show that India went into the match without taking into account all the aspects of the match.
In the Indian innings, Sachin Tendulkar played very well although he started his innings slowly. He had realised that he was not striking the ball very well so he played a waiting game and then came into full flow.
At the other end Irfan Pathan and Dhoni went on hitting the Pakistan bowlers all over. They made sure that the run rate was always very healthy and even Tendulkar rotated the strike intelligently.
Pathan was not very confident in the begining but he realised that offence if the best defence and then batted with great flair.
What can one say about Dhoni's batting? He is simply amazing and fantastic. He has all the cricketing shots in his armoury. His powerful hitting almost took the game away from Pakistan. But all the hard work was undone by the Indian lower order.
But we must also give credit to the Pakistani bowlers who came back strongly to restrict the Indians.
Asif has proved that if you are able to move the ball then it does not matter if it is an ODI or a Test match, wickets will fall.
If you have the art of moving the ball the nature of the wicket becomes immaterial. Even Naved-ul-Hasan was able to make a good come back.
Shoaib Malik played a brilliant knock along with Salman Butt. Athough he did not go boom-boom like Afridi but he was scoring at a very fast rate.
Butt played like Sachin. His innings was a superb innings but in my opinion it was Malik who took the game away from India and he is my man of the match.
India had a chance when Pakistan almost gave away the match to India by throwing away three wickets. Shahid Afridi, Inzamam and Yousuf threw their wickets. Otherwise it would have been a cake walk for Pakistan.
I don't completely blame the bowlers as they will have to pick up the art of moving the ball either in the air or off the pitch. Unless there is a lateral movement the batsmen will find it very easy.
Now the momentum is with Pakistan as they have won the last two matches against India.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
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