KARACHI, March 25: The five-match One-day International series, won 3-2 by India for the first time in Pakistan, was heavily stacked in favour of the batsmen as no bowler on either side managed to pick up more than three wickets in one match.
Irfan Pathan, at 19 the youngest player in the series, was the only bowler to claim three wickets twice in his three appearances. The left-arm seamer from Baroda, not surprisingly, finished on top of the bowling averages with eight scalps at 17.87. The most impressive feature of his statistics was that he was the only one to concede below five runs an over (4.76).
Mohammad Sami, the Pakistan fast bowler, claimed the most number of wickets, snaring 11 (at 27.18), but his economy rate was on the expensive side (averaging 6.02 runs per over). Shoaib Akhtar fared marginally better by giving 5.50 runs per while his nine wickets cost 29.33 per scalp.
Inzamamul Haq, the Pakistan skipper, deserved to be named Man-of-the-Series for his aggregate of 340 runs - by far the most by any batsman - at an average of 68.00. The 34-year-old's classic knocks of 121 at Karachi and 123 in the fourth ODI at Lahore unfortunately were in losing cause.
Sachin Tendulkar also finished on the losing side despite making the highest score in a single match - 141 at Rawalpindi while crossing the dizzy landmark of 13,000 ODI runs. But the great man's remaining four innings fetched him scores of 28, 0, 7 and 37.
Rahul Dravid, the Indian vice-captain, made the most runs for his team, totalling 248 to finish on top of the averages (62.00) despite being burdened with wicket-keeping duties.
The most crucial aspect of the series that actually made the difference was the discipline (or lack of it) in bowling. The Indians bowled with more control compared to the Pakistanis. Pakistan conceded 157 extras as against 102 given by India.
Pakistan bowled as many as 63 wides and 45 no-balls with main culprits being Sami (10 no-balls and 17 wides), Shabbir Ahmed (11 no-balls and two wides) and Shoaib Akhtar (4 no-balls and 14 wides). The Indians, in contrast bowled 38 wides and just 11 no-balls.
