Pakistan's batsmen surrender tamely: India one wicket away from historic victory
By Tanvir Ahmad
MULTAN, March 31: India were one wicket away from a historic first-ever Test victory on Pakistan soil after the hosts put up a spineless batting performance on the fourth day of the first Test at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
The Indians, who have never won a Test in Pakistan for 49 years, had the chance to wrap up the match on the penultimate day but for a stubborn unbeaten century by Yousuf Youhana.
Anil Kumble was India's hero with his 24th five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The tall leg-spinner claimed six second innings wickets to complete another excellent day for the visitors in what has been a one-sided Test.
India's record first innings total of 675 was not completely beyond Pakistan's batting line-up, led by skipper Inzamamul Haq. What was missing was application and patience on a wicket which did not offer anything to the bowlers, particularly the seamers.
But what Pakistan's over-rated seam attack failed to do, the young and less experienced Indian seamers did by restricting Pakistan to 407 in the first innings within 80 minutes of the start on the fourth day.
Forced to follow-on, Pakistan fared worse in the second innings having slumped to 207 for nine with the last pair of Youhana and Shabbir Ahmed at the crease. Youhana's 11th Test century includes 15 fours and two sixes in a batting time of three hours and 31 minutes. He has so far faced 152 balls.
Barring a miracle on Thursday, such as Multan's famous duststorm, it is very much unlikely that Pakistan will make India bat again since they still require 61 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
Pakistan's abject surrender can be gauged by the fact that on the penultimate day of the match, they mustered just 250 runs and lost 13 wickets. It is not always that one team has everything going its way while the other has it all wrong.
But that is what seems to have happened to Pakistan in this first Test. Nothing seems to have gone their way. Inzamamul Haq lost the toss on a wicket full of runs and his fielders floored as many as five catches during the first two days.
Allowing Virender Sehwag, who ultimately scored India's maiden triple Test century, as many as three lives is equivalent to committing hara-kiri. When Pakistan batted a couple of umpiring decisions went against them.
Resuming at 364 for six, Pakistan lost Abdul Razzaq (47) to the very first ball of the morning. Irfan Pathan surprised Razzaq with a short-pitched delivery which cramped the batsman for space and the ball landed in the safe hands of the wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel.
Razzaq's sudden departure left the Herculean task of averting the follow-on on the tailenders. But the final three wickets yielded just 42 runs despite a last-wicket partnership of 36 between Mohammad Sami (15) and Shabbir (19 not out).
If the first innings' performance was any indication, the writing on the wall was all too obvious. The only interest left was whether the Pakistani batsmen will be able to extend the inevitable to the final day.
For India, the fast-improving Irfan Pathan was the pick of the bowlers with career-best figures of four for 100 in only his third Test. The youngster claimed another wicket in the second innings when he trapped Moin Khan leg-before-wicket for five.
Zaheer Khan, the left-arm pace bowler, came off the field with a recurrence of a leg muscle injury that ended his Australian tour late last year. After negotiating seven overs in the second innings prior to the lunch interval, Imran Farhat and Taufiq Umar once again failed to provide a solid start.
Three wickets went down for the addition of 11 runs after Imran was caught behind off Anil Kumble for 24. Taufiq, the other left-handed opener, also fell to Kumble after a painstaking nine off 60 balls.
Without further addition, India got an unexpected breakthrough when Inzamam, who thought he was unlucky in the first innings, was run out by a brilliant direct hit from Yuvraj Singh for a one-ball duck.
Yuvraj then picked up his maiden Test wicket when he forced Yasir Hameed to sweep uppishly towards short fine-leg where Sehwag scooped up an easy catch to leave Pakistan reeling at 75 for four.
Youhana and Razzaq carried the score to 106 before Kumble struck again to have Razzaq smartly taken one-handed by Aakash Chopra at short-leg for 22. After that there was almost no resistance coming from the Pakistan apart from Youhana, who twice lifted Kumble for sixes to draw feeble applause from a very small but highly disappointed crowd.
Kumble continued to mesmerize the tail, claiming the wickets of Shoaib, Sami and Saqlain to take his second innings haul to six for 71 and match figures to eight for 171.
Scoreboard
INDIA (1st Innings) 675-5 declared (V. Sehwag 309, S.R. Tendulkar 194 not out, Yuvraj Singh 59).
PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 364-6):
Imran Farhat lbw b Balaji 38
Taufiq Umar c Dravid b Pathan 23
Yasir Hameed c Patel b Pathan 91
Inzamamul Haq c Chopra b Kumble 77
Yousuf Youhana c Patel b Zaheer 35
Abdul Razzaq c Patel b Pathan 47
Moin Khan b Tendulkar 17
Saqlain Mushtaq c Zaheer b Pathan 5
Mohammad Sami b Kumble 15
Shoaib Akhtar c and b Tendulkar 0
Shabbir Ahmed not out 19
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-26, NB-10) 40
TOTAL (all out, 126.3 overs) 407
FALL OF WKTS: 1-58, 2-73, 3-233, 4-243, 5-321, 6-364, 7-364, 8-371, 9-371.
