08 April 2004	Thursday	17 Safar 1425

LAHORE, April 7: India's top order, barring Virender Sehwag, collapsed like a house of cards for the second time in the match as Pakistan ended the third day of the second Test poised for a series-levelling victory at the Qadhafi Stadium on Wednesday.

In many ways, the second Test is almost a re-run of the Multan Test which ended in an innings triumph for Indians. Pakistan dominated the proceedings from the outset and could finish the job of securing a win inside four days as early as before lunch on Thursday .

When the stumps were drawn, India, facing a first innings deficit of 202, were precariously placed at 149 for five, still requiring 53 to avoid an innings defeat. India's only hope of saving the match or offering some resistance to Pakistan's charge for victory on Thursday rests entirely on Multan's hero Sehwag and the tail.

Sehwag stood tall as wickets fell at regular intervals from the other to the three-pronged Pakistan pace attack on a strip now lacking in pace and balls keeping low. The Delhi opener was unbeaten on 86 with 14 fours having faced 119 deliveries. His partner, Parthiv Patel, was on 14.

Sehwag has only young guns Patel and Irfan Pathan to help him in his team's almost lost cause to avoid an innings loss or provide the bowlers with enough runs to a testing target for the home batsmen in the fourth innings of the Test.

The visitors' cause was also not helped by the inexplicable run out of their most dependable batsman and stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid whose dismissal was almost a replica of his Pakistani counterpart's dismissal in the second innings of the Multan Test.

A direct hit from Imran Farhat in the covers found Dravid, who did not face a single ball, short of his crease as he seemed to take a stroll instead of sprinting from the non-striker's end.

Pakistan had the opportunity to put the match beyond India, but Yousuf Youhana made a half-hearted attempt to catch Sehwag off Mohammad Sami in the closing overs of the day.

India's second innings never got off the ground as Sami accounted for Sachin Tendulkar and first innings' century-maker Yuvraj Singh after Shoaib Akhtar had removed Akash Chopra.

In between, Umar Gul, Pakistan's bowling on the opening day, dismissed the dangerous Vangipurappu Laxman with a delivery that swung late and spectacularly sent his off-stump cartwheeling.

The only period on Wednesday that the Indians enjoyed was very early in the morning when they picked up four Pakistan wickets inside the first 45 minutes for the addition of 31 runs.

Pathan trapped Inzamam, who failed to add to his overnight 118, and Kamran Akmal leg-before-wicket, and bowled Sami, while Lakshmipathy Balaji sent back Youhana caught behind to reduce the hosts to 386 for seven wickets from 355 for three.

But left-hander Asim, who made 99 on his debut Test against South Africa last October, but surprisingly ignored by the selectors in New Zealand, had other ideas and showed it was folly to ignore him.

He batted like an experienced campaigner and was chiefly responsible for garnering 103 runs for the last three wickets that eventually put Indian batsmen under tremendous pressure.

Asim's innings was a flawless one and was last out, perished while attempting a reverse sweep in bid to score as many runs as possible bearing in mind the abilities of Danish Kaneria's batting prowess. He stroked seven fours and three sixes in his 142-ball knock.

Scoreboard

INDIA (1st Innings) 287 (Yuvraj Singh 112; Umar Gul 5-31).

PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 355-3):

Imran Farhat c Patel b Balaji 101

Taufiq Umar b Balaji 24

Yasir Hameed c Dravid b Agarkar 19

Inzamamul Haq lbw b Pathan 118

Yousuf Youhana c Patel b Balaji 72

Asim Kamal c Patel b Kumble 73

Kamran Akmal lbw b Pathan 5

Mohammad Sami b Pathan 2

Shoaib Akhtar c Yuvraj b Kumble 19

Umar Gul hit wkt b Tendulkar 14

Danish Kaneria not out 0

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-18, W-4, NB-16) 42

TOTAL (all out, 160.1 overs) 489

FALL OF WKTS: 1-47, 2-95, 3-205, 4-356, 5-366, 6-379, 7-386, 8-432, 9-470.

BOWLING: Irfan Pathan 44-14-107-3 (5nb, 1w); Balaji 33-11-81-3 (2nb, 2w); Agarkar 23-5-80-1 (1nb); Kumble 44.1-5-146-2 (5nb); Tendulkar 12-1-38-1 (2nb, 1w); Yuvraj Singh 3-0-7-0; Sehwag 1-0-8-0 (1nb).

INDIA (2nd Innings):

A. Chopra lbw b Shoaib 5

V. Sehwag not out 86

R. Dravid run out 0

S.R. Tendulkar lbw b Sami 8

V.V.S. Laxman b Umar Gul 13

Yuvraj Singh c Kamran b Sami 12

P.A. Patel not out 13

EXTRAS (LB-7, W-1, NB-4) 12

TOTAL (for five wkts, 40 overs) 149

FALL OF WKTS: 1-15, 2-15, 3-43, 4-88, 5-105.

BOWLING (to-date): Shoaib Akhtar 11-3-37-1 (1w); Mohammad Sami 17-5-61-2; Umar Gul 9-1-42-1 (4nb); Danish Kaneria 3-1-2-0.