Spineless batsmen give India historic series victory
By Imran Naeem Ahmad
RAWALPINDI, April 16: It was a sad day as the last rites of Pakistan cricket were performed at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Friday. Indian spinner Anil Kumble and paceman L. Balaji nailed the coffin in front of a handful of mourners.
No one had thought our cricket would die as it did on the fourth day of the final Test, the home batsmen's gutless submission giving India victory by an innings and 131 runs for a 2-1 win in the rubber, their first-ever series success over arch-rivals in Pakistan in six attempts.
Starting the second innings at 49 for two, Pakistan crashed to 245 all out after the touring side had put on a massive 600 in their first innings. In routing the hosts, India also got another first - achieving their maiden overseas series triumph in 10 years that followed their success of 1993-94 in Sri Lanka - with captain Saurav Ganguly achieving some distinctions.
He became the most successful Indian captain ever with 15 Test wins and the margin of his team's victory was the biggest against Pakistan. "It is a great moment for Indian cricket, we played well and won," Ganguly said. "There is no better finale than the one you win."
His opposite number Inzamamul Haq was a disappointed man and said his side could not put up the kind of show that had earned them victory at Lahore where they levelled the series 1-1 with a nine-wicket victory.
"We were beset by injuries and besides we should have scored 300 runs in the first innings to stay in the match," he said. Wiping out a deficit of 327 was always going to be difficult and the evidence of that came soon enough, Kamran Akmal, Yasir Hameed and Inzamam going back as quickly as they had come in to bat. Not even an unbeaten 60 by Asim Kamal could help.
Night-watchman Kamran was dropped twice before Balaji wrecked his stumps at his personal score of 23 and then Yasir and Inzamam followed without making any significant contributions.
Yasir, eight not out, was also given two lives by Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, but was taken behind the stumps by Parthiv Patel, a brilliant one-handed catch off Ashish Nehra for 20. Balaji sent Inzamam on his way, forcing him to provide a faint edge to Patel after he had scored only nine runs and Pakistan were soon staring defeat in the face which didn't take long in coming.
Asim, still nursing a bruised elbow that kept him out of play on Thursday, put on 81 runs for the sixth wicket with Yousuf Youhana, who had batted well in scoring 48 runs. But he gave a straightforward caught and bowled chance to Kumble, who had only thank you to say.
The spinner then captured the wicket of Mohammad Sami for nought, caught by Rahul Dravid off the first ball of his next over. He was however denied a hat trick by Shoaib Akhtar, returning to action after sitting out the third day because of a rib injury.
He struck Kumble for six and three fours in one over promoting doubts that he may have faked the injury in a Pakistan camp where all was said to be not well. But as he skied a delivery from the same bowler, Nehra caught him in the deep for 28.
Pakistan could not prevent the inevitable and after being 197 for seven at lunch, it was only a matter of time before Kumble mopped up the tail taking four for 47 with Balaji picking up three for 108.
Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid was declared Man-of-the-Match for his match-winning innings of 270 while Virender Sehwag who scored a marvellous triple century in Multan was named the Man-of-the-Series.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN (1st Innings) 224 (Mohammad Sami 49; L. Balaji 4-63).
