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| January 18, 2006 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 17, 1426 |
Weather has the last laugh in Lahore Test: Sehwag, Dravid fail to set world record
LAHORE, Jan 17: Predictably, the first Test between Pakistan and India ended on Tuesday in an aimless draw at the wet and murky Qadhafi Stadium on Tuesday.
This first encounter of the three-Test series, however, did not leave fond memories for those millions who watched the match on TV, listened on radio and Internet and a few thousands who braved the inclement weather and turned up on five days to see the match at the ground.
Of course the only men to have felt pleased of having achieved something out of a Test, interrupted throughout the five days by poor visibility and light drizzle, were the batsmen who claimed optimum advantage on the back-breaking track.
For the hapless bowlers, who took a real pounding in a match that produced 1089 runs for the loss of eight wickets, they will hope for a more bowler-friendly strip at Faisalabad and Karachi, in the remaining Tests.
Only 220.5 overs were bowled in the five days out of the minimum of 450 overs, a loss of 229.1 overs that tells its own story how the weather played its part in spoiling the match.
Such batsmen-oriented wickets, like the one here, in the past had been a bad advertisement for cricket and not good for the game’s ruling body’s —International Cricket Council — efforts to introduce and promote the game at the global level.
With the certainty that there was no chance of an outright result, the only interest that remained on the final day was the possibility of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid breaking Test cricket’s 50-year-old first-wicket partnership record.
In addition, there was also a great opportunity for Sehwag to score his second triple century against Pakistan. Unfortunately it was not to be his day.
The stocky opener was prized out by the never-say-die Rana Navedul Hasan at the total 410 with his own individual score on 254. Thus Sehwag and Dravid fell four short of setting a new record, which remains intact in the names of their compatriots Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roys.
Sehwag, in fact, scored all the seven runs in the brief period of play in the late afternoon. His stupendous knock contained an incredible 47 boundaries and one six.
To the credit of Rana Naved, who never gave up trying and looked the impressive of the Pakistani pacemen, literally bounced out Sehwag. The Indian was well caught by a leaping Kamran Akmal off the third successive short-pitched delivery in the third over of the day.
After Sehwag’s dismissal, V.V.S. Laxman faced just one ball before Dravid, with nothing at stake, decided to go off the field. The Indian skipper did not add to his overnight score of 128.
So after first Test’s futile exercise, the two teams will reach Faisalabad on Thursday to resume battle that many fear will end in another stalemate considering the weather in that city which is similar to Lahore with more fog and mist likely to play havoc.
Everyone from the fans to the pundits are hoping for the sake of cricket’s good image, the curators will prepare a sporting-oriented strip and pray that fair weather persist throughout for achieving a conclusive result in Faisalabad and Karachi.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN (1st Innings) 679-7 declared (Younis Khan 199, Mohammad Yousuf 173, Shahid Afridi 103, Kamran Akmal 102 not out, Shoaib Malik 59).
INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 403-0):
V. Sehwag c Kamran b Rana Naved 254
R. Dravid not out 128
V.V.S. Laxman not out 0
EXTRAS (B-2, LB-7, W-2, NB-17) 28
TOTAL (for one wkt, 77.2 overs) 410
FALL OF WKT: 1-410.
DID NOT BAT: S.R. Tendulkar, S.C. Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, A.B. Agarkar, A. Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.
BOWLING (to-date): Shoaib Akhtar 16.2-6-46-0 (4nb, 1w); Rana Navedul Hasan 16-1-94-1 (1nb, 1w); Shahid Afridi 11-0-55-0 (1nb); Mohammad Sami 12-1-67-0 (4nb); Danish Kaneria 10-0-69-0 (6nb); Shoaib Malik 12-1-70-0 (1nb).
RESULT: Match drawn.
UMPIRES: D.B. Hair (Australia) and R.E. Koertzen (South Africa).
TV UMPIRE: Nadeem Ghauri (Pakistan).
MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Virender Sehwag.
SECOND TEST: Faisalabad, Jan 21-25.
THIRD TEST: Karachi, Jan 29-Feb 2.
Highest partnerships in Tests
576 –- S.T. Jayasuriya and R.S. Mahanama (Sri Lanka) v India at Colombo, 1997-98
467 –- A.H. Jones and M.D. Crowe (New Zealand) v Sri Lanka at Wellington, 1990-91
451 — Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad (Pakistan) v India at Hyderabad, 1982-83
451 –- W.H. Ponsford and D.G. Bradman (Australia) v England at The Oval, 1934
446 –- C.C. Hunte and G.S. Sobers (West Indies) v Pakistan at Kingston, 1957-58
438 –- M.S. Atapattu and K.C. Sangakarra (Sri Lanka) v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, 2003-04
429* — J.A. Rudolph and H.H. Dippenaar (South Africa) v Bangladesh at Chittagong, 2002-03
413 –- M.H. Mankad and Pankaj Roy (India) v New Zealand at Chennai, 1955-56
411 –- P.B.H. May and M.C. Cowdrey (England) v West Indies at Edgbaston, 1957
410 –- V. Sehwag and R. Dravid (India) v Pakistan at Lahore, 2005-06
405 –- D.G. Bradman and S.G. Barnes (Australia) v England at Sydney, 1946-47
*denotes unbroken partnership.
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