Pakistan walloped India in the last One-Day International and with it won the series which when it began looked like going India’s way through and through. The change in the attitude and approach was remarkable and the Indians looked as if they couldn’t do anything to stop the Pakistanis once they had leveled the series at Ahmedabad. Here in the final one-dayer with everything to play for the Indian batting caved in badly on a pitch where the Pakistanis had scored 300 plus. Even in the past when it comes to chasing big totals the Indians approach has been to go all guns blazing and losing wickets rather than trying to build a platform from where the batting depth could come to the fore. The moment the opposition gets through to the first couple of wickets the pressure gets even more on the others and the result is pretty much what was seen at the Kotla. The Pakistanis showed that though the wicket was low and slow runs could be scored if the batsmen stayed at the wicket. Afridi was the one who took the initiative away from the Indians by playing another attacking innings and the bowlers had obviously not learnt anything for he was scoring at will. Shoaib Malik produced another superbly crafted innings and though he did not figure in the Tests once his bowling action gets the all clear then he should be an integral part of the Test line-up too. Youhana who has had a fairly quiet series so far came good with a half century and Inzamam was Mr. Consistent himself with another brilliant run a ball effort that ensured that Pakistan never lost the grip on the match. Once again just about every batsman made a useful contribution and it was this that propelled the total past 300.
With the kind of batting line up India has the target should not have been daunting and the manner in which Sehwag began it looked as if the crowd was in for a treat. Rana Naveed who deservedly won the Man of the Series showed that even on a pitch with low bounce it is possible to trouble the best of batsmen with movement in the air and off the pitch. Rao Iftikhar also bowled a good tight line and if the Pakistanis had taken all the catches then they would have won by an even bigger margin than they eventually did. Still the Pakistani fielding in the Kotla game was the best in the series with the ground fielding being alert and agile. Younis Khan who began the tour with dropped catches in Mohalli snapped some fine catches and also showed good thinking in the way he handled the bowling changes and effected field replacement.
The way the Pakistani bowlers mixed their pace meant that the Indian batsmen were always in doubt at the speed with which the ball was coming at them. The pitch also slowing down as the game progressed made it that much harder for the batsmen to play on the rise as the ball often stopped on them. The Indians on the other hand hardly missed it and so the Pakistanis were able to use the pace of the ball even in the final overs and keep scoring at the rate that they did.
It also appeared that they had missed the pitch for it was certainly not a three seam bowlers pitch. Anil Kumble may have got some stitch in the previous game but he has happy memories of the Kotla pitch where he got 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan and some of those batsmen are in this side too.
Pakistan deserve compliments on the way they bounced back after being two down in the series. It might be good to admit that the side that played better all round won.
