KARACHI, 31 January 2006 — Pakistan had decisively seized the advantage on the second day of the third Test against India here yesterday, when they gained an authoritative 180 runs overall lead thanks mainly due to a valuable opening stand of 109 between Imran Farhat and Salman Butt.
At close of play the home team had scored 173 for two in their second innings, having earlier restricted India to 238 in the first innings. Pakistan in their first innings had made 245, taking a slender 7-runs lead.
Butt and Farhat batted admirably when Pakistan resumed their second innings about 30 minutes before the tea interval. Both the young left-handers appeared a model of confidence yesterday as compared to their first innings performance when Pakistan had slumped to 39 for six in the first hour of the first day’s play. Both the openers contributed useful half-centuries before part-time bowler Saurav Ganguly got the much-needed breakthrough for his team when he trapped Butt (53) leg-before at 109. Three overs and 13 runs later Irfan Pathan, India’s hero of the first innings, had Farhat(57) caught by Tendulkar. But these were the only two successes for India as skipper Younis Khan (25)and Mohammed Yousuf(30) saw the rest of the day’s play without any further loss. The second day’s play belonged, for the most part,to Pakistan. They restricted India to 238 in the first innings and then compiled a reasonably good total, considering the low-scoring pitch of Karachi. Their bowlers, young seamer Mohammad Asif and the experienced Abdul Razzak bowled extremely well, although at times sloppy fielding and missed catches frustrated their efforts.
Pakistan’s fielding for the most part during India’s first innings was much below standard as they dropped as many as four catches and conceded a number of boundaries.
India’s strong batting line-up was destroyed by Asif and Razzak, who finished with the impressive figures of 4 for 78 and 3 for 67 respectively while spearhead Shoaib Akhtar took 2 for 70. Shahid Afridi got one for 12 from three overs. Resuming on overnight 74-4,India lost three important wickets in the first session and went to lunch struggling at 169-7 but.
The overnight pair of Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh put on 81 for the fifth wicket when Razzaq finally broke through an hour and 20 minutes into the first session. Ganguly, struggling for form and to keep his place in the team, hit six boundaries in his 34 but then top-edged a hook off Razzaq to Asif on the fine-leg boundary.
Asif himself was rewarded for a steady opening spell when he trapped Yuvraj leg-before after the stylish batsman had contributed 45 runs that included eight fours.
Three balls later, Razzaq tempted wicket-keeper Mahendra Dhoni to chase a delivery that was moving out and was caught behind by Imran Akmal as India slipped to 165-7.
Pathan, who had caused sensation by his hat-trick in the first over of the match on Sunday, to a great extent salvaged the innings by contributing 40 valuable runs. He and Zaheer Khan helped India close the gap by adding 56 for the ninth wicket. Pathan, who hit six boundaries and a six, fell with the total on 237 when he skied Shahid Afridi to Mohammad Yousuf at long-off. Two runs later, Zaheer was caught behind off Asif for 21. The Indian innings soon folded at 238.
