MOHALI, 9 March 2005 — Pakistan’s present day batting holds neither joy nor any terror for the bowlers. Except for the experience of Inzamam ul-Haq their captain and Yousuf Youhana, the rest inexperienced as they are, they struggle to find their feet on the crease.
At the Punjab Cricket Association Ground at Mohali, the first day’s play was not any different as Pakistan after being put in by the Indian captain Saurav Ganguly were off to a shaky start having lost their opener Salman Butt for 5 and Younis Khan without reaching the double figures. The Indian pace twins Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan had accounted for them as the ball seamed and swung.
That Pakistan finished the day by making 312 all out however goes to the credit that they recovered from 30 for 2 to give some kind of sanity to their total.
It seemed as if Ganguly with Pakistan struggling on the first morning had made the right call but as the day progressed the sun started to shine on the faces of the Pakistan players sitting in the dressing room.
For this they owe a lot to their 29-year-old Karachi born left-hander Asim Kamal who showed that the much publicized seaming wicket can be tamed which he did with a rocklike defense to strike the Indian bowlers into submission making 91 precious runs after opener Taufiq Umar and Inzamam ul-Haq had put on 59 runs for the third wicket.
Taufiq’s innings of 44 was ended when he played onto his wicket off medium-pacer Laxmipathy Balaji who ended the day with his first haul of five wickets for 76 runs.
It was as good a performance as was Inzamam’s 57 and his partnership of 52 for the fifth wicket with Asim.
The honor of the day however belonged to both Balaji and Asim Kamal who displayed tremendous maturity and temperament to salvage Pakistan’s tottering innings and then in the process delighting a near capacity crowd with his well timed shots all round the wicket.
His innings of 91 lasting 233 minutes and was studded with 14 brilliant strokes to the fence.
He may not have been able to match the timing and perfection of his captain Inzamam but he surely did show that his gutsy presence in the middle was worth in gold and also won him a standing ovation when bowled off Balaji by not only the Indian crowd but also by his compatriots who had crossed over the border to see the contest.
He was one of the three victims off Balaji after the new ball was taken on 281.
With Inzamam he shared 52 for the fifth wicket, 43 with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal for the seventh wicket and later 43 with Mohammad Sami to take Pakistan past 300 mark.
This being his fifth score of over fifty and the third in the four innings against India.
He was unlucky though to miss his maiden Test hundred once again. On his debut against South Africa couple of years ago he was out for 99 at Lahore.
