Honors were pretty much even at the end of the first day’s play at Mohali. With the coating of grass hardly taken off (let no visitor ever complain about our hospitality) it was no surprise that Ganguly chose to field first. With three seam bowlers in the side it was an obvious decision and one that Pakistan’s captain Inzamam also would have opted for, had he won the toss.
There was enough movement for Pathan, Zaheer and Balaji, but it took them a while before they got the line right and once they did that, then the batsmen found that they were either searching for the ball or the delivery was searching for their pads or thighs.
Pathan perhaps had his injury at the back of his mind for in the first few overs he was bringing his right arm down too quickly and thereby spraying the ball way outside the off-stump of the two left-handed opening batsmen. Once he got the confidence that there was no soreness he began to get his right arm classically high with the result that the ball was being delivered at the optimum height.
Like in batting, it is the leading arm that’s so often crucial and once Irfan got that right he looked dangerous. Zaheer complements Irfan beautifully because while Irfan swings it away from the left-handers, Zaheer brings it back in and he also provides more aggression as against the ‘chocolate boy’ goodness of Irfan who barely stops to glance at the batsman after beating him. Both will consider themselves unlucky for they went past the outside edge numerous times but that also shows the nervousness of the batsmen. Balaji making a comeback was most impressive.
Luckily he is now not trying bowl six different deliveries in an over, but looking to hit the ball around the batsman’s off-stump and letting the pitch do the rest. That he is also thinking could be seen by the way he angled a juicy but wide half volley to Taufiq, the ball after he was off-driven for a boundary. Taufiq went for it and missed but it showed that Balaji was prepared to give some to get his man.
That was great cricket to watch.
It was also good to see the battle between Inzamam ul-Haq and Anil Kumble, both senior citizens of their respective teams. The Pakistani skipper was patience personified while Kumble at the start of his spell looked in a bit of a hurry to get wickets. The leg-spinner finally got his man trapped in front and then produced a fizzer that turned and bounced to get rid of Kamran Akmal. The few times that one has seen Asim Kamal, he has looked as if he should be batting higher than the No. 6 slot that he has been occupying for Pakistan. His temperament is excellent and he is not afraid to play his shots even in a tense situation. He was unlucky to miss out on a century but he has only himself to blame for he played a casual shot without really moving his feet.
Pakistan must seriously look at him batting higher up the order for he is at home against both pace and spin. That the talented Yasir Hameed is sitting out this Test tells you that Pakistan must be a very good batting side but getting dismissed on the first day itself albeit with little more than 300 runs does not indicate that. Balaji was the man of the day with his bowling especially with the second new ball when he made sure that Pakistan’s tail did not wag too much. The bowlers have done their bit though they will, like many others, be disappointed at India’s fielding for a few boundaries were unnecessarily given away. Hopefully it won’t make too much of a difference to the result of the game.
