Mahendra Singh Dhoni played an innings to remember as he took India to an unlikely win and in the company of the in-form Yuvraj Singh, got India home with more than two overs to spare. It’s just the kind of innings that he specializes in and in the end he made it look simple. Lets also not take anything away from Yuvraj who rotated the strike beautifully and made sure that Dhoni was never cold and his role must also be appreciated, when Dhoni quite naturally will take the plaudits. There was also the stabilizing innings played by Tendulkar to make sure that India was always in the hunt, though he was unlucky to miss his 40th century by just five runs. Firstly though, the Pakistan Cricket Board needs to be complimented on having this new time for the one-dayer, which wasn’t quite day-night, but ensured that the dew, which is prevalent in the northern part of India and Pakistan, did not become a factor in the game. Otherwise, the team winning the toss invariably wins, as they know what time the dew is going to set in. By starting the game later, the PCB ensured that dew was not a factor at the start of the innings, as also when the game was about to finish. Sure, toward the end, there may have been a bit of dew but that wasn’t a major issue, so PCB’s example should be followed in places where the dew is heavy and can cause the game to be one-sided.
Pakistan owe their challenging total to a tremendous century by Shoaib Malik, who after getting out in the 90s in the previous two games, finally got to the three-figure mark. The others got starts but weren’t able to convert them into innings that would help swell the total and it was left to the clean hitting of Abdul Razzaq to take his team to a competitive score.
The Indian skipper Dravid deserves kudos for ensuring he kept Dhoni down the order, for when the ball is moving, as it did at Lahore, then it needs a batsman with good technique to play and so it made it easier for Dhoni to come in later when the movement had gone and the ball was coming on nicely on the bat. Pakistan’s bowlers also bowled way too short, allowing the Indians to pick them up wherever they wanted, and they have to rethink their line and length of attack. India too, need to have a look at the composition of their attack, for playing so many new-ball bowlers on flat pitches does not help, and unless there are other reasons that we don’t know about, a spinner is a must in the remaining two games. Both spinners are also handy bats, so even if they give 70-plus runs like Sreesanth did, they can still make a contribution with the bat if needed.
India are now in a good position and the pressure is on Pakistan and it will be interesting to see how they react to it.
