India concede tamely

By ICF Staff
April 9 2005

Pakistan, faced with a must-win situation to keep their hopes alive in the ODI series after falling to 0-2, win easily in Jamshedpur.

Pakistan won the toss and promptly decided to bat, as has been the theme for this summer ODI series in India.

They duly proceeded to hit up a challenging 319, with top-order batsman Butt getting his second ODI century, Malik scoring a run-a-ball 75, and Youhana adding a quickfire 43.

However, the total was lower than initially threatened by the rollicking start. Although each of India's bowlers went for plenty, Irfan Pathan -- whose selection despite apparent injury came as a surprise -- was particularly poor, giving away 87 off 8 overs before he was taken off by the umpires after the ball slipped out of his hand and was whacked to the boundary, but adjudged a beamer in the process.

The Pakistani batting collapsed in the final 5 overs, losing 5/30 and raising doubts whether the total was a sufficient target on this ODI track.

Journeyman Rana Naved dispelled those doubts quickly with his line-and-length stuff when he ran through India's strong batting lineup, with top-order batsmen Sehwag (2), Tendulkar (6), Ganguly (4), Dravid (28) and Yuvraj Singh (1) all inexplicably throwing their wickets away, instead of blowing away the weak attack as they have done so far in this series.

When Yuvraj was caught behind off the Pakistani medium-pacer, India had crashed to a desperate 66/5 in 11 overs, and appeared headed for a humiliating sub-100 dismissal.

That they staged a comeback of sorts to end with 213 was largely down to the tailenders, with Irfan Pathan smashing a career-best 64 off 80 deliveries and Zaheer Khan providing good support with an aggressive 27.

Meanwhile, captain Ganguly is likely to be fined by controversial referee Chris Broad after India's slow over rate, taking almost a half-hour more than budgeted for their 50 overs.

The ODI series moves to Ahmedabad on Tuesday, delicately balanced at 2-1 with 3 matches to go.