India-Pak 2nd Test Day 1

The 2nd test finally started today (the break felt incredibly long).
And what a performance by India. Wow. Truly. They batted superbly, dominating the bowling and putting an already ailing Pakistan under tremendous pressure. So much so that one couldn't help but feel sorry for Pakistan, despite being an Indian supporter.

The highlight of the day was clearly Wasim Jaffer. 192 not out on the first day. What more could any supporter ask for? He flicked, drove, cut, pulled, and just generally made the Paki bowling attack look like amateurs. He did everything right. It was wonderful to watch. We were all hoping he would reach his double century today, but bad light forced them to end the day. Hence, we'll have to wait for tomorrow. Hopefully he doesn't get out first thing tomorrow morning, because you know, Indian batsmen have a tendency to do that.

Wasim Jaffer's wife was in the stands. She must have been overjoyed with the way he performed. Was he inspired by her presence perhaps?

In other news, Dravid was playing wonderfully and had just reached his half century when Billy Doctrove decided that he had had enough of Dravid and gave him caught behind, when all the replays and the Snicko indicated as clear as day that the ball did not hit the bat and the bat did not hit anything else. So there was no sound heard and there was no nick but Dravid was out anyway. A pretty poor decision and an absolute disappointment for us Dravid fans. It is a sad sad thing, because we've been waiting quite a while to see him play. And ever since this test series started, he's been getting awesome starts, but has gotten out to brilliant bowling. And today, when he finally converted a start to a half-century, the umpire didn't like it (or so it seemed). Oh woe.

Anyway, I think Pakistan's selectors are even more confused than India's. Honestly, Shoaib Akhtar was sick. Fullstop. There was nothing to suggest he was even well enough to be sitting up, let alone playing cricket, and that too a test match. I am absolutely CLUELESS as to why he was selected to play this match. I'm sure Yasir Arafat would have done far better as a replacement. At least he would have been able to bowl in full fitness. Shoaib was almost collapsing on the field and every ball he bowled seemed to take a herculean effort. I felt incredibly sorry for him, and I honestly think he should have been taken off the field, force fed medicine and asked to rest. But he persisted! I have no idea how he managed it or whether he managed it at all. It was a terrible sight. And Sami had a fever until yesterday, but he too is playing today.

I'm sure that there isn't SUCH a huge lack of bowlers in pakistan. There must be SOMEONE who can replace them. It's so curious. The whole thing is just so utterly curious. As much as I support India, I would enjoy a good contest more than a pushover. Like the first test match. That was a good contest. But this one... well it could prove me wrong yet, but today has just been India all the way. And while I want India to win this, one would like to see the opposition put up a semblence of a fight at least.

Well Ganguly and Jaffer seem well set. Tomorrow is another day (that's what Pakistan will be thinking too) and anything can happen.
So we'll wait and see.

[edit @ 20 59 hrs]

"Four in one go
The only fully fit fast bowler in the Pakistan attack was Tanvir, but curiously he was the most expensive as well, for the best part. Unsure of exactly what line to bowl, based on the field he was given, Tanvir was smacked for fours off the first, second, third and fifth deliveries of the 23rd over. A back-foot punch through cover, a drive back down the ground, a forcing shot through point and a flick through midwicket and aside from the pull Jaffer had shown pretty much his whole repertoire in one over.

Billy strikes
On a pitch that was a nightmare for bowlers - normally the strip at the Eden Gardens at least provides some juice early on - and once a batsman got in it was hard to work out how a bowler would dislodge him. Jaffer and Rahul Dravid bedded down with such ease that it seemed a run-out would be the most likely to break the partnership. That was till Billy Doctrove intervened. On exactly 50, and looking good for a whole lot more, Dravid drove inside out at a ball that was tossed up, bat struck ground, ball turned well past bat and lodged between Kamran Akmal's arm and body, and the loud shout was upheld. Once again Dravid's innings had been curtailed when he looked untroubled at the crease.

Can't catch a ...
It's no wonder Kamran Akmal is fully fit despite all the flu and chest infections and sore throats going round the Pakistan team. At the moment, he's just living out that cruel descriptor, where he can't catch even a cold. Statisticians have given up counting his dropped catches, and on a pitch that was so unresponsive that it forced Tanvir to turn to left-arm spin, Akmal dropped a clanger. Mohammad Sami bent his back and managed to get one to hurry onto Tendulkar, who half-heartedly attempted an upper cut. The ball just lobbed up towards Akmal, who put his right hand out and palmed the ball past the slip fielder.

Two Kanerias
With the ball in hand, even arms flailing and legs pumping in several different directions, Kaneria appears to be in control of what he is doing. And he certainly was when he landed a perfectly pitched googly that fooled Tendulkar into playing an expansive drive and turned in to bowl the batsman through the gate. But there's another Kaneria, the one who fields, who looks like he's going to injure himself at any moment. And he did, in the dying moments of the day, chasing after a straight drive from Sourav Ganguly, half-sliding, half-diving and generally getting stuck in the ground. He limped off the field, and fortunately for Pakistan this hadn't happened earlier in the day, though Kaneria consistently threatened to do just this with one of the most unacrobatic dives you're likely to see on a cricket field."

That's quoted from Cricinfo and just about sums up the day really.

[/edit]

1st Test 2nd Day

I apologise for the lack of updates about the India Pakistan ODI series. But the exams are over and I will update.

1st India-Pak test match. Well it's been a right roller coaster so far. Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat, and we all thought India were goners. But then they had Pakistan at 142 for 8! Which was a magnificient feat, but Misbah and Sami put up a strong resistance and took Pakistan to a decent score. Finally Misbah got himself run out in the silliest fashion and then India bowled Pakistan out for 231. Naturally everyone thought India would cleansweep the match. But India's top order was taken apart by Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir and we wobbled with 5 wickets down and just 88 on the board. At that stage we looked doomed. But Laxman and Dhoni have put up a brilliant partnership to take us to 186 for 5. Up and down and up and down and up...

...here comes Sohail Tanvir. Will be survive this spell? Oh it's Dhoni's 50! Great stuff there. He's justifying his ODI and T20 captaincy and possibly even a Test captaincy sometime soon.

Otherwise I would like to say that it was wonderful watching Dravid playing again. Yes, he only scored 39, but he scored it well. Watching him hit boundaries was just so wonderful. It was a treat for any Dravid fan. Unfortunately he did not go on to get a 50.

But more on that at the end of the match I guess. In the meantime, Dhoni has gotten himself out for 57, Laxman's gone on to get a 50 and Kumble looks to be batting well.

About Kumble's captaincy- I think he's quite wonderful as a bowler and even batsmen and he thoroughly deserves the captaincy because he's a thinking cricketer. He was good when India bowled- he attacked and defended, he bowled himself as an attacking option, he wasn't afraid to take on the responsibility... I like his attitude.

While Dhoni is quite openly no-fear, Kumble is quietly no-fear. He doesn't look like he can be intimidated. He bowled well, got 4 wickets. And now he's batting well. So it's stumps now, and we'll see what happens tomorrow.