At last a Test victory
for Pakistan! It could not have come at a better time
and under happier circumstances. Against India, in India;
nothing beats that combination. It was emphatic, it was
convincing, it was sweet, and it was very well deserved.
That it came when the chips were down for Pakistan in
the series has made it all the more memorable. Congratulations
Team Pakistan, and this is an unconditional and unqualified
sentiment.
To be honest, I was somewhat
surprised by the tactics adopted by India on the last
day. Even when Virendar Sehwag was out there in the middle,
India did not have a practical chance of turning the tables
on Pakistan, but at least they were trying to score runs,
treating bad balls as bad balls and according them the
treatment such deliveries deserved. In the process, the
pressure was mounting on the bowlers and the Pakistan
captain.
Once Sehwag was gone, however,
India wasted no time at all in pulling the shutters down,
with a player like Sachin Tendulkar scoring 16 runs in
140 balls! It was surprising on multiple counts. One,
because it is common knowledge that on the last day of
a Test match, teams struggle to play out two straight
sessions without playing their natural games. It is fine
if there is just an hour to play out, but four hours on
the trot are way too many.
Two, because they had seen
it happen less than a week ago when Pakistan had adopted
the same strategy in Kolkata, receding into a shell once
Shahid Afridi had left the scene.
Three, because India has
a much stronger batting lineup than does Pakistan, and
had they played their natural game, there was very little
that the bowlers would have achieved. The track, as was
visible to everyone, had no demons. Sehwag and Gautam
Gambhir were having a comfortable time till that run-out
came from nowhere. Once the Indians pulled the shutters,
it became more of a mind game, and the ball began to do
strange things. The demons were in the Indian heads, not
in the surface.
For such a seasoned side
as India, which has five of the top six batsmen with more
than three thousand Test runs against their names, it
was a strange decision, to say the least. Having said
that, anyone who has played the game at a senior level
would know that pressure makes even the most experienced
of players and teams to do strange things. And the credit
for putting the pressure and, more importantly, sustaining
it at crucial times naturally goes to Pakistan. The Indians
wilted under pressure, but Pakistan had still to take
ten wickets. It was like receiving a bad ball while at
the crease, which still has to be hit well enough to earn
a boundary.I have heard many people say different things
while talking of the turning point in the game. I for
one believe that Pakistan could win the match mainly because
at Bangalore the top order finally put some runs on the
board. It was the same old story in the first innings
where only two of the top six batsmen scored runs, while
others just went through the motions, but in the second
innings, we had 76, 58 and 84 - a total of 218 runs -
coming from the three batsmen at the top of the order.
It was only because of this that Pakistan was able to
declare with just enough time on hand to exert pressure.
Last week, I was a bit
critical of the team after it had lost out in Kolkata,
and with this victory, I am sure, most of my comments
would have seemed less than politically correct by those
who get swayed by one-match wonders. While the victory
was sweet and memorable, let us not forget that most of
the things I mentioned last week still hold good, for
consistency is something that cannot be claimed after
one or two performances. The victory was Pakistan's first
in the last six Test matches against four losses and a
back-to-the-wall draw. It has to be seen in proper perspective.
