There may be little for Pakistan to play for in Jaipur, apart from the clichéd pride and a morale-boosting win going into the first Test, but the touring batsmen will have to rally together to match a confident Indian line-up and avoid a 4-1 defeat in the one-day series.
Though Shoaib Malik blamed defeat in Gwalior on his opening bowlers failing to rein in a vintage Sachin Tendulkar, the initiative had been lost earlier in the day, when their batsmen failed to bat around Mohammad Yousuf, who was left stranded on 99.
Yousuf had a strike-rate of around 90 throughout his innings and formed substantial partnerships of 51 for the third wicket with Younis Khan, and 94 for the fifth wicket with Misbah-ul-Haq. Pakistan had another steady partnership when Malik added 78 for the second wicket with Younis but they didn't score 300 because the set batsmen got out precisely when it was time to accelerate.
Malik tried to up the ante and was bowled by Zaheer Khan. Yousuf joined Younis and began to efficiently anchor the innings. The ideal blueprint would have been for the batsmen at the other end to play the aggressor while Yousuf built his innings at a run-a-ball. However, both Younis and Misbah lost their wickets when the partnership was just lifting off the ground. Shahid Afridi's failure to fire also left Yousuf in a familiar dilemma; whether to risk his wicket trying to accelerate, or continue the anchor role and see Pakistan through to a reasonable total. As it turned out, Pakistan finished with 255, a difficult total to defend under normal, dewy conditions and impossible with Tendulkar on a rampage.
No comments:
Post a Comment