By Saj
July 27 2004

Pakistan comfortably beat India by 59 runs in the key encounter on Sunday. Shoaib Maliks superb 143 and a good all round effort from the bowlers was too much for the Indians, who were in the end left scrambling for the bonus point. Yet again for Pakistani fans it was scratch your heads and tear your hair out time! A team that looked devoid of ideas, effort, technique and the will to win, a couple of days later comfortably beat a full strength Indian team. It really is amazing and totally frustrating for Pakistani fans to see this fluctuation from game to game on a regular basis. However I guess this is the roller coaster ride that is Pakistani cricket.

Bob Woolmer must have wondered if this was the same team that he was working with who played so atrociously against Sri Lanka, and these last 2 performances will surely make Bob realise the size and magnitude of the task he has undertaken.

Pakistan went into this game with the same team that played against Sri Lanka, however the Indians were without VVS Laxman and surprisingly brought in an extra bowler to replace him. That much of Indias recent success has been down to their 7 batsman approach, made the choice of an extra bowler even more surprising.

Imran Nazir, the young man who just cannot find the consistent form to please his immense following, went in the first over and it will be interesting to see if Imran is once again at the end of the Asia cup put out to pasture for a while. I personally feel that it is time to discard Imran Nazir and give an opportunity to a youngster, instead of this Afridi and Nazir rotation of irresponsible batting.

Yasir Hameed hit the ball hard during the match against India, like he so often does, but most of the time it was mistimed or straight to a fielder. Yasir is a player who can light up a match with his scintillating and wristy strokemaking. However Yasir needs to apply himself better, learn from his mistakes and strive to improve his approach. He has to realise that he does not have to do the bulk of the scoring in every partnership. Whilst batting with Shoaib Malik, he should have realised that Malik was making the Indian bowlers toil and he did not have to do anything extravagant and just rotate the strike. Instead he throws it away with a lousy shot.

What can one say about Shoaib Maliks innings. He is a gutsy young man who like so many in international cricket is still learning the game, has flaws but is prepared to give 100% every time he goes out in the middle. Fans do not mind players who give their all every time they represent their country, of course such players have failures and will of course go through lean periods, however I think Malik is going to be a true favourite with the fans. His 3 dimensional approach to the game and his flexibility to bat anywhere in the batting order means he is an ever improving and handy player to have.

It was good to see Pakistan maintaining a run rate of 5 per over almost throughout the innings and it was also heartening to see them not allowing Harbhajan and Kumble to settle into any sort of rhythm during the middle overs. Quite often in the past Pakistan have got off to excellent starts only for the middle of the innings to prove to be their downfall by losing wickets consistently and thus a reduction in their scoring rate. However this time around they maintained their wickets and kept scoring at a good rate continuously, with some excellent improvisation and hard running between the wickets.

A flourish of wickets at the end of the innings meant that Pakistan finished on 300 for 9, probably about 15 to 20 runs short of what they looked like achieving. However mission had been accomplished with a very challenging score for the Indians to chase under lights.

It was interesting to see Pakistan open with Shabbir and this proved to be an excellent decision as he dismissed the out of form Sehwag. The Indians are heavily reliant on Sehwag giving them an explosive start, which allows the likes of Dravid, Tendulkar and Kaif to bat around him. The loss of Sehwag was obviously a massive blow to them, but Ganguly and Tendulkar counter attacked well. Shoaib Akhtar bowled quick, Sami was expensive but got rid of the dangerous Ganguly, whilst Razzaq, Shabbir and Malik were accurate and wore down the Indians with regular wickets.

Tendulkar stood between Pakistan and victory, but ultimately Tendulkar realised that the task in hand was too much for him and with the help of Irfan Pathan settled to guide his team to 241, thus enabling India to claim a vital bonus point.

Pakistan in the field, with the exception of one or two lapses were superb, whilst the bowling showed more application and concentration especially from the 3 slower bowlers. Sami and Shaoib in my opinion are still bowling below their best and very much like Yasir with his batting, need to think more about their game and focus on areas of improvement.

In this sort of form Pakistan are quite capable of beating any opposition put before them, but these sort of days need to be more regular, rather than once in a blue moon.

India however still have the chance to qualify for the final against Sri Lanka, if they can beat the home team on Tuesday, whilst Pakistan play Bangladesh in their final phase 2 game.

Irrespective of the outcome of this tournament, the performance against India has given Pakistani fans plenty of hope and encouragement for the future, whilst providing the players with a much needed confidence boost.