Sahara Game 2, match report

India's batting despite the victory on the first day is pretty thin. Without Ganguly, chasing 246 on a slow pitch with sometimes uneven bounce was always going to be difficult. The second match went Pakistan's way in two clearly marked out phases. First, after being 180 odd for 7, they were let off the hook rather tamely by an indecisive India. It must be pointed out however, that Pakistan had mostly themselves to blame for getting into all that strife. Malik and Afridi played awful shots and got out and except for Srinath getting Anwar, none of the early wickets were really anything to do with good bowling. Joshi bowled a tight, impressive spell amidst rather ordinary bowling around him. Agarkar and Srinath got hit around a bit too much at the very end. In this crucial phase, Moin took the match away from India. His batsmanship hasn't really been put to full use mainly because of Pakistan's strange selection policies. Crisp hitting and clear-headededness are Moin's forte. He first denied India and then effectively snuffed them out.

India started steadily enough although much of Sidhu's square of the wicket offside play was being denied by Miandad's shrewd cricketing brain. That close-in gully was a master stroke. The steady, but slow start would have been okay if the batsmen to follow were proven strokemakers. But, with this batting line-up, the slow start almost made certain a Pakistan win. Zahid looked very good again and Sidhu's footwork was made to look very slow. He's not innovative enough to make runs if bowlers don't give him much room. We might be seeing the end of a very useful one-day career. Azhar and Mongia looked like wresting the initiative for a while. It is not often you see Azhar starting off with two sixes. But, he got into a rut against some very purposeful seam bowling from Mehmood, got beaten more than a few times outside off before almost predictably edging one to Moin. It was in this phase that India lost grip of things completely. Mehmood, Zahid and Miandad's close-in gully had shut India out.

Dravid began positively enough but these days he's feeling the pressure of the bad one-day-player tag. He is caught in two worlds. His strength and the key to his batting is his organized cricketing mind. Now, subconsciously, he feels the need to hurry. I hope he doesn't go the Manjrekar way.

Kanitkar, Raul and Paranjpe couldn't really be expected to cope with asking rates of over six for a relatively sustained period of time. Srinath provided a thrill or two at the end, but Pakistan had played a well thought-out game and won handily.

We heard Saqlain had arrived in Toronto on Sunday. We now hear that although Tendulkar, Jadeja, Kumble and Robin were to join the Indian party for the last two matches, Pakistan's protests are being upheld and they in fact won't. The farce of Kuala Lumpur is I guess not really behind us. We will continue to miss that much-needed spark in Toronto.

Contributed by Krish (KKumar2421@aol.com)