venuszone.....
It was an innings of two unequal parts. The first was over in a flash
when a wobbly India lost half their side by the tenth over in the face
of some incredible swing bowling by Junaid Khan. The second lasted the
remainder of the innings, an exhibition of tenacious batting by MS Dhoni
who battled the humidity to score an unbeaten 113, helped along the way
by Suresh Raina and R Ashwin. It was a tremendous recovery from 29 for 5
when India had lost their last recognised pair at the crease.
Dhoni's innings too was of two contrasting parts. He nudged and poked
his way to fifty off 86 balls, hitting just two boundaries and a six.
His next 61 came off just 39 balls. As the innings closed, Dhoni could
barely stand. In a bid to conserve energy, Dhoni focused on hitting out
and it was a blessing in disguise for India as he regularly found the
gaps, helping India ransack an unlikely 81 off the last ten overs.
The morning had ingredients you wouldn't normally associate with one-day
cricket in India - morning start, overcast conditions, a green pitch,
moisture. The left-arm seam duo of Junaid and Mohammad Irfan hit the
timber with such regularity that they might well have come out wielding
axes rather than cricket balls. It reignited the familiar criticism of
Indian batsmen struggling to cope with movement, irrespective of where
they play.
Play was delayed by an hour due to overnight rain and the lack of
sunshine had further spiced up a damp pitch, which meant that the Indian
batsmen had to adopt a wait-and-watch approach against the seamers.
Reputations counted for nothing as India's top order was exposed for
their lack of technique against the moving ball against two seamers with
a combined experience of 15 ODIs.
Virender Sehwag drove away from the body and lost his off stump. Irfan
beat Gautam Gambhir's drive; Virat Kohli played down the wrong line to
Junaid who pitched it up and swung the ball in to knock the off stump;
Yuvraj Singh was beaten for pace. Junaid picked up a fourth wicket in
his spell when he had Rohit Sharma pushing at one that moved away, with
Mohammad Hafeez taking a sharp reflex catch at third slip.
Dhoni and Raina came together at 29 for 5 and focused on picking up
singles rather than counterattacking their way to a recovery. There was a
loud cheer when Raina sliced Saeed Ajmal past cover to bring up the
fifty stand, breaking a boundary drought that lasted nearly 14 overs.
The innings could have finished earlier had Misbah not dropped Dhoni at
midwicket on 16. The drop was to cost Pakistan a massive 97 runs. Dhoni
was watchful against the spinners after that drop, pushing the ball down
the ground for singles. India hadn't scored a boundary for close to 15
overs following that Raina boundary. Pakistan had an opening when Raina
played back to Hafeez and lost his leg stump, but what they weren't
prepared for was the resistance shown by Ashwin and Dhoni.
The batting Powerplay, taken in the 34th over, produced 23 runs but the
most productive phase of the innings was to follow. When Ashwin edged
Ajmal past slip in the 37th over, it broke a boundary drought that
lasted another 15 overs. India went on to smash 11 more boundaries,
including three sixes. Junaid, returning for a new spell, overstepped
the crease and Dhoni bashed the free hit over wide long-on to bring up
the first six of the innings.
Dhoni launched Ajmal out of the ground over long-on and brought up his
century with a six over extra cover. His stand of 125 with Ashwin was
India's record highest for the seventh wicket. Dhoni's march towards his
century featured an array of shots on both sides of the wicket,
including the helicopter shot, the pull and the squirt past gully.
The average first-innings score in this ground in the last five matches
is 204. India bettered that by 23 runs, giving Pakistan something to
chase in testing batting conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment