Another on cricket....

Amazing Cricket at Karachi

"Bhago hiyanse bachcha...(Hin.)..."  After Iqbal 
[No rooms for bright kid syndrome].

I wished Ganguly a ton, instead he snatched the first wicket of Pakistan in the second innings! It is one thing to copy Mr. Hoover's commentary from TOI, it's a totally different story facing Akhtar with a bat in the hand! Had Ganguly turned the bat by 5 degrees more (refer to his first innings batting), he could have gotten a four or six; he got caught instead. I would like to see Ganguly back as a bowler, so that he could compete wih Afridi.


The first two Tests were only runs, but  bad on wickets. If you go through the score-card (either Yahoo India or India times) in the Third Test, you might notice the number of missed centuries as two; but you would miss at least four patches of football (Tendulkar had experienced one of them), and at least four missed catches (Indian batsmen were saved at least four times). At the end, with India 251 for 9, I was wondering if Yuvraj could take the team to draw. Dravid must have been praying to God for fog, rain and cloud! 

Mr. Hoover of TOI might post-mortem the failure of  the Indian and Pakintani batsmen in the two Indian and one Pakistani innings with his dispassionate professionalism, as he did with Sourav in the past. I however was impressed by  the half-centuries of all the seven batsmen out in the second Innings of the Pakistan. Pakistani players must have shared the luck, credit and joy equally well.

The first two Test matches were, at best, boring. The Iqbal Stadium displayed cricket at its best.

SG,
Bangalore,
Feb 3, 2006