Pakistan squander advantage
Ahh! We had the game! The late wickets of Younis Khan and Kamran Akmal have brought South Africa back into the game. Though Inzamam is probably going to come in tomorrow morning, its unlikely that he will be able to rotate the strike and pad a lot of runs onto the lead. Maybe another 50 at most. Younis got out to a great delivery, so I can't yell at him for that, but Akmal threw his wicket away. Well - on the bight side, at least his attacking cameo got us past the lead.
Mohammad Yousuf was looking really good. He got out to a pretty good ball. One could say that the LBW decision was a bit iffy, and the ball might have gone over the bails, but hawk-eye indicated it would have probably clipped the top of the stumps. He was solid though and that's a good sign. In the second innings, when the pace has died down a bit, I'm pretty confidant that he can get his opportunity to get his 6th century in 6 tests. (or is it 5? I even lost count!)
I didn't get a chance to watch our bowling, but talking about comebacks. Shoaib Akhtar must have been on fire. I'll try and get the highlights later, but for now the scorecard will suffice. Nice to see Sami get back in the wickets, though we all know, that is probably short lived. I am surprised they didn't select Shahid Nazir, however. I would have thought he would be rated higher than Sami. Worked out in the first inning, though it may not in the second, when the pitch has slowed down. Sami might just be pedestrian then and completely toothless.
Kaneria also got a few wickets in the first innings. Finally some luck for him. On the whole, Pakistan should have batted more carefully. The top order was too unsure of themselves. Anyone could have predicted that it was only a matter of time before South Africa got our openers. Pakistan may have the lead and 4 wickets in hand, but the South African would be the ones who go to sleep a lot happier tonight. They counterattacked effectively and a few wickets in the morning tomorrow, and they will probably get a chance to bat. The pitch didn't seem to slow down all that much towards the end of the day, so there might be something in it for the Pakistani bowlers, should they have to bowl sometime in the afternoon tomorrow. Not a bad day's play, quite exciting for both sides, but in the end it was Pakistan lost their grip on the situation.
2 comments:
It could have been a lot better for Pakistan, but it could have been a lot worse. If Inzi had come at 5 and been out by the end of the day's play,if Shoib had not found his rhythm after a long layoff, if MoYo hadn't timed the ball as sweetly as he did, we would have been talking about the Proteas consolidating from here on.
Pakistan have the lead going into Day 2, they have their captain and probably the stickiest night-watchman in the game at the crease, they have Shoib and Asif who can biff a few ( they certainly will have the license to),and get to a lead of about a 100, South Africa will feel the heat.
And talking of positives, Imran Farhat actually held a catch in the slips...surely nothing can top that :)
True - But I wrote this post after I started watching the game itself. At that point, South Africa were all out and we had just lost 3 wickets. So yeah...definately squandared from that point onwards...
Yeah - Not a terrible day. Impressive show from our bowlers and theirs too. It was a good day of cricket. Enjoyable test so far. SA is a tough team, and we've kept pace with them. We might be a whisker in front of them at this point in time, but the advantage and the momentum lie with them. Pakistan need runs and Inzi should rotate the strike and get us to a good lead. 100 would be nice, though unlikely.
Yeah - Imran Farhat caught something, but Akmal dropped a few....What's going on with him?
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