By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Gwalior: Spurred by Mohammad Yousuf’s splendid unbeaten 99 and Younus Khan’s cracking 68 Pakistan managed to put up a moderate 255 for six wickets in the crucial fourth One-Day International, (ODI), of the five-match series of the IndianOil Cup here in the Roop Singh Stadium on Thursday.
India who lead the ODI series 2-1 and a win here would seal it in their favour before the fifth and final match at Jaipur. While Pakistan will try to defend their total successfully to keep the series alive for a final showdown in the Pink City.
Pakistan innings was built on three partnerships and apart from Yousuf’s contribution handsome knocks of 68, 40 and 31 from the blades of Mohammad Younus, Misbah-ul-Huq and Shoaib Malik. The highest of the three partnerships was for the fifth wicket of 94 runs in 90 balls between Yousuf and Misbah-ul-Huq. The other two were of 78 and 51 runs between Shoaib Malik and Younus Khan for the second wicket and between Yousuf and Younus for the third wicket respectively.
Pakistan innings was marked by three leg before wicket decisions as the ball kept low and did not come on to the bat well. The players to be out in such a fashion were Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir.
Yousuf was unlucky not to complete his well earned century and missed it just by one runs. His 99 came off 104 balls studded with seven hits to the boundary and two over it. He survived a life when he was on 79 as Saurav Ganguly failed to hold on a catch off the bowling of RP Singh in the 47th over of the innings.
Captain Shoaib Malik’s decision to opt to bat first after winning the toss misfired as opener Salman Butt was out on the second ball of the very first over of the Pakistan’s innings. Butt, who had not opened even his own account and that of his country, was adjudged leg before the wicket to RP Singh by umpire Aamish Saheba. The packed home crowd burst into raptures and RP Singh was the cynosure of all eyes.
After unexpected early departure of Butt, Younus joined his captain Shoaib Malik and the two put down their heads together to repair the damage done early on in the innings. They held on together till the 20th over and in the process put on 78 valuable runs for the second wicket. Malik departed when the scoreline read 78 as he was clean bowled by Zaheer Khan.
Prior to this Pakistan escaped a jolt when Younus Khan, with only six runs to his credit, was dropped by captain wicketkeeper MS Dhoni off the bowling of Irfan Pathan on the last ball of his second over and inning’s fourth. An inside edge of Younus fell on the left of Dhoni just short by a few inches which was difficult but not an impossible catch to hold on.
Shahid Afridi, the danger man for India, was out cheaply once again as in Kanpur. Sourav Ganguly was the bowler who removed Afridi when he tried to sweep him and missed the ball completely to be wrapped on the pads. Umpire Aamish Saheba did not hesitate to raise his dreaded finger to the glee of Ganguly and his team mates. Afridi’s dismissal was Ganguly’s 100th ODI victim.
Ganguly became the third cricketer to have claimed 100 ODI wickets and scored over 10,000 runs thereby equaling Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya’s feat.
Meanwhile, all roads in Gwalior led to the Roop Singh Stadium in the afternoon with cricket crazy crowd, which included young and old alike, attired in their best made a beeline to the cricket arena to watch the battle royal between the arch-rivals India and Pakistan. It is after more than four years that cricket lovers saw their cricketing heroes in blood and flesh performing before their eyes here in this historic city of Gwalior.
The surging crowds outside the stadium on the northern side in their frustration on not being allowed to enter the venue of the match reportedly put the barricades on fire. They were also cane-charged by the police to disperse. The 25000 capacity stadium was overflowing with people with equal or more outside trying to get entry by any means. Many fake tickets were also detected by the police as people tried to enter the stadium through it.
The police and the district administration officials remained on their toes to oversee that nothing went haywire and the match was conducted smoothly without any hindrance, whatsoever. ([email protected])