By IANS
New Delhi : An unbeaten 71-run knock by Misbah-ul-Haq saved Pakistan from embarrassment as he helped his team to 210 for eight wickets on the opening day of the first Test against India here Thursday.
At close, Misbah (204 balls, 5x4s, 1×6), who achieved his career best in all international cricket, had Mohammed Sami (20, 77 balls, 2x4s, 1×6) for company after the mainline batsmen had frittered away the advantage of winning the toss at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium.
Misbah and Sami have now put on invaluable 58 runs for the ninth wicket, frustrating India’s new Test captain Anil Kumble, who emerged as the day’s best bowler with three wickets.
As pitch, which produced uneven bounce in the morning, settled down, the 33-year-old Misbah, an accomplished right-handed batsman, showed his fine temperament to bail out the team from the morass.
Earlier, Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik won the toss and opted to bat on the pitch that had cracks.
Amidst a misty morning, pacer Zaheer Khan struck two blows to Pakistan. The left-armer first removed in-form left-handed Salman Butt (1) by a sharp in-cutter.
Not long after that in the fifth over, the Mumbai bowler dismissed danger man Younis Khan, who had an amazing 1,061 runs at 106.10 against India before this innings.
Zaheer bowled a well-directed bouncer that the North-West Frontier Province batsman failed to put down, as his hook shot popped for Munaf Patel to take an easy catch at fine leg.
Mohammed Yousuf then struck two successive boundaries off Zaheer to indicate that things were under control.
But Yasir Hameed (29, 66 balls, 4x4s) was comprehensively beaten by a well-disguised googly from Kumble. Pakistan at this stage were reeling at 59 for three.
The Pakistani players must have had a far-from-comfortable lunch at 74 for three.
As if to symbolise Pakistan’s poor position, the visibility suddenly became poor and it was quite dark. It was worse than when the game started at 9.30 a.m. and it seemed that action would stop for a while as the umpires called for light metres.
Soon military medium pacer Sourav Ganguly struck a big blow for Pakistan. The former captain deceived the Yousuf as the master batsman missed the line and was declared leg before the wicket.
SCOREBOARD
First Tests, India vs. Pakistan, Ferozeshah Kotla
Stadium, Delhi, Nov 22
Pakistan (1st innings):
Salman Butt b Khan 1
Yasir Hameed b Kumble 29
Younis Khan c Patel b Khan 7
Mohammad Yousuf lbw b Ganguly 27
Misbah-ul-Haq batting 71
Shoaib Malik c Dhoni b Patel 0
Kamran Akmal b Kumble 30
Sohail Tanvir lbw b Harbhajan 4
Shoaib Akhtar b Kumble 2
Mohammad Sami batting 20
Extras: (byes 6, leg byes 11, wides 2) 19
Total: (for eight wickets in 85.4 overs)
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Butt, 4.6 overs), 2-35 (Younis, 12.6), 3-59 (Hameed, 21.2), 4-76 (Yousuf, 29.1), 5-Malik, 83.5), 6-122 (Akmal, 47.2), 7-137 (Tanveer, 52.1), 8-142 (Akhtar, 53.6)
Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 16 3 36 2 (2w)
Munaf Patel 20.4 4 54 1
Anil Kumble 20 5 38 3
Sourav Ganguly 12 5 24 1
Harbhajan Singh 15 1 37 1
Sachin Tendulkar 2 0 4 0
Umpires: Simon Taufel (Australia) and Billy Doctrove
(West Indies)
Third umpire: Suresh Shastri (India)
Fourth umpire: Harnarain Singh Sekhon (India)