LINE AND LENGTH-R.Mohan
Virender Sehwag was the person to blame for the fiasco as he toyed with the short-pitched stuff from Rana, as if he were using a periscope inside a submarine.
He won’t regret missing out on the
record too much because Sehwag is not one who bats with
records in mind. But Dravid might feel disappointed because of the denial of the privilege of being a partner in a world record.
Greg Chappell said that Sehwag is an instinctive player who does not
think too much about the game. Clearly a reason why he doesn’t think of records either.
Sehwag and Dravid achieved a major feat for India in preserving team spirit after the mauling received in the field. The men behind the 410-run stand made the watching easy and without terrible pauses in the form of defensive play.
Their stand must have been more entertaining than the 413 that Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy put on. Milka Singh who had watched that match in 1956 at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai, said,” I had gone to sleep on the first day when they put on 234 runs.”
Sehwag and Dravid did not pass Mankad and Roy but they certainly ensured that the teams will go on an even keel into the second Test in Faislabad, close enough to Lahore, where too the
weather can be expected to be very similar.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s choice of Kookaburra balls whose seam seems to disappear too quickly seems intriguing. So it is not only the
pitch conditions that led to such a run riot.
The town is famous for the saying that there will be no’ faisla” (result) in Faisalabad .If that proves true, the Karachi Test, with better weather and a harsher pitch might prove the decisive venue.
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