Dhoni bludgeons Pak bowling

It was another drama filled day at Faisalabad and Mahendra Dhoni has shown that he can be trusted to deliver when te chips are down. I am pretty sure that Dravid/Chappell duo would not have braved a 5 bowler policy without the comfort of having Dhoni (and Pathan). Dhoni not only saved Rahul and India the blushes but effectively bludgeoned his way into an attack that was almost running away with the match. VVS had perished in the 90s after a dour innings and Rahul had run himself out (perhaps more due to the magic by Imran Farhat rather than RD’s fault) but Sachin walked away when he was not out. The laws of the game clearly state that if you glove the ball you are out but that should be the gloved hand holding the bat and his hand had come off. With SRT showing benevolence to Pak, we missed an unusual treat – Akthar who was not notching up new limits in the radar gun, while bowling to Sachin would have been a good confrontation to enjoy.

It was then left to the new youth brigade of Indian lower batting to salvage something and salvage they did with lot of gurs, plenty of gumption and tremendous insularity to brush off the verbal vollies of Afridi. Dhoni was particularly impressive in the majestic hooked 6 of Akthar and tamed Kaneria easily, especially that reverse hit was indeed cheeky. Pathan went into a defensive mood and repeated the mistakes of RD and VVS duo by allowing the bowling to get on top in later stages but played some wonderful strokes when India was chasing the follow on traget. Pathan easily could have gone to a score of some 70+ threeby ensuring that he got a 100 on day 4 but now that will require a lot of support from the longish Indian tail.
The game appears to be heading for a draw unless something special happens. I am pretty sure that Pak will try an open with Afridi in the 2^nd innings and we may get to see the 6X6 over he has been promising.

2^nd day report

It was another powerful hitting display by Pakistan and Afridi ensured that whatever little life was there in Indian attack is completely snuffed out. Finally, when it was all over, India was starring at a mighty 588. My feeling that these huge Pak totals are going to be a headache considering the ODI series ahead. Pak batting has become so confident that they can overhaul any total put up by Indian batsmen (and perhaps one can argue that the reverse too is true but every time it is so difficult to resurrect against an attack that is a couple of notches better than India’s). Sehwag followed his trend of a 30s after a big test score and when play ended, India was clearly in the backfoot but ready for another long fight back next day.