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Laxmipathy Balaji is one stubborn man. Despite the Pakistan female fans chanting 'Balaji zara dheere chalo [Balaji go slow]' when India toured Pakistan last year, he demolished the home side, picking 12 wickets in the series.
On Tuesday, the medium pacer, returning to the Indian side after six months in the wilderness because of an abdominal injury, was back to torment the Pakistanis again as he picked his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
He returned with five for 76 as Pakistan were bowled out for 312 in 86.4 overs on the first day of the first Test at the PCA stadium in Mohali, Chandigarh on Tuesday.
For Pakistan, Asim Kamal played a stout knock of 91 to take to score to 312 after the top order had failed to fire.
Morning session (91 runs, 3 wickets, 25 overs)
For the 40,000-plus crowd the 30-minute delay in the start of play hardly mattered. They drummed up the atmosphere as the umpires left the wicket to dry in the morning sun.
A loud roar signaled the start of the highly anticipated series as the two captains came out for toss. India captain Sourav Ganguly won it and, given the bowling combination of three seamers and one spinner in the team, promptly chose to field.
India dropped Harbhajan Singh from the playing eleven and recalled Yuvraj Singh as the 12th man for the Test.
The SG ball, with its pronounced seam, some dampness in the wicket and the air were exploited to perfection by the Indian opening bowlers. Irfan Pathan, who was out of action since suffering a groin injury in Bangladesh last year, opened the attack for India.
The left-armer was quickly in his stride. He showed no signs of rustiness as he started asking some uneasy questions to the two Pakistani left-hand openers -- Salman Butt and Taufeeq Umar.
Butt faced Pathan's incisive swing with more confidence than his batting partner, but the Indian pacer's impeccable line made it difficult to get out of the square.
Zaheer, though not as accurate as his Baroda teammate, kept the other end tight. Ganguly showed faith in his bowlers, placing three slips and two gullies in the first hour of play. The bowlers' dominance, a smooth green outfield and the packed slip cordon must have brought back the ugly memories of Australia for Pakistan.
In the first five overs, the visitors scored only nine runs. Butt was starting to search for the runs but failed in his quest to judge a sharp in-swinging delivery from Pathan and saw his stumps disturbed.
Pathan pitched the ball fuller and the late swing saw Butt pushing on the front foot down the wrong line.(11-1).
Newly-appointed Pakistan vice-captain Younis Khan played a scratchy innings and failed to use his experience to see the first hour through for Pakistan. He started with an edge between the slips that rolled off the fast outfield.
After surviving a couple of close lbw appeals in one over from Pathan, the right-hander was out in the next the ninth over of the innings. A ball from Zaheer pitched on the leg stump and continued with the angle to trap Younis plumb in front of the wicket.
Umar, who started tentatively, was looking more comfortable with the reassuring presence of his captain, Inzamam, at the other end. Inzamam, who came in at 30 for 2, was unperturbed by the early success the Indian attack got. He began with an elegant drive straight to mid-on and collected his runs calmly.
Balaji, who came first change, was playing his first Test since the Pakistan tour last year. An abdominal injury had put the bowler out of action since last August and he had only a couple of domestic games under his belt before this series.
In the first three overs, he was a little awry, bowling wide on both sides of the wicket. But the last ball of his third over suggested that the bowler was finding his rhythm. The ball pitched full and held its line as Inzamam was beaten completely.
Though the Indian bowlers were able to keep the Pakistan batsmen on a leash, Inzamam and Umar did well to knit a partnership of 59 for the third wicket.
While the Pakistan captain found the boundaries regularly, he was also able to pick up the singles easily. In the last 30 minutes of the session, the Indian fielding stumbled a bit -- the damp outfield caused the players to lose footing at times.
Once he crossed the 20-mark, Umar started to attack the bowlers. The left-hander hit a couple of straight drives to inject belief in his play. He went on to hit seven boundaries and looked on his way to a fifty, when Balaji uprooted his stumps on 44.
After testing Kumble for two overs, Ganguly reintroduced Pathan into the attack in the 21st over. The move by the Indian captain paid off as the batsmen were now more guarded and though Pathan did not get a wicket in his second spell of the morning, Balaji, at the other end, was able to lick one an over before lunch was called.
The first morning went as per India's script as the home team was able to reduce Pakistan to 91 for three before lunch.
Pakistan could take heart from the fact that their two best batsmen Inzamam-ul Haq (25) and Yousuf Youhana (2) were at the wicket when lunch was called.
Post-Lunch session (100 runs, 3 wickets, 26 overs)
Inzamam shouldered the first ball from Pathan after the lunch break. It was one that angled away from him. The Multan batsman needed just three balls to get his eye in. Off the fourth delivery of the first over, he leaned back and flashed the ball through point.
The captain continued to work his way out, but Youhana, who looked out of sorts, fell to his bogeyman, Pathan.
Youhana was Pathan's bunny last year, when the left-armer had the stylish batsman thrice in five One-Day Internationals, once in Peshawar and twice in Lahore. Later, in two of the five Test innings, he fell to Pathan in the second innings of the first Test at Multan after hitting 112, and in the second innings of the third Test in Rawalpindi, after scoring 13.
In Mohali, the Indian bowler was able to induce a faint edge from Youhana's bat and have him pocketed by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. Umpire Rudi Koertzen found it futile to raise his finger as Youhana had already started walking back to the pavilion. (104-4)
The catch also must have come as relief for the 19-year-old Indian `keeper, who had a torrid time behind the wickets in the morning. Though he did not floor any catches, Karthik had difficulty picking up the prodigious swing of Pathan and Zaheer.
Youhana's wicket brought the 28-year-old Asim Kamal to the wicket. The left-handed batsman, who had a late start to his career, has some handy innings to his name. He had defied injury to build a courageous knock of 60 not out when Pakistan crumbled to an innings defeat on the fifth morning in the last Test in Rawalpindi in the series against India last year.
The left-right combination was working well for the visitors. Kamal and Inzamam kept the scoreboard ticking without taking any risks. Once in a while, Inzamam stamped his class with handsome pulls and drives.
His broad shoulders, carrying the burden of an inexperienced side, masked the litheness of his feet and hands that moved in perfect coordination to dig out the runs. His footwork against pace was fluid and assured. The captain drove the ball on the on-side for three runs to bring up his half-century. He celebrated the landmark in a characteristic understated way -- with a mild nod and hoist of bat.
With the Pakistanis cruising along, Ganguly made some quick bowling changes, bringing himself in the attack in the 38th over and then reintroducing Kumble in the 42nd.
Again Ganguly's change brought about the desired effect. Though Inzamam played the Indian leg-spinner with tight defense on the front foot, Kumble made him play the wrong line. The umpire found Inzamam leg before wicket even as the batsman stared in disbelief.
His innings of 57 had balmed the team to 156, but the job was left incomplete.
Pakistan had the cushion of having a genuine all-rounder in the side in Abdul Razzaq. The right-hander had been plagued with a series of ailments during the Australia series but had a useful knock of 63 in the warm-up game in Dharamshala.
Razzaq looked to dominate Kumble as soon as he strode in at the wicket. He was packing a punch in his shots, and after the first three strikes found the fielders, he dispatched the fourth ball to the long-on boundary with contempt. The next two balls were also smacked through mid-wicket.
Finding heart from his partner's assault, Kamal square-cut Zaheer in the very next over. Razzaq, clear in his intent, hit two more boundaries before he was out to his extravagance.
The Pakistani tried to free his arms against Balaji, who had replaced Zaheer in the earlier over, and edged the ball to Karthik. For the second time in the day, the visitors lost a wicket with the break in sight.
Post-Tea session (121 runs, 4 wickets, 35.4 overs)
Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal adjusted his game, curbed his instincts and defended more than usual to stall a collapse.
The first two overs of the last session went without event, but the afternoon crowd was dragged into a burst when Akmal hurried into a pull shot off Balaji. The ball looped to mid-on, scraping Ganguly's outstretched hands on its way to the boundary. Though the fielder failed to anticipate the ball, Balaji tried not to look too upset with his captain.
The right-hand bowler had lost the sting and though the batsmen did not pick easy runs, they had no problem in defending their wicket. With the batsmen concentrating hard, Kumble's variations could not make much of an impact either.
Kamal collected his runs without any rush and waited for the lose balls. He completed his fifty with a cut behind point to Balaji and after more than two hours in the middle afforded himself a smile. A glance to fine-leg boundary and another square cut saw the left-hander relax just a bit.
A casual swish at a Pathan delivery showed a lapse in concentration. Pathan's bowling had shaken Kamal, who hunched down on his bat for a moment to take a breather. In the next over, he hit the best shot of his innings - a straight drive that rocketed to the boundary.
At the other end, Kumble was regularly beating Akmal. The Pakistan innings had begun to fumble. Akmal got away with a few bat-pad calls, but gloved one to Rahul Dravid at first slip.
Kumble, India's leading wicket-taker for India in Tests, displayed his guile as he got one to spin away from the right-hander after lulling him with a few straighter deliveries.
Kamal and Akmal had carved a stand of 48 for the seventh wicket, but the lack of big partnerships was the reason that India never let Pakistan take charge of the tug-of-war on the opening day of the Test.
Though the wicket was losing its pace and early bounce, Kumble held the strings of the show. It was his change in length that had the batsmen in tangles. He yorked Mohammed Sami on one occasion and then had ball rising under Kamal's nose.
The hosts had started the last session of the day with 39 overs to go. The over rate further suffered with Ganguly's reluctance to try any of his part-time spinners on the first-day wicket.
With the leg-spinning ace in his stride, the Indian captain shuffled his pacemen at the other end.
Kumble, bowling with two slips and a silly point for most part, almost gave India another breakthrough when he had Kamal driving the ball in the air to mid-off. But VVS Laxman failed to pouch the catch with the Pakistan batsman on 79.
Sehwag was introduced into the attack in the 77th over to quickly get 80 overs under the belt.
The new ball was promptly taken and Balaji repaid the captain's faith in the very first over of his third spell. The harder ball was difficult to work around and a straight fast delivery from Balaji had Sami (20) squaring up as the ball crashed into his off-stump. (282-8)
It was a good recovery from Pakistan, with Kamal rallying with the tailenders to build a sizable total. The new ball didn't budge the left-hander either; rather he used the extra pace to his advantage to hit a couple of cover drives.
A maiden century was in the waiting and at the end of the 84th over by Pathan, Naveed-ul-Hasan walked down to Kamal to keep him off the nerves. Kamal nodded but when Balaji got one to move in, the batsman was caught leaden footed. The ball whipped the off the bails; Kamal was out in the nineties for the second time in his seven-match career.
The Pakistani was out on 99 against South Africa on debut in 2003 at Lahore.
Balaji then wiped off the last remains of the Pakistan line-up with the wicket of Naveed-ul-Hasan to bag his first five-wicket haul, for 76 runs.
The Tamil Nadu bowler, returning from an injury, gave an exemplary exhibition of fast bowling and was able to outshine Pathan and Zaheer on the day.
