If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, your name's Asim Kamal -- that has got to be the nutshell version of the story of day one of the first Test between India and Pakistan at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali.
Pakistan's top order did its best to justify Sourav Ganguly's decision to insert after winning the toss and if the young Kamal, who appears to have a yen for the Indian bowling (three fifties thus against the arch rivals), hadn't provided the spine for a succession of resuscitating partnerships, Pakistan would have been in deep trouble.
As it stands, Pakistan lost its last wicket almost on the stroke of stumps, to end its first innings on 312 -- and Lakshmipathy Balaji, a last minute inclusion in the side, hit his straps with the first five-wicket haul of his career.
There was some green on the track; Mohali does tend to give the seamers something to work with in the early stages of each day -- but on balance, the wicket wasn't demoniac in terms of either pace, or bounce.
A Pakistan report card, made by an impartial teacher, would thus read: Lacks application and concentration, can do much better.
The Indian think tank bought big time into the legend of Mohali's pace and went in with three seamers (damned if I can remember the last time we did that in a home Test, come to think of it), opting to rest Harbhajan Singh and bring in Balaji to back up Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan.
The ploy worked -- if you consider the evidence of three wickets prised out in the first session, another three in the second (and traditionally, batsmen-friendly) session, and the final four in the extended final session.
Consider the nature of the dismissals, though, and you have to say that well as the Indians bowled, the Pakistani batsmen contributed largely to their own demise.
The stylish Salman Butt went first -- Pathan's delivery was fullish and swinging in, but the left-hander contributed to his dismissal by standing motionless and driving without being in position for the shot; he ended up playing around the ball and having his stumps disarrayed (11/1 Pak, in the 7th over).
When Younis Khan was made vice-captain, there was some criticism that he doesn't really deserve his place in the side for his batting alone.
Zaheer bowled him a quicker, fuller ball on line of leg, straightening on to leg and middle -- but again, Khan did himself no favors with a vague shuffle that put him in no position to meet ball with bat; the strike on the pads was good, and Pak had lost its second wicket in the 10th over (30/2).
Inzamam-ul Haq looked in sublime touch from the get-go; not so Taufeeq Umar, who scratched and pushed and prodded at the other end. The opener looked like he'd prefer a stint of hard labour to having to face Pathan and Zaheer -- but to his credit, he gritted it out in a 59-run partnership with his captain before wafting one too many times at a ball outside off, to touch it through to inner edge onto his stumps (89/3 in the 25th over).
The fall of Umar was unfortunately timed -- Pakistan had at that point looked to be recovering from the fall of two early wickets; had the pair survived through to lunch, the batting side would have felt in a far happier frame of mind. Losing Umar just ahead of the break meant that Pakistan went in to lunch three down, and a rearguard action ahead in the second session, when traditionally, conditions are best suited to batting.
Yousuf Youhana has this tendency to walk into his front foot shots -- that tendency did for him when, shortly after lunch, Pathan took him out with a delivery angled across the right hander leaving him.
Youhana poked at it with his bat on the walk, got the edge, and walked (104/4 in the 28th).
That brought Asim Kamal out to join his captain -- and for a while, it was all Inzamam.
The Pakistan skipper is in sublime touch; in that mood, he plays the ball heart-stoppingly late, off either foot, and seems to have a few different shots for every delivery. With Kamal playing well within himself, Inzy eased his side past the 150 mark -- and then made the mistake of playing Kumble with pad in front of bat. He had just survived one appeal for line; Kumble merely straightened it on full length, Inzy came well forward and took it on the front pad, then looked puzzled when he was given out. No need to be, really -- the ball was skidding straight through, and apt to crash onto the top of middle stump if that big foot hadn't come in the way.
It was a pity, really, because Inzy was setting up a nice little contest with the Indian bowlers, when he became the latest to fall into Kumble's trap (156/5 in the 43rd over).
Abdul Razzaq wandered into the middle of what he thought was the closing stage of a one day game and blazed away, clubbing Kumble for three fours in one over. That set it up for the competitive leggie to tease the right handed all rounder with six variations in the next over -- and just when we were settling down to an interesting contest, Balaji spoilt the party.
The right arm seamer had been bowling at a fair clip; a quick one from him outside off saw Razzaq flashing with his feet nowhere in position for that parody of a drive. Outer edge, regulation take, and Razzaq was on his way for an impetuous 26 off 24 (191/6, in the 51st over).
From that point on, it was all Kamal. In company with Kamran Akmal, first, and then Mohammad Sami, the middle order batsman stitched together stands of 48 and 43 -- associations that beefed up the Pakistan score, halted the Indians in their track, and ensured that the home side didn't run away with the game.
Kamal was a revelation -- both for the fluency of his cuts and drives, and for the patience with which he bided his time, waiting for the bad ball to punish. For a youngster, he showed a good sense of playing with the tail, never looking to shield them, but constantly encouraging them to stick it out and keep the board ticking over.
Kumble's dismissal of Akmal was for me the highlight of the day.
Against a tight defense, the leggie hit a line on leg and middle, bowling quick and flat and forcing the batsman to use quick footwork to keep the ball out. Having primed his man and got him playing in a groove, almost on auto pilot, Kumble then produced a ball with greater loop, that hit the deck, spun, bounced that fraction more, and took the thick outer edge for Dravid to complete a clean take at slips -- a classic instance of the mind of the leggie triumphing over the little matter of a track that offered him nothing to work with.
From then on, it was all Balaji. Given the second new ball ahead of Zaheer, the lanky paceman from Chennai struck with a sequence of superb deliveries. Against Sami, he produced a ball from close to the stumps that held a line of just around off, squared the batsman up, moved away just enough to go past the bat, and clipped the side of off stump on its way through.
Next up, he bamboozled Kamal, by then stroking a series of drives with impeccable timing, with a delivery angled across him that brought the batsman forward, and seamed in enough to beat the defense and go through the gate. A ritual clean up of Naved ul Hassan -- fast, quick full delivery to beat the bat and hit the pad gave the quick his fifth wicket, and career best figures of 5/76 in 20.4 overs.
Balaji was in fact the pick of the Indian bowlers -- easily the fastest of the three, he appears to have abandoned his ambling run up in favour of a sharper, more purposeful approach that is helping him generate top pace without the sort of last-stride effort he used to put in before.
Pathan had his moments, swinging the ball prodigiously in the first session, and throughout his spell producing the occasional unplayable delivery -- but he still seems a shadow of his best, and whether that is mere rust, or the lingering impact of recent injury, it's too early to tell.
Zaheer Khan was the most intelligent of the three. From ball one, he sussed out that since he wasn't likely to get much swing with his changed action, the best line was in that corridor around off, using the width of the crease to create angle and shape and constantly asking the batsman questions -- his figures of 1/70 in 17 don't quite do justice to a tight, disciplined effort.
Kumble was his usual self. Nothing in the pitch? No matter -- he bowled quick, and flat and wicket to wicket, using the leg break and even more, the googly, to surprise and unsettle.
It was a good display by the four Indian frontline bowlers thrown into the firing line by their captain -- but if they fulfilled Ganguly's wish and bowled the opposition out on day one, it was not without considerable help from the batsmen themselves.
India now is sitting pretty -- the track should be at its very best for batting over the next day or two, despite some juice early in the morning, and the home team with its long batting line-up and a none too imposing total facing it is ideally placed to cash in.
If they keep their heads while all about them
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