Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer believed that the true character of the pitch could only be judged after both the sides had batted on it. He probably found his answer late last evening in Sehwag’s blade. The Pakistani bowlers simply failed to stop the Indian batting juggernaut. Sehwag explained it best when he said that the bowlers did not bowl on the right spots. Their inconsistency gave the Indian batsmen the liberty to play shots on both sides of the wicket and find the fence with alarming ease. It was an ideal setting for Test cricket. An overcast sky; three hours and forty minutes of play lost due to rain; conditions perfectly in favour of bowlers and out walk two opening batsmen to take guard. The challenge was enormous but under an hour of play the scoreboard read 67-0. With more boundaries hit than raindrops, the brief afternoon session clearly belonged to the Indians and has set the game up for the home side. With an audacity only he is capable of, Virender Sehwag cut and drove the Pakistan bowlers into numbness. Never give a great player a second life. It’s an axiom as old as the game itself and Sehwag demonstrated its truth when Taufiq Umar dropped him in Mohammad Sami’s third over, he was to be dropped again later on 82 off Danish Kaneria. Until then Sami had kept the Indian openers on a tight leash with just eight runs coming off his three overs. He eventually went in at tea with his five-over spell costing 29 runs. Sending down the ball at speeds exceeding 140 plus kph didn’t matter much with the ball coming nicely onto the bat. With a catch dropped off him, Sami at least had a moral victory to find solace in; his opening partner Naved Ul Hasan had no such consolation after he was mercilessly taken apart for 29 of his four overs. That the first bowling change came after just nine overs was proof of the dilemma Inzamam Ul Haq found himself in. Only the tea break brought them some respite and they hoped it would jam on the momentum the Indian innings had gathered. But that was not to be as Sehwag guided the first ball after tea with precision between second slip and gully for a boundary, Gambhir mirroring the shot two balls later. The misery continued. Such was the authority of strokeplay from the Indian openers that the wicket seemed benign, almost meaningless in the contest. If the visitors’ batting yesterday seemed fragile, the bowling — barring Kaneria — seemed toothless. Sehwag got to his ninth half-century off just 49 balls, satiating both the galleries as well as the dressing room. Gambhir, initially the more dormant of the two also unloaded his stockpile and the blitzkrieg continued unabated. The 100 was up in 16 overs and the innings run rate was rocketing along at over six an over. Even the Aussies would have found this hard to match. Leg spinner Danish Kaneria finally brought a smile to his skipper’s face when he had Gambhir stepping out and hitting the ball straight to Naved at mid-on for 41. But the opening stand of 113 had done the damage. With Rahul Dravid’s entry and Kaneria’s tight bowling, the game quickly went back to being what it was: a Test match. Pakistan’s lone silver lining was Kaneria. Coming on to bowl at a time when the Indians were knocking away at over six an over, the leg-spinner not only pegged the Indian scoring rate back but also got his team the only breakthrough of the day. He could have had Sehwag on 82 when Younis Khan at slip grassed a sharp chance. When bad light stopped play India clearly had the edge over their rivals.It isn’t the best of sights for any opposition when India ends the day at 184-1 with Sehwag five short of a century and a well-set Dravid at the crease. And when the next man in answers to the name of Sachin Tendulkar. With the old ball moving late in the evening, the batsmen might not find it easy to score freely but as Sehwag believes they will have to bat another five sessions and show Pakistan the door. The day in a minute FIRST SESSION O-0, R-0, W-0 Play washed out SECOND SESSION O-11, R-67, W-0 After a delay of three and half hours, play finally started with Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir starting off the reply to 312 on a racy note THIRD SESSION O-29, R-117, W-1 Though Gambhir left early, Sehwag was relentless as he rode his luck and dropped catches to finish the day on a high. Keeping him company was the resolute Dravid Prime Number 2 The number of catches dropped off Virender Sehwag during the innings so far. First by Taufeeq Umar off Sami when he was on 15, then by Younis Khan off kaneria when on 82. The Pakistanis will remember the last time they let Sehwag off the hook. He was dropped three times during the Multan test last year, on 68, 77 and 274. He ended up with 309 and to this day Pakistan’s cricketers believe those catches, if held, could have won them the series Spell Check RANA NAVED-UL HASAN O-4, M-0, R-29, W-0 Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan’s opening spell opened the floodgates quite early on for India. When play began after a lengthy delay the Indian openers took on Rana, potentially Pakistan’s most underrated bowler, to push the visitors back. In one over Sehwag, recently dropped, hit him for three fours. The effect was almost immediate; the bowling crumbled and the batting blossomed SCOREBOARD
