Misbah spanner in India’s Day 4 scheme

She did her best; standing by the first tier railing, wearing her lucky dress, and cheering. He did his best too...

She did her best; standing by the first tier railing, wearing her lucky dress, and cheering. He did his best too —looking up towards the sky for a long prayer, catching a little glance of his wife at a little distance above, and then putting his head down on the crease.

On a day when his opening competitors were scoring in the domestic circuit, Dinesh Kaarthick’s Test career completed a small circle Monday at the Eden; Misbah-ul-Haq’s outstanding innings of 161 not out negated the follow-on danger for Pakistan in the second Test, and subsequently allowed Kaarthick with a fresh chance to take some pressure off himself after three consecutive failures in the series. But as the Indian opener started looking good within his little knock of 28, Misbah came under the ball at square-leg and forced him to go back.

Kaarthick was unsuccessful in his heave off Danish Kaneria. It was a brazen effort, ending an innings that holds such importance to him personally, but it was probably with the right intent under the circumstances.

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Looking desperate till 80 minutes after lunch, India sought quick runs to gather another chance to close the series by splitting open the Pakistan batters. So the home side played till it was too dark to continue; MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly were promoted up the order as they tried the hook, slash, reverse sweep after Wasim Jaffer played some conventional cover drives in his half-century to rake up 141/2 in 36 overs—taking the overall lead a run beyond 300.

A few minutes later and just before the covers came on, Sachin Tendulkar, skipper Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh walked up to the pitch. Tendulkar stretched his foot forward to mock a forward defence as Kumble and Harbhajan watched in attention to zero in on the exact spot to bowl at.

Strange things have happened at the Eden before—together they have taken ten wickets inside three sessions as the pitch has exploded on Day 5, but there was one man in the opposition that the two Indian spinners were worried about.

Misbah has been rock-solid. Having curtailed his habit of inventing dismissals, the Pakistan middle-order has been hard to knock out.

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Misbah responsibly took his team past the primary target of 416 in the company of a resolute Mohammad Sami just before lunchtime, and on resumption, carried his own score past the 150 mark in a manner that left the Indians frustrated.

Sami, at the other end opened up to play his strokes as the visitors made a quick transition from saving the follow-on to cutting into India’s lead. Running out of options and patience, Kumble tossed the ball to VVS Laxman, and within five balls his part-time off-spin showed the way ahead. Sami looked to play the big shot over mid-off but couldn’t clear the fielder and had to terminate his 123 ball innings of 36.

Kumble and Harbhajan then were quick to explore the little gap; the remaining three bats didn’t score any in 5,9,4 balls they each faced in succession as Harbhajan grabbed two of those to snatch his fifth five-wicket haul here. Pakistan collapsed to 456 all out as Misbah remained unconquered after his 523-minute stay.

India, in their second innings at the fag end of the fourth day, have managed to keep the Test alive as it leaned towards a draw. Jaffer’s sensational form in this series continued as he flicked and drove past the widespread field, and still managed to find seven boundaries and one all-run four in his 56. He played an uncharacteristic swipe, just like Kaarthick had before, to join him in the pavilion. Ganguly on 24 and Dhoni on 28 stood at the crease when umpires called off play in fading light; India needed all of those remaining 24 deliveries in the day to maximise their lead and initiative.

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How much of that is sufficient, and how much time can they afford in taking that further? Even before attempting the big question of running through the Pakistan team on field tomorrow, little queries have to be attended to. A typical final day’s play awaits all. Expect the Eden pitch to turn a lot to provide interesting twists to the second Test.

Scoreboard

India 1st Innings: 616/5 dec

Pakistan 1st Innings

(overnight: 358/6)

M-ul-Haq not out 161

M Sami c Jaffer b Laxman 38

S Tanvir c Dravid b Kumble 0

S Akhtar c Dravid b Singh 0

D Kaneria b Singh 0

Extras: (8b, 7lb, 1w, 10nb) 26

Total: (all out, 151.1 overs) 456

Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-77, 3-85, 4-134, 5-150, 6-357, 7-448, 8-449, 9-452