Pak secret: Constant runs and consistency

Pakistan's win today at Ahmedabad should not come as a surprise. Signs of the clinical approach that Pakistan has adopted were evident right...

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Pakistan’s win today at Ahmedabad should not come as a surprise. Signs of the clinical approach that Pakistan has adopted were evident right from the second match at Vizag, which they lost.

Chasing 356 at Vizag, Pakistan matched the Indian scoring rate for a better part of the innings. Not once did their scoring fall below the 6.5 runs per over mark.

Wickets made the difference that day. And wickets — those in hand — made the difference at Jamshedpur, when Inzamam won the toss and elected to bat. No assault on the bowlers, no flurry of cross-batted shots but still an urgency to their scoring. With Afridi gone early, Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik took the orthodox approach of keeping wickets intact and rotating the strike. Pakistan seemed to be heading for a total of 270 plus before they took off midway and ripped apart the tired Indian bowling attack.

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But the finest exhibition of their clinical batting was today. Afridi departed after providing the initial thrust to the innings, but Butt and Razzaq maintained the scoring rate at 7 through the first 15 overs. Shoaib joined Razzaq and they effortlessly kept abreast with the asking rate. There were no undue risks but brilliant running between the wickets and a patient wait for the bad ball.

The thrust in the innings was on partnerships, not individual scores. Afridi got 40, Butt 48 and Razzaq 44. But the first three wicket partnerships were 68, 39 and 76. Malik got a run a ball 65 and Inzamam an unbeaten 60. Their partnership was worth 70 runs off 10 overs.

The main aspect of the innings was the emphasis on the singles. Pakistan scored 129 singles as compared to the 110 of the Indians. Pakistan played out just 111 dot balls as compared to India’s 142. The main architects of Pakistan’s win today were Shoaib Malik who had 16 dot balls as compared to 40 singles and Inzamam Ul Haq who had 24 singles as against 21 dot balls.

It’s time for India to go back to the basics.

— Faisal Shariff