HYDERABAD, March 24: Controlling the match with admirable skill, Pakistan brought India down to earth in the seventh Test at the Begumpet Police AstroTurf stadium here today, and set up an exciting showdown in the final contest of the series at Chennai on March 27. The series is level at 3-all.The 3-1 win for Pakistan on the day was achieved in a clinical manner. In a way, it was a twin success for them - avenging the defeat they suffered at the hands of India here 12 years ago. Strategically sound, the Pakistanis turned the heat on the hosts who, without doubt, played badly.The game never rose to anticipated level right from the outset but sustained some interest even though the pace was sluggish, with Pakistan one up after ten minutes.Pakistan coach Islahuddin said after the match that heat was not the main problem. However, he was happy with the kind of display his team has put up. ``We played really well and our scheme worked well with timely substitutions''.On the contrary, the Indian coachVasudevan Baskaran looked terribly upset. ``It's one of our bad days. Pakistan played better and they deserved to win. I don't want to say anything more than that,'' he said. When asked about the bungling in penalty corners - thrice India failed to stop the push - Baskaran fumed, ``I can give hundreds of reasons, can you write?''ALWAYS AHEAD: Pakistan were never in arrears in the entire tussle and they dominated the action. Islahuddin inserted captain Tahir Zaman and star forward Shabhaz Ahmed only after the first quarter and the experienced duo combined effectively with the juniors, especially Muhammed Sarwar. Pakistan's first goal came in the 11th minute off a penalty corner through Naved Alam. Gaining confidence and seeing the Indians' waywardness they took charge slowly and steadily.Then after a couple of misses by both teams, Pakistan scored their second goal in the 20th when Shabhaz-Kamran Ashraf one-two ended with the latter sounding the boards.THE LONE GOAL: Local manMukesh Kumar, an intrepid explorer, backed by the crowd which yelled whenever he touched the ball, found his rhythm in the first half but somehow lost the grip in the latter session. And the mercurial Dhanraj Pillay, the goal-getter for India today, played a subdued role but showed his class in one endeavour which fetched India the goal. That was in the 28th minute. Mukesh, in one of his dazzling runs, split the defence and passed to Gavin Ferreira whose swift reverse-flick was padded away by Pak keeper Ahmed Alam. But Pillay pounced on the rebound to reverse-flick home much to the delight of the crowd.DULL PHASE: The second half saw a much dull affair. Islahuddin's pep-talk at the break helped Pakistan put manacles on Pillay and the coach made clever rolling substitutions. Baskaran made frequent changes in the midfield where Sabu Varkey and Baljit Singh proved their worth to a certain extent. Midway, unexpectedly, Pakistan added one more goal, well executed by Muhammed Sarwar after a bout ofpassing with Kamran Ashraf to seal the fate of struggling India.India in all forced five penalty corners and blew them off while Pakistan, who earned two, one in each half, converted the first.Pakistan's Kamran Ashraf was declared the man-of-the-match which was worth Rs 15,000.
