The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Afridi, Inzamam hold the reins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 21, 2005

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Afridi, Inzamam hold the reins

Ted Corbett

FAISALABAD: For a long time at the Iqbal Stadium on Sunday the king played in the shadow of the prince but when the young pretender arrived on the scene we had eyes for no one else.

Shahid Afridi carried the second Test away from England just at the moment we thought the first day would follow the pattern of Multan.Instead Afridi holds the reins and on the second day there is the chance Pakistan moves on from 300 for four to gallop away with the match.

"Whoever wins the toss will have a tremendous advantage," said Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach a couple of days ago. Inzamam-ul-Haq seemed determined to prove Woolmer against an England attack, which found the grey pitch a difficult canvas for its art. But with four down just after tea England had no complaints until Afridi announced his intentions with three blistering four off the part-time bowler Ian Bell and went on to make 67 with four sixes off 62 balls.

He got such a flier against Bell, whose medium pace nothing had just accounted for Mohammad Yousuf — with a controversial caught and bowled — that I actually shut down my lap top so that I could devote my full attention to his batting.

England will regret the difficult chance from him that Michael Vaughan, the England captain, dropped but the chanting, cheering joyful spectators were delighted. Even the Barmy Army, which in Pakistan, is just a small platoon.

The big hits

We were especially grateful for Afridi's big hits — and even his big misses — since after a blazing start by the openers.

Shoaib Malik batted with a freedom that made it appear his conscience was clear. Salmon Butt had 196 runs from the first Test to tell him he could do no wrong and the pitch was so ghastly that Vaughan took away a slip after two balls and put in short covers and short mid-wickets all day instead.

Another go-slow

Although fifty came in 61 balls, the barrage did not last. Butt was caught at the wicket pushing at a wide Harmison out-swinger at 53, ten runs later Younis Khan hit a careless catch to mid-wicket off Andrew Flintoff and at 73 Flintoff picked up a superb catch at close cover so that three men were out at lunch and Inzamam-ul-Haq had already made it clear he was going to repeat his two innings of Multan with another go-slow.

Yousuf has been in a wretched state since the series started so that there were voices on the selection panel, which thought his shoulder injury was imaginary but today he was at his best. Timing has always been his greatest asset and it enabled him to score quickly enough to compensate for Inzamam. Inzamam made an undefeated 80 when play closed but many of those came in response to Afridi's innings and for most of the day he was inert.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport