My Cup of Tea

"Pakistan should think of declaring their bowling"

That's what Aussie commentator Dean Jones joked yesterday as India sliced, peeled and ground the Pakistan bowling apart at Lahore. On a cement-pitch like surface, the likes of Shoaib, Rana and Kaneria had no answers to Sehwag's flamboyance and Dravid's classic combination of defence and strokeplay. The bowling looked so lacklustre and hapless that even Pakistani commentator Rameez Raja had to say that he had never seen a Pakistan bowling unit looking so clueless. I couldn't agree more.

It seemed it was the Australians and South Africans who were enjoying cricket more than anyone else this weekend. Not only that they had a thriller of a match in the VB series at Brisbane, the two umpires officiating in the Lahore test (Darrel Hair and Rudi Koertzen) were also having a good time even as the bowling from both the sides suffered serious whipping. In the commentary box, Dean Jones kept chattering away with his usual witty remarks on the situation in the middle. Towards the end of the day's play, Mohammad Sami was brought on to bowl, who did not exactly look as if he was willing to have a spell. Looking at his tired and pitiable face, Jones joked that he must have lost the toss between the Pakistan bowlers deciding who would be bowling next (the one who loses the toss gets to bowl, of course).

Still, Sami is an honest trier. In that over, he bowled a fastish delivery which Sehwag fended off safely enough to gully. Sami went down the pitch and kept staring at Sehwag. Sehwag, batting on 230-odd at the time, waited, waited and waited, staring back. Finally, as if he got bored of it, he simply said, "Chal, abhi ball daal". Sami didn't know what to say.

posted by Sandeep Limaye @ 1/17/2006 08:57:00 am