At stumps on the second day, India put up 110 runs on the board for the loss of Sehwag. Dravid and the others in the batting line-up have to bat really well to take the match beyond the home team. Dravid was in his usual composed self while Laxman appeared shaky at times.
The home team pushed towards the 600 mark thanks to the hitting from Afridi. Inzamam also got to his ton despite being troubled by a bad back. The Indian bowlers had to suffer with Shoaib Akhtar also in the mood for some runs. For a change, Kamran Akmal did not trouble the Indians and the scorers.
The Indian team management and the bowlers seem to lose their heads when confronted with the likes of Afridi. He is someone who has the habit of feasting on the Indian attack, be it in the tests or the one-dayers. Other teams have sorted out the threat of Afridi by bowling short stuff moving away to the off. There was no attempt from any bowler to test the patience of Afridi. For a while, it seemed that Afridi had to find a way of giving his wicket away and the Indian bowlers were just going through their motions.
Irfan Pathan has completely lost his plot as far as the bowling is concerned. He is on the verge of becoming an useful lower order batsman having the ability to bowl. It is really hard to understand the logic behind his loss of pace. If he cannot bowl fast at this young age, then something must be done. I believe it is the faulty advice from the experts that has done this. Fast bowlers cut down on the pace in order to reduce the stress on their bodies after playing for a long time. Pathan has not even played for more than a couple of full seasons!
The debutante, R.P.Singh bowled commendably to bag 4 wickets. Zaheer Khan got the wicket of the Pakistan skipper with a terrific delivery.
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