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India v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Bangalore, 2nd day
Ganguly and Pathan pile on the agony for Pakistan
Dileep Premachandran at the Chinnaswamy Stadium
December 9, 2007
Pakistan 86 for 1 (Butt 50*, Younis 7*) trail India 626 (Ganguly 239, Pathan 102, Arafat 5-161) by 540 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
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Sourav Ganguly made his way to a monumental 239, the highest score by an Indian left-hand batsman
© AFP
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The last time Pakistan played here, Inzamam-ul-Haq's brilliance and Younis
Khan's appetite for the long haul shut India out of a Test match. There
was perfect symmetry here, only this time they were on the receiving end,
with Yuvraj Singh reprising Inzamam's class and Sourav Ganguly batting on
and on in the manner that Younis had back in 2005. By the time he was out
for 239 on the stroke of tea, India had gone past 600, and thoughts of a
series-levelling victory had long since ebbed away from the Pakistan camp.
By stumps, they had whittled away 86 from the deficit, losing Yasir Hameed
along the way.
Irfan Pathan added a scintillating maiden Test century just for good
measure as an attack deprived of Shoaib Akhtar's pace struggled to make
any impression. The three-man attack and part-timers toiled away without
reward on a pitch where the slightest error was ruthlessly punished. A
profusion of half-volleys and half-trackers was served up by bowlers ready
for the knackers yard and Ganguly and Pathan cashed in happily during a
178-run partnership that really was the last straw.
With Bangalore's new metro system being built, most of the roads leading to Mahatma Gandhi Road, the city's main thoroughfare and adjacent to the stadium, are one-way. And it was a
similar story out on the pitch as India piled on the runs and the
punishment. Pathan, whose batting ability has never been in doubt, walked
into a situation that was perfect for him. He cut and drove with immense
power, taking time to loft the odd ball miles over the rope. At the other
end, Ganguly eased to a first double-century in Tests, with the roof
nearly coming off the Chinnaswamy Stadium as fervent cries of 'Dada, Dada'
soared into the air.
He celebrated with a glorious straight drive off Arafat and both men then
proceeded to treat Kaneria like a net bowler. When he dropped short, he
was cut past the off-side field. When he gave it some air, the ball sailed
out of sight, and when he pitched on the legs, he was swept away. After a
point, Younis gave up and opted for Salman Butt and Hameed. To the
batsmen, it made not the slightest difference, with the ball disappearing
into the gaps and to the boundary as India exacted retribution for the events
of March 2005.
The only man to miss out on the run-fest was Dinesh Karthik, caught behind
off Arafat in the morning. He had been extremely fortunate not to be given
out shouldering arms to Mohammad Sami, and Pakistan's sense of injustice
had only grown when Ganguly square-drove and flicked Arafat for fours.
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Irfan Pathan scored his maiden Test ton
© AFP
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The end of that 66-run partnership may have given Pakistan a glimmer of
hope, but Ganguly and Pathan extinguished it with batting as pitiless as seen in Sydney in 2004 and at The Oval earlier this year. Ganguly, whose effort
surpassed Vinod Kambli's 227 as the highest by an Indian left-hander, fell
going for the sweep and the only interest after tea was in whether Pathan
would get the seven needed for his hundred.
Anil Kumble fell to a Kaneria googly and Harbhajan Singh was then cleaned
up to give Yasir Arafat five for the innings. A nearly full stadium then
held its collective breath as Ishant Sharma played out four balls to give
Pathan the strike. He didn't need a second invitation. The first ball of
Kaneria's over was cracked over wide long-on for six, and though he
perished to a slog the next ball, resounding applause followed him all the
way back to the pavilion.
Hameed and Butt survived some anxious moments against Pathan and Sharma
with the new ball, as the pitch started to show signs of irregular bounce.
Butt laced some beautiful drives on his way to another 50, but Hameed was
once again outfoxed by Kumble. Younis was in the middle at the close, and
it needed another monumental effort from him for Pakistan to salvage at
least pride from a game that had been even more of a mismatch than the
Mayweather-Hatton fight on Sunday morning.
Dileep Premachandran is an associate editor at Cricinfo
© Cricinfo
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