A tale of two bowling attacks

On a pitch which at last offered the bowlers some hope, the difference between Pakistan and India was the manner in which their bowlers exploited that assistance. Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq got seam movement almost throughout both Indian innings, while Irfan Pathan and Co. faded dramatically after that sensational first hour on the opening day.

The key stat here is the number of wicket-taking opportunities that the bowlers from the two sides created: despite getting lucky with the toss, India ended up with only 12% deliveries which troubled the batsmen and induced edges, beat the bat or hit the pads. For Pakistan, that figure was a much higher 20%. And though Asif and Razzaq took most of the plaudits with seven wickets each, the bowler who troubled the batsmen the most was Shoaib. He ended the match with modest figures of 3 for 107, but nearly 27% of his deliveries drew false strokes from the Indian batsmen, a much higher figure than what Asif (19%) or Razzaq (17%) managed.

Apart from Yuvraj Singh's century, the one bright spot for India was Sourav Ganguly's fluent form. He only scored 37, but his decisive footwork and fluent strokeplay suggested he would score many more. He had an in-control factor of 93%, and made only four mistakes in 56 deliveries. Unfortunately for him, the fourth one was a decisive error, and ensured that there'll continue to be a question-mark over his place in the side.