Providential escape for Pak

Though you can never say anything for sure in cricket, being the strange game that it is, India should have won this Test hands down.

Pakistan can count themselves fortunate that bad light came to their rescue and they managed to escape with a draw. But it was a very close thing in the end.

What really surprised me was how long Anil Kumble waited before deciding to declare.
Once India had put a total lead of 300 on the board, the match was safe as far as they were concerned.

Instead, they chose to bat on and the final target of 370-plus was a case of overkill. On this pitch Pakistan would have found it hard to cross even 300, but I suppose the first thought for the Indian captain was to make sure that the series win was secure.

And the less said of Pakistan’s batting in the second innings the better. What they were doing, and what they were thinking is simply beyond me.

Time and again it looked as if the ball was going one way, and the batsman going the other. It was like watching blind men bat.

Maybe the Pakistanis had psyched themselves up too much about the state of the pitch and the bounce, but it was dreadful cricket and simply awful to watch.

Both captains, it would seem, had decided in their minds that this match could have had no other outcome but a draw.

India batted accordingly, as if putting an impossible total on the board was the first priority.

When it came to their turn, Pakistan too looked to have been fooled into a false sense of security that the overs available were too few for India to go for a win.