da casino： Karachi, March 12: Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq and a gutsy rearguardaction saved Pakistan’s blushes on the opening day of the third andfinal cricket Test against Sir Lanka at the National Stadium here onSunday
Samiul Hasan13-Mar-2000Karachi, March 12: Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq and a gutsy rearguardaction saved Pakistan’s blushes on the opening day of the third andfinal cricket Test against Sir Lanka at the National Stadium here onSunday.Shahid stroked a punishing 74 with 13 boundaries and a six, Inzamamhit a painstaking 86 with 10 hits to the fence and featured ininvaluable partnerships with Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar worth 83runs to help Pakistan managed a respectable 256 before being dismissedjust before stumps.Sri Lankan openers, skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu,safely negotiated two remaining overs of the day to finish on 10 forno loss.Pakistan’s brittle middle-order once again remained clueless againstthe magician spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who defied a green top pitchto finish with figures of four for 89. He now has raised his tally ofwickets to 22 in the series as compared to 18 he had taken in 1995-96.Muralitharan’s crafty and, at times, teasing bowling capsized Pakistanin the post-lunch session in which the home team lost four batsmen forjust 69 runs after Shahid Afridi had powered them to 95 for two atlunch.Muralitharan’s now routine excellent performance puts Pakistan in aquandary as they have picked a four-pace attack. The home teammanagement has apparently been deceived by the outlook of the pitchwhich though is green but doesn’t seem as hard and pacy as wasexpected. It remains to be seen if the decision to leave out theexperienced wrist spinner Mushtaq Ahmad ends up as a crucial blunder.The selectors seem to havemade the folly of giving a belated wake-upcall to Mohammad Naveed Qureshi and playing him in the Test on a lessthan 24-hour notice. That not only weakened the opening combination,it also gave the youngster little time to regroup and recomposehimself for the crunch match.The selectors’ decision to recall Ijaz Ahmad after overlooking him forthe earlier matches also backfired when he missed the line of astraight delivery from Chaminda Vaas to be adjudged leg before afteran uncomfortable 32-minute stay at the wicket. Ijaz, a nervousstarter, had survived very confident caught behind appeal three ballsprior to his dismissal.Shahid was collaring the Sri Lankan bowlers at will before heattempted an over-ambitious sweep outside the off stump to be caughtat backward-square-leg. He was extremely severe on PramodyaWickremasinghe who was belted for eight boundaries in 23 deliveries bythe local favourite.Youhana, having scored 88 in Peshawar, played a reckless shot to throwaway his 34-ball hard work while trying to hit Muralitharan overmid-on but ending up hitting right into the throat of Wickremasingheat short-mid-wicket.Younis, with a century against his name on debut, looked overcautiousand short of strokes before being adjudged leg before. Big scoresnormally give the batsman confidence but in Younis’ case, it appearsthat the century has put him under more pressure.However Sri Lanka displayed unsporting behaviour on the field. Thebowlers went up every time the ball hit the pads from the end wherelocal umpire Riazuddin was standing. After the appeals were turneddown, the bowlers reacted strongly to indicate that they had beendenied wickets.Television replays showed Muralitharan getting annoyed when he pointedhis fist at Riazuddin after Wickremasinghe took a well judged catch todismiss Shahid Afridi.The situation turned ugly when Inzamam, normally a very cool customer,walked down to umpire Russell Tiffin and complained aboutwicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana’s constant chattering which wasdisturbing his concentration.However the ICC match referee Brian Hastings of New Zealand has yet totake notice of the Sri Lankan fielders attitude during the entireseries. Excessive appealing and pressurizing the umpire falls in theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct.Kaluwitharana’s desperate attempt to distract Inzamam badly failed asthe highly talented batsman, who hasn’t justified his real potential,continued to bat with admirable concentration and application. Hestruck elegant, flawless and exquisite drives on either side of thewickets and didn’t hesitate to walk down the track againstMuralitharan.But he fell victim to his trademark poor running between the wicketswhen he failed to beat an accurate throw from mid-on by RavindraPushpakumara after being sent back by Shoaib Akhtar.Inzamam, who reached his 29th career half century from 120 balls withseven fours, was involved in two priceless partnerships.For the seventh wicket with Waqar Younis (16), Inzamam added 33 runsafter Pakistan had slumped to 164 for six.Then for the eighth wicket Shoaib Akhtar, Inzamam put on 50 runs from84 deliveries to lift Pakistan to 247 for seven before hedeparted. Interestingly, Shoaib made an almost equal contribution inthat association by clobbering two sixes and as many fours in his57-ball 26.If Inzamam held the lower middle-order, Shahid Afridi took charge fromthe top by entertaining a modest crowd with his signature pulls andcover-drives. Still labelled as a one-day specialist, Shahid took fivewickets and then scored a century.