EDGBASTON (Pakistan won toss): Pakistan (2pts) beat India by three wickets
IT TAKES MUCH to win a game between these volatile rivals: bravery and skill, composure and brain. Yousuf Youhana displayed them all yesterday, guiding Pakistan towards a semi-final against West Indies on Wednesday despite an attack of cramp that forced him to complete his innings with the aid of a runner in deepening gloom.
While a pair of youthful bowlers in Naved-ul-Hasan and Irfan Pathan set up the contest it needed a relatively gnarled man playing in his 174th one-day international to decide it. Youhana, with icy calm, squeezed the winning run from the second ball of the final over and walked off at his own pace as fears of a pitch invasion were dispelled.
With 130 police on hand alongside 350 stewards this was probably a lucrative occasion to be a burglar elsewhere in the West Midlands.
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Tickets were changing hands for a minimum of £150 ahead of the contest and the roads around Edgbaston were crammed with touts, spivs and chancers contributing towards the general mêlée.
The cacophony inside began more than an hour before the start, yet supporters were able to mingle without bother. While the security operation could hardly be described as low key because of the numbers involved it was commendably discreet. People were treated like supporters out to enjoy themselves rather than potential criminals.
For excitement, though, it never matched the encounter at the 2003 World Cup when the glitterati of the sub-continent flew in to Centurion to watch Sachin Tendulkar flay Shoaib Akhtar with thrilling audacity. This one was close, but a slow pitch made life awkward for strokemakers, and one-day cricket is designed as a showcase for batsmen.
Not that conditions had much to do with India’s collapse. The start was delayed for 15 minutes while a damp spot on the strip received the hairdryer treatment and it may have affected the concentration of the top order as Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman and Virender Sehwag all fell to indifferent shots.
Naved was the pick of the attack, bowling wicket-to-wicket from close to the stumps with a resemblance to Dominic Cork in his delivery stride. Shoaib Akhtar added wickets with the second and fifth balls of his third over but Rahul Dravid, taking 15 balls to get off the mark, rebuilt the innings alongside the more forthright Ajit Agarkar.
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Ganguly said that he would have batted first had he won the toss and offered a damning critique of his side. “A few of our batsmen have been failing for too long,” the captain said. “The young players are talented guys but they have to pull up their socks because nobody has a place for life.”
A total of 201 appeared well below par but Pakistan, too, started poorly. In this case the bowling of Pathan, the leading one-day wicket taker this year, had more to do with the collapse, but Youhana and Inzamam-ul-Haq threatened to expose the absence of a fifth front-line bowler as they put on 75 for the fourth wicket.
Inzamam became the second player after Tendulkar to reach 10,000 runs in the format before misjudging an attempted cut, and when the sixth wicket went down with 49 still required the game stood well balanced.
Two sixes by Shahid Afridi in an expensive over from Pathan brought down the target, however, and Youhana judged the pitch and the situation better than anyone.