Cricket: Prasad rescues India's summer

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

IF THE pre-match billing was to believed, this match had all the ingredients for a nuclear Armageddon. But if the cricket was one-sided, albeit with an unexpected win for India, small pockets of fans soured the post-match proceedings by burning the Indian tricolour, a symbolic act that the authorities were slow to interrupt.

Considering the excitable nature of fans supporting sides from the subcontinent there were few incidents and, apart from the odd lightning flash to celebrate India's victory, the only mushroom clouds sighted at Old Trafford were coming from the hamburger stall next to the groundsman's shed.

Pakistan are poor at chasing, something their captain, Wasim Akram, admitted in Sharjah, where they lost to England chasing an even more moderate total than the 228 Indian set them yesterday. Pakistan now need to beat Zimbabwe to ensure they qualify for the semi-finals.

For India, the win throws them a lifeline, albeit a slender one. They need several other teams to lose to stand a realistic chance of making the last four. They may have won an honourable skirmish here, but the main event will surely pass them by now that Zimbabwe have picked up a point in their rained-off match against New Zealand.

Chasing what appeared to be a moderate total, Pakistan set off in a flurry of fours from Saeed Anwar. On his day Saeed is as destructive as anybody and Pakistan's fortunes, after the loss of two early wickets to Javagal Srinath, really turned when he fell to a tumbling slip catch off Venkatesh Prasad.

On a pitch not dissimilar to those found back home in Bangalore, Prasad's 5 for 27 was outstanding, his high action and brilliant change of pace proving too trying for Pakistan.

Whenever India's rivals threatened, as they did when Inzamam-ul-Haq and Moin Khan added 46 for the sixth wicket, it was to Prasad he turned. But if there was a degree of fortune in the dismissal of Moin, caught on the hook by Sachin Tendulkar at long leg for another brilliant cameo, his other victims were dispatched without consulting lady luck.

Moin has been playing with a broken finger and Pakistan were perhaps unfortunate that Inzamam was also inconvenienced after splitting a finger catching Ajay Jadeja at slip. Coming in when the score was 52 for 3, Inzamam began slowly and got slower. When he was finally forced to hit out, Prasad was there to prevent him, as well as the tail, from gaining the necessary ground to threaten India's total.

Having first use of a dry-looking pitch, India were 90 for 1 by the 20th over. With no sideways movement to distract him, Tendulkar, following a nervy start against Wasim, began to hit through the line of the ball. Like a top golfer, he has such good hands and weight transference that some of shots deceive the eye. One straight drive off Wasim looked like an exaggerated block, until you realised that the fielder actually picked it up from the boundary board rather than mid-on.

It was that power, packed into a robust 5ft 5in, that also brought about his demise and, easing Azhar Mahmood off the front foot, he appeared surprised to find it carry all the way to Saqlain Mushtaq at long-off.

Big matches can sometimes sap a player's energy and according to the speed gun, Shoaib was about 5 to 8mph slower than he was against South Africa. Maybe it was the public dressing-down he had received from his captain after Trent Bridge that slowed him, but on a track that normally gives fast bowlers enough pace to strut their stuff he rarely inconvenienced.

With Ajay Jadeja going soon after Tendulkar, whose 45 saw him past 8,000 one-day runs, India lost their early momentum as both Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Azharuddin erred on the side of caution. Dravid, a model of correctness and timing, kept his side of the bargain, but Azharuddin simply could not give the strike back.

Only when Dravid departed in the 40th over did India's captain look much like his old self. Indeed, when he finally managed to connect with one of his many heaves off Saqlain, he became transformed and the last 10 overs yielded 70 runs, most coming from his own whirring bat. Contrast this to the 29 runs scored between the 20th and 30th overs, and it was probably the decisive moment.

"People always want us to win against Pakistan, and they will be very happy," Azharuddin said. "In the beginning it was touch and go, [but] we kept getting wickets and that put pressure on the opposition."

Wasim conceded his side was going through a bad patch and said Friday's game against Zimbabwe will be crucial.

"We are going through a bad patch but we'll come back," he said. "We're disappointed but we'll pick ourselves up. They bowled well. They played better cricket than us."