Cricket: Spin of Saqlain torments India
India 247 for 8 v Pakistan
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Your support makes all the difference.THE PAKISTAN off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq resumed his role as India's main tormentor with another five-wicket haul on the opening day of the second Test here yesterday.
Saqlain, who took 10 wickets in Pakistan's 12-run win in the opening test, teased the batsmen with his strict line and length. He rocked India with 5 for 94 after they had made a promising start. The home side, who won the toss and at one stage were 231 for 4, ended the day on 247 for 8.
Saqlain and the leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed, who took two wickets, ripped through the middle order. After a useful 88-run opening partnership between Sadagopan Ramesh, who made 60, and Vangipurappu Laxman (35), only India's captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, seemed at ease.
Ramesh, who was also dropped when he was on 24, completed a stylish half-century but was bowled after adding 10 more runs as he went for a pull off a delivery from Saqlain which kept low. He hit seven fours. Azharuddin scored a masterly 67 off 134 balls, hitting seven fours and a six over mid-wicket off the leg-spinner Shahid Afridi.
India lost their first wicket just after lunch when Wasim Akram uprooted Laxman's stumps with an in-swinger. Saqlain struck again soon after taking Ramesh's wicket, collecting the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who decided to play after recovering from muscle spasms suffered in the opening Test.
Tendulkar was trapped leg before for six - he had previously glanced the pace bowler Waqar Younis for a fine four - but he was out leg-before to Saqlain to leave India on 122 for 3.
Azharuddin and Rahul Dravid steadied the innings with a partnership of 69 but, soon after tea, Dravid was caught lbw on 33 to Saqlain as he went on the back-foot.
The left-hander Saurav Ganguly crawled to 13 off 57 balls as the spinners tightened the noose and he also fell leg before to Mushtaq.
Azharuddin was caught by Ijaz Ahmed at first slip off the bowling of Mushtaq as he tried to play a delivery that rose sharply. Tail-enders Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath both fell cheaply and by the close Pakistan had gained the upper hand.
India's Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the opposition leader, Sonia Gandhi, briefly visited the stadium to watch the game, the second in the two-match series marking the resumption of Tests after more than a decade.
Before the match India had been relieved when Tendulkar, who survived muscle spasms after his valiant 136 in the second innings at Madras, declared himself fit. However, both teams elected to make one change each from the teams that played in Madras. India swapped the left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi for the off-spinner Habhajan Singh, while for Pakistan Mushtaq took the place of the left-arm spinner Nadeem Khan.
First day; India won toss
INDIA - First Innings
S Ramesh b Saqlain 60
V V S Laxman b Wasim 35
R Dravid lbw b Saqlain 33
S R Tendulkar lbw b Saqlain 6
*M Azharuddin c Ijaz Ahmed b Mushtaq 67
S C Ganguly lbw Mushtaq 13
N R Mongia not out 9
A Kumble c Yousuf b Saqlain 0
J Srinath lbw b Saqlain Mushtaq 0
Extras (11b, 7lb, 6nb) 24
Total (for 8, 89.5 overs) 247
Fall: 1-88, 2 113, 3-122, 4-191, 5 231, 6-240, 7-243, 8-247.
To bat: Venkatesh Prasad, Harbhajan Singh.
Bowling: Wasim Akram 12-3-20-1; Waqar Younis 13-5-37-0; Mushtaq Ahmed 26-5-64-2; Saqlain Mushtaq 34.5-8-94-5; Shahid Afridi 4-1-14-0.
PAKISTAN: Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzaman-ul-haq Yousuf Youhana, Saleem Malik, Moin Khan, *Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed.
n The West Indies Cricket Board has launched an inquest into its team's dismal performances in South Africa. The West Indies team manager, Clive Lloyd, coach Malcolm Marshall and captain Brian Lara have been summoned to a meeting in Antigua next week. The WICB's chief executive officer, Stephen Camacho, said the meeting would focus on the reasons behind the team's poor form and developing plans for West Indies cricket in both the short and long-term. He added that the board was deeply concerned about the team's performance. In South Africa, the West Indies suffered their first ever 5-0 reversal in a Test series. They are also 4-1 down in the best-of-seven one-day series. One piece of good news for West Indies is that Australian pace bowler Darren Fleming has been all but ruled out of his side's tour to the Caribbean because of a torn tendon in his shoulder.
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