Alas! Pakistan crashed India for 341 runs in the 3rd Test match in Karachi today. If you are cricket fan and an Indian supporter, it'll be a bad day. Because everyone knows that India had its own session in the first day of the test. The first session was greatly dominated by Indian fast bowlers, especially Irfan Pathan who became the second only Indian bowler to have hat-trick in Test cricket.
On 29th January, 2006 Indian captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and invited Pakistan who already suffered by the loss of Inzimam Ul Haq, their captain, to bat first. Irfan Pathan rattled the Pakistan top order in the first over itself. He granted dismissal cards to Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf in the 4th, 5th and 6th ball of his first over. Then India ride on this advantage and Pakistan fell in to the deep trouble by losing 6 wickets for a mere 39 runs.
Then a great innings came from Kamran Akmal, the wicket keeper. He scored a century and helped Pakistan to cross 200 runs. In the meantime, India grabbed all wickets and came to the center to bat on the first day itself. But they have to face a fiery spell from Shoaib Aktar and Mohammad Asif. The result: India folded to 74/4 at the stumps.
The second day onwards there was only Pakistan. They managed to all out Indians bye 238 and grabbed a non-important 7 runs lead in the first innings. But that was not over. Their second innings was stronger. All the top seven batsmen scored half centuries including a maiden century from Faisal Iqbal. Eventually they piled up a mammoth total on the board and invited India to go for a 606 runs in the second innings to win the Test and series.
That was a hard call. Indian batsmen failed to make an impression except Yuvraj Singh, who scored a magnificent 122. All other Indian batsmen handed over it to the Pakistan.
My pity Irfan. Hey man, your batsmen colleagues let down you. That’s the team spirit!
