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The Rediff Cricket Diary/Faisal Shariff in Lahore

April 04, 2004

Indian sports journalists beat their Pakistani counterparts in a friendly match in Lahore on Saturday.

Rahul Dravid, who was wrapping up his net session for the day, enquired about the result and joked, "Now you guys can question us?"

It was all in good humour and the momentum, in a lighter vein, is still with India.

No Indian side has had it so good in Pakistan.

A maiden one-day series win followed by a maiden Test win and now the odd-on favourites to register a clean sweep of the three-match series on Pakistani soil.

Though the clean sweep could still be a tough mountain to climb, at least the pressure factor is off their heads. And each member of the team is quietly confident and extremely focused.

Two days before the second Test, India's strike bowler Zaheer Khan is returning home but the team is not unduly worried. They have enough bowling firepower in Irfan Pathan, L Balaji, Ajit Agarkar and now Ashish Nehra who joined the team on Friday.

The team is without skipper Sourav Ganguly but it does not show. Rahul Dravid has led the side admirably, made a statement with a bold declaration leaving Sachin Tendulkar stranded on 194, effected bowling changes that worked, gave aggression a lighter tone and underplayed it all at the same time.

Yuvraj Singh has grabbed Ganguly's batting position with aplomb.

At the nets, under a blazing Lahore sun, the Indians toiled hard.

Ajit Agarkar stationed physio Andrew Leipus at the bowling crease to check on his overstepping gaffes. A young bunch of Pakistani net bowlers came hard and fast at Virender Sehwag who played them with the same ease he played Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami.

Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman did not waste a single moment while the pads were still on. Awaiting their turn to bat, they asked the local masseur, Sohail Pappu, to throw some plastic balls at them on a concrete wicket.

Dravid asked for the ball to be thrown at various heights. A look at the green lively wicket the previous day had forced him not to take any chances with his preparations.

When most of the Indian players were resting in their hotel rooms on Friday morning, watching films and splurging on room service, Dravid and Laxman went for a quick net session to the ground. A quick look at the wicket and the mental preparation for the Lahore frontier got underway.

Irfan Pathan and L Balaji were asked to bat first up before they bowled in the nets. Pathan was in a very attacking mood, spurred by the fact that his parents touched down in Lahore to watch the second Test.

Ashish Nehra addressed the media after the nets and declared himself fit. The question that needs to be asked is: for how long?

With Atkinson preparing a seaming wicket, the Pakistani bowlers will hope for a better showing in Lahore. The Indian opening pair, L Balaji and Pathan, just doesn't care about the wicket. For them, discipline and control is the mantra.

On Saturday, Dravid, Agarkar, Laxman, Murali Kartik and Tendulkar were busy with their better halves while coach John Wright did a bit of sightseeing visiting the Badshahi mosque.

Tendulkar, the centerpiece of the young, dynamic team is high on his latest gizmo that can store up to 5,000 music tracks. The only thing that excited him more was the evening he spent at the Wagah Border on Friday. He also struck up the pose with one foot in Pakistan territory and one in India, which made it to the front page of most newspapers.

India will be hoping that next Friday too he makes it to the front page of all dailies with a Test series win in Pakistan.



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