Pak take it home in a canter

Prem Panicker

The second game of the Asia Cup quadrangular competition was interesting if only because it gave us our first look at Bangladesh, the newest nation in the international cricketing roster.

And despite the apparent severity of a 109 run defeat at the hands of their former fellow countrymen, Bangladesh didn't come off too badly on their debut outing, come to think of it. I would have said the debutant nation was defeated but not disgraced, but that would be to perpetuate a sporting cliche.

Pakistan won the toss and predictably, opted to bat - the thinking must have been to use the full 50 overs to give their batsmen an opportunity to have a good knock-up. Ironically, while Saeed Anwar (90 off 94 with 11 fours), Ramiz Raja (52 off 59 with six fours), Inzamam ul Haq (a blustery 77 off 68 with 6 fours and two sixes), Saleem Malik (62 off 61 with four fours) and Moin Khan (21 not out off 20 with one six) all got good, run a ball knocks against their name while building a solid score of 319 for five in 50 overs, the one batsman who could have most used extended time in the middle lasted exactly one ball.

Hasibul Hassan must in fact have thought that not only had Christmas come early, but an unusually generous Santa was even rewarding the bad boys. His - and his team's - first over in international cricket gave umpire B C Cooray an opportunity to warm up with some stretching exercises as the young quick, looking a shade over-eager, went wide of off stump and then, by way of variety, of leg stump on four different occasions. Saeed Anwar added to his agony with a fluent cover drive and then a trademark flick of the pads, and 13 had come from five balls before the sixth, pitching short of a length and seaming away, found Sohail groping for it like a guy in seach of the lightswitch in a dark room. Keeper Habibul Bashar took the chance and Hassan did an aeroplane imitation by way of celebration as Sohail, back in the side after a lot of acrimony (a pretty costly berth, too, it cost him Rs 50,000 by way of fines to make his peace with the Pakistan Cricket Board) walked back with a duck against his name.

After that, it was pretty one sided. The Bangla quicks are young and eager, but that is about it - they need tonnes of experience before coming close to containing top batsmen in limited over conditions. On the day, they alternated between overpitching and bowling short and wide of the stumps - both disastrous against the likes of Anwar.

The first semblance of sanity came when the likes of Salahuddin, Rehman, Minhajul Abedin, Enamul Hoque and Athar Ali Khan followed one another to the bowling crease to send down varying brands of spin. Sure, the Pak batsmen kept working the singles and when the loose ball came along, thumped hard and often. But the runaway total that looked likely when the batting side raced to 69/1 in 10 and 97/1 in 15 did not quite materialise. And that leads to a thought - for the second time in two games, the slower bowlers proved more effective, especially with the slightly older ball, than the quicks - something the Indian think tank would do well to keep in mind when going up against Sri Lanka on Thursday. Nilesh Kulkarni and Noel David to assist Kumble in the playing eleven? Worth a try, in my book.

320 in 50 overs was never going to be even remotely within Bangladesh's reach. The point of interest, thus, revolved around how easily the Pakistan bowlers would bundle out the young 'uns of cricket. As it turned out, the Bangladesh innings lasted all the way to the 50th over - and credit for the resistance goes primarily to two batsmen, Athar Ali Khan and skipper Akram Khan.

Harsha Bhogle, who has watched Bangladesh play, was telling us that Aminul Islam is a batsman to watch for but in the event, Islam was out rather cheaply to Saqlain Mushtaq in his first spell, mishitting a flighted delivery. Athar Ali, however, came out opening and despite taking a painful knock on the shin when he missed a glide at a swinging full toss from Kabir Khan (the batsman called for a runner after hobbling along for an over or so), batted on with fluency till he was fourth out with the score at 171. Athar Ali looks well organised, compact, playing by the copybook and, judging by this innings, particularly strong on the drives both off and on.

Akram Khan's batting, meanwhile, is out of the village blacksmith school - but a village blacksmith educated to the needs of the game. As needed, he used the checked drive to work the ball to off and leg for singles, but it was when he rocked onto the backfoot, waited for the ball to get within range and then clubbed it with all the weight of his burly frame that he looked the happiest.

The partnership produced 104 runs, and Athar Ali fell when within striking distance of what would have been a merited hundred, drawn forward by a Saqlain Mushtaq delivery and stumped by Moin Khan with his personal score on 82 off 125 with eight fours and a six. Skipper Akram Khan for his part got 59 good runs off 89, with three fours.

For Pakistan, Saqlain Mushtaq was, as so often recently, the star. The young offie seems to grow in confidence all the time, and now it is pretty much a given that he will bowl four, five overs beginning around the 10th over, and then disappear to come back at the death, bowling overs 41 through 50. Again, it is increasingly inevitable that in the death, when the batsmen are going for him, Saqlain will reap a rich crop of wickets with some thoughtful bowling - on this occasion, he got 6 of them to add to his kitty.

Bangladesh has miles to go, obviously, before they become a competitive force at this level. But what was it the guy said? The longest journey begins with but a single step - and today, Bangladesh took that initial step. Be interesting to see how they go on from here.

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