E-Paper
History a wicket away
The last Pakistan flags had been neatly folded and put away in Multan when Akash Chopra caught Abdur Razzaq one handed, writes Avirook Sen.
The last Pakistan flags had been neatly folded and put away in Multan when Akash Chopra caught Abdur Razzaq one handed. At six down in the second innings, there was little else to do. A lone tricolour was being waved around-probably by Pakistani fans-as India stood at history's door. They need to knock just one more wicket over to enter: Indian cricket's finest first hour will come on Thursday.
When it happens, this will not, cannot, be just another Test match victory. India has never won a Test on Pakistani soil. They have been trying since 1955.
Some things have changed since Vinoo Mankad's side took on A.H. Kardar's, others haven't. The diplomatic battle for Kashmir was being fought just as intensely then as it is now. (Thank God cricket fans don't have to sit through such long draws.) But the relations between the two countries had come sufficiently out of the trough of partition for cricket to be played (Pakistan visted India even in 1952). The 'hand of friendship' extended in 2003, was there-on either side-even then.
It's the cricket that makes this tour different and this win special. Under the same kind of pressures as Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sourav Ganguly/Rahul Dravid, Mankad and Kardar were both afraid to lose. They played out five draws, and it's surprising that no spectator (the series played to nearly packed houses) died of boredom at the end of it all.
The few people who turned up in the stadium and watched Virender Sehwag bat on the first two days would know that the fear of losing was the last thing on his, or India's, mind. And had Sachin Tendulkar been playing under Mankad, he'd have been allowed to get a triple hundred-why just a double.
But the game, thank heavens, has changed even if the subcontinent's politics hasn't.
Pundits had predicted a (boring) draw in this game. With batsmen from either side bullying the bowlers and saying 'fetch' to fielders. The first 10 wickets in this game cost the bowling sides a total of over a thousand runs. The next 11, all of them Pakistani, fell for a little over 150.
The slide that started with Moin Khan going on a google search on Tuesday's last ball, continued with Wednesday's first: Razzaq out to Irfan Pathan.
Pakistan ended its first innings at 407.You don't usually lose Tests if you cross 400 in the first innings, but then you don't usually look at a target of 675 scored at four an over.
After lunch, with Pakistan still harbouring hopes of a draw, Inzamam walked back to the pavilion at a pace only slightly slower than which he'd tried to run a single moments ago. Inzy run out. What else?
By tea, as Pakistan's second innings floundered, the sponsors were already moving the hoardings that form the background of the prize distribution stage into place. Irfan Pathan smiled, Anil Kumble looked seriously hungry for wickets, and Pakistan's batting disintegrated, quickly, into the dust of Multan.
President Musharraf said he'd wait only till August for a solution to Kashmir. If it happens-after close to 50 years of waiting-it will make history. Only someone very brave can make the call on whether that will happen. Predicting that India will make history on Thursday, handing Pakistan its first Test defeat on home soil is much easier. Indian cricket fans have waited 50 years for this tomorrow. They won't have to wait till August.