da spicy bet： The rearguardin Mohali, the first four days here; maybe Pakistan isjust beginning to learn how not to lose at the moment
Osman Samiuddin in Kolkata20-Mar-2005
Asim Kamal’s determined effort on the last day typified Pakistan’s attitude throughout the series© Getty Images
Of today, the biggest regret can only be the nature ofthe result. No, we should only be despondent that Pakistancollapsed today, not so much because they lost, but because a wonderfully compulsive game of cricket, onethat refused to be tamed until its very end, produceda tame climax.India are the better team, of that there should be nodoubt. They have been throughout this series, butPakistan have competed gamely when they had no right toand maybe not many gave them a chance to, consideringthe rawness of their personnel. Consider themonumental proportion of mismatches: a MohammadKhaleel or Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan against Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid; Anil Kumble against Kamran Akmal, AsimKamal, Taufeeq Umar or Salman Butt. But for nine daysout of ten in this series, Pakistan had somehow keptapace – just. Into the tenth day, there was even aglimmer of hope.Just before and after lunch, there was evidence ofIndia’s superiority. Already four wickets down,thoughts of victory long gone, Asim Kamal took onHarbhajan Singh. The penultimate over before lunch,Harbhajan, shockingly resplendent in white patka,found his bounce. Kamal tried to cut, but under-edgedinstead. He turned around shaking his head. Next ball,same again, except that he cut it for four.Harbhajan continued to confound – in the third overafter lunch, Kamal prodded a sharply rising ball justpast short leg. Next ball, as it turned sharply andreared up – it had promised to do just this on thelast day – Kamal cut, and edged, only for Rahul Dravid tocontinue a mildly worrying dip in form at slip.Soon after, he played a sharply rising ball as well ashe could, off his ribs almost, and watched, relievedas it fell just short of silly mid-off. He alsomanaged to survive a strong lbw appeal nextball. If they were boxing, the referee would havestopped the fight. Kamal, like Pakistan, was bettered,but he refused, also like Pakistan, to be battered soeasily.Maybe for the Pakistanis, spoilt on the riches of Imran,Javed, Wasim and Waqar, drunk on Pakistan’s epicbattles with West Indies and dominance over Indiain the 80s, a heavy loss against India is difficult toaccept. It shouldn’t be, for this Indian side – as theAustralia side Pakistan played just before – is amongthe greatest the country has ever produced. Thisclearly isn’t the case with Pakistan, the remnants oftheir most successful side left only two years ago.Rebuilding, as Bob Simpson and Allan Border might tellyou, can be a traumatic thing. Australia winregularly, they win ruthlessly, but first they neededto lose and then learn how not to lose. The rearguardin Mohali, the first four days here; maybe Pakistan isjust beginning to learn how not to lose at the moment.In time, they will learn to recognise passages of playon which close matches hinge, like their third-daycollapse, like Dinesh Karthik’s effervescentintervention, like Shahid Afridi’s blazing demiseagainst a dying sun, like the first ball this morning,and learn to tilt the balance in their favour.What we need to do is learn to accept that. We need torecognise that Pakistan contributed fully to whatRahul Dravid said had been a wonderful advertisementfor Test cricket. We need to recognise that in that,there is no disgrace.