Short MR. Karthik ran himself out suicidally (nice throw by Khalil),> Balaji> showed that despite his heroics, he is fundamentally an overachieving> #10,> and was just too late on Afridi's first fast(er) ball. Pathan looked> completely> unconvincing out there and fell as expected -- great decision, as the> ball just> clipped the inside edge and wonderful catch. And the only bright spot

Afridi got off to the kind of start we expect and then showed why> comparisons> to Sehwag are ridiculous (even ignoring the 2 to 1 disparity in> averages) with

a hoick that my school coach would have had me running "rounds".

And then Younis Khan showed us why the Pakistani selectors rate him

highly. This was the first time I saw him bat, and he looked like a> star. And> what running between the wickets. Amazing stuff.>

And Youhana too showed his critics that he too can make runs when it> counts. Both batsmen batted beautifully to score super tons, and any> of> three Youhana cover drives being candidates for shot of the day (OK,

missed the last 50 minutes, as it was too depressing).>

I leave it to someone else to heap well-deserved praise on the> Pakistani> batting, but the Indian bowling was poor. Pathan was the worst, and> Bhajji, though bowling slowly bowled too close to the stumps and too> full to trouble the bats. He did get some jump a couple of times he> went wide and curled it in, but didn't do it often enough. Balaji> bustled> and tried hard, but other than his opening spell when he should have> had Umar twice and troubled Afridi as well, was just OK. Kumble was> mildly the best of the lot -- wasn't too hot before tea, but after

umpire didn't and got a few balls to hit the edge, but they didn't go> to> hand. And then he too started bowling tripe and that was it.>

Ganguly's captaincy was strange. He overbowled Pathan when he

and then ignored Kumble to the end... And certainly SRT or Sehwag> could> have been given a shot. Tendulkar especially could have got quite

India could well regret letting Pak off the mat after dominating> through D4> at Mohali. Right now, Pak is much more favored, but all is not. We> still> have a 130 run lead and if we can make serious inroads before lunch,> and> restrict Pakistan's lead (or even take one for heaven's sake) then> India> is right back in the match.>

But the day belonged to the two Y's. Both maligned by their

We'd better do well first thing tmorrow, or a long hard 3 days of

Bharat