Pakistan thrash India at Bangalore and draw series

Superb performances on the field by Pakistan and hopeless batting by India helped Pakistan win the third test and draw the series 1-1 following a draw at Mohali and India's victory at Calcutta.

Pakistan needed to take ten wickets while India needed to make 358 runs on the final day to win or play out six hours to ensure that the game ended in a draw. Pakistan did what they had to. India barely got into the last half-hour of the day. Scoring at a ridiculously defensive 2.25 runs per over on the last day, India were all out for 214 six overs before the scheduled close.

Pakistan had eleven performers on the field today. Afridi's analysis of 3/13 in 17 overs seem McGrathesque. Younis Khan caught superbly. Kaneria soldiered on and on for 25 overs. Sami leaked four an over but that'll be forgotten and forgiven because he took two wickets. Arshad Khan took two wickets as well, including that of Dravid. Razzaq was the only one who didnt get a wicket but he scored the direct hit which changed the game.

While Sehwag and Gambhir were around, it never seemed like India would have a problem with batting out the day. A win was certainly going to be tough after the morning produced only 77 runs since India would have to score at over 4.5 an over. Sehwag and Gambhir got India off the blocks solidly, not apparently in too much trouble, putting on 87 before a direct hit from Razzaq ended Sehwag's circumspect (by his standards) innings of 38. Once Sehwag left, a familiar script followed as the runrate dipped alarmingly. Gambhir and Dravid added 21 in thirteen overs and once they scored at that rapid pace, Pakistan moved in to finish things off. Gambhir was trapped in front by Sami shortly after his fifty. Perhaps he'd have been better off not scoring his it since India had done perfectly well in the last two tests when he got out short of his fifty.

Tendulkar came in and promptly went past Gavaskar. Dravid chose the wrong occasion to display his stonewalling skills and Pakistan were perfectly happy in letting him do that. They knew, and I suspect the crowd did too, that all it would take was for either a good ball, a good catch, poor umpiring or the pitch misbehaving to produce a wicket. A good catch did the trick for Dravid with Younis Khan pouching a superb one at silly-point off Arshad Khan. Tendulkar chose to prove to his critics that he could too play a blood & guts innings and stopped scoring runs. Laxman didnt last too long, in terms of runs and not number of balls faced, lbw to Afridi. Soon, Ganguly went, bowled attempting to drive a ripping legbreak. He didnt leave his crease, either unconvinced about the legality of the decisision, or perhaps telling the umpire "Please give me not out. It could be my last test innings for a while".

Dinesh Karthik was then cleaned up by a Sami yorker and Pakistan only had to get past Tendulkar to level the series. They did that thanks to Afridi and Asim Kamal, who made up for dropping Tendulkar shortly before tea. It was the third time in four innings this series that Afridi had dismissed him. The rest of the tailenders did what they had to, bat without losing their head and wickets. But they didnt score runs and that just allowed Pakistan to pack their fielders close to the wicket. Kumble fought on till the end and Balaji's dismissal gave Pakistan a share of the series.

Younis Khan, who made over 350 runs in the game, was the obvious choice of man of the match and Sehwag's consistency got him the man of the series award. I'm fairly sure he'd have traded in that award for a win.

Photographs from the game.