The Hindu : Sport : Younis Khan gives credit to Pakistan's lower half

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 02, 2006

Sport

Sport

Younis Khan gives credit to Pakistan's lower half

Special Correspondent

— Photo: S. Subramanium

LONE RESISTANCE: Yuvraj Singh came up with a fine century in the second innings but lack of support made his effort a futile one.

Karachi: Pakistan's stand-in captain Younis Khan described the resistance from his team's bottom half in the first innings as the turning point in the third Test.

"We came back after being down 39 for 6. If India had dismissed us for just 100 then the result might have been different. But Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar batted very well to get us out of a spot. We never looked back after that," said Younis.

Younis highlighted the one-dimensional appearance of the all left-arm Indian pace attack and Pakistan's superiority in pace bowling.

"They were all left-arm pacemen. We knew that the ball will come into us and all we had to do was survive. We had variation in the form of Shoaib Akhtar's pace, Abdul Razzaq's medium pace and the fact that Asif bowled with such brilliant control."

Psychological edge

He spoke about the psychological advantage in having someone with Akhtar's pace.

"Having Shoaib in the squad is always a plus as you always know you have a weapon to fall back on. He hit India's best batsman (Sachin Tendulkar) on the head and the rest of the batsmen were no doubt affected by that."

He said the wickets of the Indian openers were crucial on the fourth day. "Last night while discussing the declaration, we felt that Sehwag and Dravid were the key." Younis said coach Bob Woolmer deserved much credit for the success. "Bob Woolmer's strategy of making the bowlers practise bowling within the stumps worked."

`Collective failure'

Indian captain Rahul Dravid called the defeat "one of the most painful." He called the capitulation of the side, "a collective failure."

The Indian captain said the team would have a re-think on the question of specialist openers, "We would like to have the best men in the best possible position."

Asked about Sourav Ganguly's performance in the Test, Dravid replied, "I would not like to focus on individuals. I would like to focus on what we did as a team."

He admitted that the Pakistani pacemen bowled better than the Indians, but added the Indian bowlers might have been tired coming into the Test.

"They had bowled more than 500 overs in the previous two Tests. They probably could have got little more out of the pitch."

Dravid was lavish in his praise for Mohammad Asif and termed him the difference between the two attacks. "He consistently hit the seam and bowled the right line."

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