Kaneria, Anwar put Pakistan in driver's seat

By Rizwan Ehsan Ali

MULTAN, AUG. 29. Bangladesh was just the right opponents for Pakistan's Saeed Anwar, who scored an explosive century, and twenty-year-old Danish Kaneria, who spun out the visitors for 134 on the opening day of the Asian Test Championship match on Wednesday.

Anwar thrilled a crowd of around 12,000 with his attractive square cuts and cover drives and blazed 17 boundaries and a six in his nearly run-a-ball 101 and had also completed his 4000 runs in Test.

A slow dry wicket on which none of the Bangladeshi batsmen crossed 20 runs, Anwar and left-handed debutante opener Taufiq Umer played with utmost ease.

The gentle pace of Monjural Islam, Sharif and Hasibul Hossain, coupled with spin of Enamul Haque and Naimur Rahman, failed to stop the flurry of boundaries with Anwar reaching his half century in just 55 deliveries, which featured nine fours, while Umer hammered eight boundaries for his maiden Test fifty.

Umer, who also scored a century in a three-day warm-up game against the visitors in Karachi which earned him a place in the team, looked set to join Khaled Ibadulla, Javed Miandad, Salim Malik, Mohammad Wasim, Younis Khan, Azhar Mehmood and Ali Naqvi, who all have scored centuries in their debut Test matches.

Pakistan finished the day at a commanding 219 for two with Inzamam, batting in front of his home crowd, was unbeaten on 25 and Umer on 77.

Experienced Pakistani pace bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis troubled the openers - Javed Omer and Mehrab Hossain - with a number of short deliveries before the captain finally got the breakthrough. Waqar's short delivery got the leading edge of Omer's bat, which was taken neatly by another debutante - off- spinner Shoaib Malik.

Akram should have got the wicket of Mehrab Hossain, but Anwar floored an easy catch in the first slip when Hossain on four. Kaneria got his first wicket in his second delivery when Faisal Iqbal took a blinder at silly point with Mehrab playing a full- blooded cover drive and walked off in disbelief.

Aminul Islam became Shoaib's first victim in Test when his straight delivery brushed the off stump as the batsman attempted to cut. Skipper Naimur Rahman did not last long. He was caught by Faisal off Kaneria. At lunch, Bangladesh was reeling at 76 for five.

Kaneria continued to trouble the Bangladesh batsmen after resumption and raced through the lower order during his eight- over spell. Akram Khan played a reckless shot to Yousuf Youhana at mid-on while Enamul Haque was caught superbly by a diving Waqar at mid-off.

Hasibul Hossain and Mohammad Sharif launched a late onslaught and hammered Kaneria for a six each, but their late resistance mattered little as Bangladesh innings was folded in 10 minutes over three hours.

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