Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Remember this anyone?

Does anyone remember this eventful over ? I am sure that every Indian cricket fan remembers this Test match, but this particular second inning dismissal? Have seen any talk about it lately. Read on. The following is from a Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary.

41.1 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, no run, a step forward, aggressive shot, played to midwicket fielder.

41.2 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, one run, bounces and spins a lot, turned to backward short leg, quick run.

41.3 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, short ball, cracked very hard at silly point fielder. both silly point and short cover turned their backs the ball bounced off silly point's back but short cover was not ready either turning his back too.

41.4 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, pushed to offside

oh no....

41.5 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, OUT:
India 82/5, Partnership of 9
SC Ganguly c Moin Khan b Saqlain Mushtaq 2 (25b 0x4 0x6)
Saqlain Mushtaq 14.5-5-19-2

Interesting, what if India had actually complained to the match referee (which I think they did not). Btw, Cammie Smith was the match refree in this match, but with two sub-continent teams involved, just like "la-affaire Latif", we could have had some success. Even the mainstream Pakistani media termed the decision the worst of the match

It is also interesting to see two similiar incidents involving the same team. Speaks volumes about the tendency of the team in question to do such things when the tide is against them. They won on both cases and in both cases the victory was as close as it can be. If only Azhar and Co. had been clever enough to approach Smith with a protest!

No comments: