Cricket- Day 4

Sehwag is in pristine touch and therefore i dont see any point in discussing his awesome batting performance in the first innings. Saurav had another less than mediocre outing inspite of doing whats best for him and the team-- lowering his batting position to number 6 coming in to bat after Laxman. Laxman himself is batting on 50. It is extremely important that Laxman plays well early tomorrow morning to wipe out most of the deficit. Balaji, Pathan and Bhajji must provide him with valuable support. It will be interesting to see what position Inzamam and the Pak team take. Will they go outright for a victory or will they settle for a draw. It is highly unlikely that Haq will be happy to settle for a draw. With everything on the line- I think he will push for a victory. This is what will provide Saurav and his "boys" a scent of a chance to clinch the game. The difference between mediocre teams and great teams (as this Indian team likes to claim it is ) is in the way they change small windows of opportunities into thumping victories. If such a victory is indeed set up it will lay an extremely good starting point for the one-day series and India would definitely start favourites. As far as the Indian bowling goes all rests in the shoulders of Bhajji and Kumble. Bhajji is really a match winner....He can run through any batting lineup on his day as he has shown several times over and we need him to deliver again.

As a cautionary note, it is important that after having dominated most of the series, India do not fritter away the advantage by playing bad cricket on the last two days. It definitely requires a supremely mediocre effort from both the Indian batting and the bowling to go on and lose the match. I hope that we dispell any such Pakistani hopes within the first session tomorrow by putting up a spirited batting effort. Laxman plays a key role in ensuring this.