When Younus took 'The bull by its horns'

Richard DWIGHT

Quick on the heels of winning the ICC Twenty/20 World Cup, the Pakistan cricketers are here to pit their might against Sri Lanka in a series of 3 Test matches, 5 ODIs and a Twenty/20 match.

Reflectively, by and large taking all things into consideration, the end result in the Twenty/20 World Cup, was the best thing that happened to Pakistan in recent years.

Whilst Sri Lanka which preaches contentment, having to be content in being worthy runners up.

The more fancied teams from South Africa, Australia, England and India failed miserably.

This does go to show that in a game of Twenty/20 there are times 'when the strong become weak, and the weak are made strong'.

Be that as it may, both teams Pakistan and Sri Lanka, will now have to adjust and adapt themselves to the rigours in the longer version of the game - which is the surest way of testing the ability of a team and that of its cricketers.

As we dwell on the forthcoming Test matches, our minds goes back in time to that epic Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, played in the early part of this year at Karachi.

At this match, Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraweera, did dominate the batting. They were in a devastating mood to be engaged in a record breaking partnership - with both of them scoring double centuries, which enabled Sri Lanka to a massive first innings score of 644 for 7.

This led to the thinking that the demoralising, huge Sri Lankan score would be beyond the reach of the young Pakistani side, led by the newly appointed captain, Younus Khan.

The chances therefore of Pakistan avoiding the follow on, did seem remote and, the prospects of Sri Lanka either winning by an innings or by a few wickets, did appear bright.

Dismal it was, that Pakistan had to begin their reply, towards the close of play in fading light and had the added misfortune of losing their first wicket early.

In situations like this the accepted practice is to send out a night watchman. Instead skipper, Younus Khan leading from the front, took upon himself the responsibility by going out, virtually taking the 'Bull by its horns'.

He was on a mission to redeem his side, and how well he accomplished it, as a colossus with a huge 313, is well-known. Younus exuded confidence that was infectious amongst Kamran Akmal who notched a century, while Shoaib Malik, Faisal Iqbal and Yasir Arafat scored half centuries all of which helped Pakistan to a mammoth score of 765 for 6.

This put Pakistan to be a little more than, being on equal terms with Sri Lanka. With the match however petering out in an inevitable draw.

The characteristic feature of Younis's batting was that he was well composed with evenness of mind and with his pleasant disposition did endear himself to many.

It was certainly a hard grind for the Sri Lankan Cricketers, who apart from the established 5 bowlers, did make use of 4 non bowlers, making it 9 bowlers in all.

Surprisingly Samaraweera wasn't given to bowl, had he bowled and Prasanna was relieved from his gloves by kumar to bowl, then eleven bowlers would have bowled.

Silly as it would have been but then cricket is a funny game and does at time step in to hold things on an even keel.

All this and more and that Test match at Karachi, has passed onto history. But that which is currently on, is the on coming Test matches to be played at Galle, Colombo Oval and the SSC.

The Pakistani cricketers since winning the Twenty/20 World Cup, will perhaps move along sprightly with a spring in their step. They have a compact tidy set of players, with a fine blend of pace as well as spin bowlers.

The batting has been further reinforced by the come back made by that superb all rounder Abdul Razzaq and the reputed batsman Mohammad Yousuf - with Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria proving to be quite a threat.

The Sri Lankan side depends largely on its seniors, with the middle order allrounders, turning out to be woefully inadequate to be passengers. Times without number the stage was set for these all rounders to pull the side out of a crisis but they failed, with Matthews having to display consistency.

One could ask the question as to when was it last, that one of our all rounders scored a century or a decent 70 runs and take 3 to 4 wickets to turn the tide in our favour.

Despite all this our side is competent enough to do well, with three sensational players, in the improvisor Dilshan, the wizardry of Murali and the mesmeric Ajantha.

All in all, its bound to be an intersting series to be most absorbing, which is what Test cricket is all about.