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Pakistan v India, 1st Test, Lahore, 5th day Match ends in high-scoring draw January 17, 2006
Pakistan 679 for 7 dec (Younis 199, Yousuf 173, Afridi 103, Akmal 102*) drew with India 410 for 1 (Sehwag 254, Dravid 128*)
Rain and gloom ensured that just 14 balls were possible on the final day at Lahore as the curtains came down on a record-filled Test. Virender Sehwag completed a supreme 254 off 247 balls, the highest-ever Test score at over a run-a-ball, but his dismissal soon after meant that a 50-year-old record, for the highest opening partnership, stayed intact. It was an anti-climactic end to a dazzling run-fest, one where the weather and the pitch had a big part to play. It was a day when little could happen. Overnight showers delayed the start; bad light forced an early finish. In between, they managed to squeeze in 2.2 overs, under floodlights, and there was only one incentive left to play for - beating the 413-run opening partnership set by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy against New Zealand, at the quaint Corporation Stadium in Madras. Sehwag got closer, bringing up his 250 with a flicked couple to deep square leg, and then threatened to race towards it with an almighty slap through the covers, burning the grass on the way to the cover fence. Three balls later, he was gone, trying to carve a short one from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who he had smacked to smithereens yesterday, and edged to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps. It was strange to see him walk back to the pavilion disappointed, having swished a most astonishing knock. Only John Edrich, in his 310 at Leeds in 1965, had managed more fours and Sehwag had managed as many as Don Bradman had in his never-to-be-forgotten 334. When put in historical perspective, and considering that India were up against a monumental total, it was one hell of a riposte. But it will ultimately be judged by the surface it was clattered on, as well as the context of the match. Dravid didn't manage to add to his overnight score, remaining unbeaten on 128. If analysed in isolation, factoring in the opening dilemma, it was a tremendous knock, but when put alongside the five other hundred-plus scores in the game, three of them stunningly over a run-a-ball, it may just be seen as one more century. With intermittent threat of rain at Faisalabad, and light likely to be as bad, the two teams may have to wait till Karachi to even contemplate a result. Until then, young kids in Pakistan, traditionally keen on picking up the ball, might just try their hands at whacking a few with the bat. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is staff writer of Cricinfo © Cricinfo
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