Kumble shook his head as he walked back into the dressing room, muttering under his breath. The wicket did not spit venom as India had largely expected. And the home bowlers were tamed by an inspired performers in both innings. The draw here was more a victory for Pakistan as India lost, in every sense of the word, the chance to seal the series here.

Kumble’s two wickets in the post-lunch session had sparked some interest in an otherwise quiet day, where Pakistan looked content to stand and defend rather than chase the target of 345.

India had batted for the first 36 minutes of the day, played 40 balls to score 43 runs where Sourav Ganguly went past 6000 runs in Test cricket, before being bowled on 46 by a Shoaib Akhtar slower delivery. And then the declaration came.

Zaheer Khan took the early wicket of Yasir Hameed with a reflex return catch as India hoped for a fruitful outing. Kumble sent back Akmal, who came in to open this time, in the second ball after lunch and later on trapped No.3 Salman Butt. Meanwhile, Misbah, dropped first ball off Kumble, fell to a classic off-break from Munaf after facing 14 more. Three wickets in one session and it looked like India were going places, but then Pakistan swung the Yo-Yo on the hosts’ face.

Younis was the more confident of the two; he landed his foot close to the pitch of the ball, was intent on playing a dead bat rather than driving against the spin through the vast vacant places and, on this pitch, knew exactly which ball to go back and punch. Younis read the ball from the bowler’s hand and reached his half-century in the last over before tea with six boundaries to help his cause. His confidence grew further as Yousuf got over his initial tentativeness in playing the front foot with six men hounding him from close quarters.

... contd.