TimesofIndia.com in Dubai: For two matches in a row, there was slowburn in the middle-overs when India were bowling at the Dubai International Stadium. Against Bangladesh, on February 20, and during the Pakistan game today, the opposite camp seemed content by just rotating the strike when there was a heavy dose of spin. Risk percentage was very minimal in both games and it meant the Men in Blue remained wicketless for a combined 53.2 overs.
They did manage to suck momentum out of the innings on both occasions but the wickets column didn’t see any additions before Hardik Pandya created that opportunity, only for Harshit Rana to make a mess of the running catch in the deep.Pandya was furious, at first, but maintained composure. Even when he was about to release the steam on multiple occasions, the all-rounder did well to keep it inside.
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He almost had Mohammad Rizwan but the Pakistan skipper got a life off the last delivery of the 33rd over. The wicketkeeper-batter had been out in the middle for 76 deliveries and seemed itchy to make a move on as there were far too many dot balls during the stand with Saud Shakeel. Rizwan knew it was time to step on the gas and gave India the opening they were looking for. Axar Patel ended the long wait and Rana would have taken a sigh of relief as Rizwan was cleaned up for 46, just one delivery after that drop.
Relief followed for Pandya next over as he scalped Saud Shakeel and Pakistan lost their set pair in quick succession. They say one brings two but for India it was three as Ravindra Jadeja, too, opened his account when he knocked timber in the 37th over.
The Pakistan innings, which had some solidity if not fluency, was completely derailed in the span of few overs as they were reduced from 151/2 to 165/5. India aced the middle-overs game to perfection and even when wickets weren’t coming their way, no bowler took the adventurous route and stuck to the basics.
They had applied so much pressure as a bowling unit that it was just a matter of time before the lid blew off. Captain Rohit Sharma maintained a fine mix of spin and seam during that phase and Pandya brought all his experience to the table, just when it mattered most. The way he operated, it seemed he was always cooking a wicket and that aggressive intent was visible in his approach. He sent down eight overs, conceded just three boundaries and bowled as many as 31 dot balls.
Two of those boundary balls were bowled to Babar Azam but they were part of the bigger plan as he got him out with the similar line outside off. Tempting enough to draw the cover drive but the subtle change in length meant the right-hander could only edge it to KL Rahul behind the stumps. A nice little send-off followed and Pandya showed his class and reiterated just why he is the side’s white-ball MVP.
He sticks to basics, looks for wickets, never chases the glory ball and exhibits shrewd game sense to read the batter during different phases of the game. February 23 was another instance of his intelligent thinking with the ball which allowed India to first control and then dominate the middle-overs phase.