Paki batting vs Indian Batting.

India ended up with a meagre, yet moral-boosting lead of 15 runs over Pakistan in the first inning of the second test against Pakistan. The second session of the third day was worrisome for India and they lost wickets in a flurry. Solid resilience from Dhoni & Pathan and some innovative shots from lower order took India from a position where they were looking in the face of follow-on to a position where they've taken first innings lead. While this is a befitting reply to the total posted by Pakistan, Indian batting worries me. Take a look at the graphic (courtesy CricBuzz) on the left; while Pakistani innings had many healthy partnerships, Indian inning was marred by spans where the batsmen just lost concentration and wickets fell in quick succession. It had just two over-50 runs partnerships, which turned out to be real big ones. Other than these two partnerships, our batsmen couldn't build partnerships. Its ironic that while there are many contenders for the middle order and it has been the eye of the controversies for some time now, we still haven't got someone as solid as "The Wall" in there. Yuvraj Singh, with all his flamboyance and talent, again failed to pull team out of the rut. Sachin is playing quite uncharacteristically for quite some time now. He looks like getting very negative in his approach, while for the better part of his career his extreme positivity has been the key to his success.

I hope the top order doesn't skittle before the Paki bowlers at a reportedly fast pitch at Karachi. I feel top-order will have to shoulder the burden there since all-rounders like Dhoni & Pathan can't be expected to have the supreme technique to tackle the pace & swing of Paki bowlers in a more suitable setting.