Irfan Pathan solves the Muralitharan sudoku

By John Cheeran
Any innings has to be measured in the context in which that is played. Sometimes a daring 25 runs must be held well above a century that was crafted in meaningless circumstances.
Irfan Pathan’s brilliant 93, coming in as an opener, to lend some substance to Indian second innings in the New Delhi Test against Sri Lanka has to be seen in this context.
When Pathan walked in, India needed to consolidate on the platform of the sixty run first innings lead to try and force a win at Feroze Shah Kotla.
It was not at all an easy task considering the difficulty Indian batsmen experienced on the first two days against that crafty customer Muttaih Muralitharan.
It was a stroke of genius from Greg Chappell-Rahul Dravid team to push Pathan upfront as opener. Pundits were arguing that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have made a better opener in the given circumstances rather than Pathan. Dhoni is a player with a positive approach, they said.
But Pathan, again, lived up to the occasion. An occasion which has been made more difficult by the early dismissal of the certified opener Gautam Gambhir and Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Attapattu’s move to bring Muralitharan to open the bowling.
Pathan accomplished the basic task of opening with aplomb. Early in the innings he showed the signs of his willingness to go for runs by clouting Murali for a sixer.
More than the flourish, I admire Pathan’s application to the task at hand which unfortunately the rest of the Indian batsmen possess little.
Pathan’s willingness to play within his limitations; to play sensibly as much as possible paid him rich dividends. He scored runs, stayed longer than others at the wicket to give India that slender hope of fight at this critical phase of the Test.
More than anything else, Pathan knew it is not enough to play an exquisite cover drive and then poke the next ball to wicketkeeper’s hands in the lingering sweet, aftermath and walk back.
VVS Laxman did just that.
Even Sachin Tendulkar, now free from the burden of the No.35 expectations, failed the testing moment in the second innings.
Pathan’s determined effort gains in stature greatly because what happened around him as much as what he did on his own.
And Pathan’s gritty ways eventually solved the Muralitharan sudoku much to the relief of the rest of India, which I consider as the biggest plus point of his innings.
Pathan might have fallen seven run short of his maiden Test century; but it is an innings that India will remember for a long time to come.