Basically the way the pitch behaved when our spinners bowled
post-lunch, I thought 250 lead would be enough - thats how
difficult it looked (though, of course, one wants a whole lot
more). Then Sami got a couple to keep low too, and one wondered
if even 200 was enough? But probably not, its slow still (though
at 23/2 even 200 looked a long bloody way away).

Then Sachin joined Dravid and looked very shaky - Dravid looked
fine, Sachin was bothered by movement behind the sightscreen
etc, played and missed a couple times, and as usual nowadays
was taking his time getting started (thats the huge difference
with him, he used to get started as soon as he was in, middle
of the bat right away when younger - now he starts iffy like
most mortals, and has compensated by being very very slow at
the start, today 1* off 16 balls at tea IIRC). Meanwhile
Dravid at the other end was looknig fine.

After tea Sachin was suddenly totally different - he was suddenly
like the old Sachin, in the sense that he was positive even
on this pitch, looking for runs every ball. One streaky shot,
ball outside off wide and he gave it everything and edged
past 2nd slip for four (this was in like the 2nd over after
tea). But that was it, after that it seemed the pitch had
lost all its demons, both Dravid and Tendulkar batting
very very well, cautious but hitting fours all the time
too (Sachin was trailing Dravid 1* to 17* before tea as
Dravid had played shots and Sachin looked shaky; after tea
Sachin took over his old role, and Dravid dropped solid
anchor as in his old days, Sachin caught and passed him
and reached fifty with 8 fours after tea while Dravid was
still about 42 IIRC). It was terrific batting, and the
match was being taken away completely - the way it looked
they would go well past the hundred partnership and continue
on to tomorrow, and on this pitch that would probably be
decisive. Dravid was totally solid and putting away the bad
ball beautifully, and Tendulkar was playing almost like the
old days, a fair few shots and no alarms whatsoever, which
was remarkable on this pitch.

Right about the time Sachin got his fifty, the light was getting
very poor - they had been showing pictures of clouds for
a while, they had swithced on the floodlights but they
hadnt taken full effect. There were several complaints
about the light - Sachin was easily lip-read after one
ball saying he couldnt see it, one ball was dug in at him
and he didnt pick it at all, just managed to fend it away
with his bat. Dravid also complained about the light.
After a couple of times, Bucknor seemed just irritated with
it, and refused to give it any consideration anymore - he
seemed more annoyed at the several appeals against the
light as much as anything (in the meantime, Pakistan, which
had been looking quite clueless about how to break the
partnership that was moving beautifully, had noted the
fading light and brought back Sami, bowlnig at 90mph in
that spell, to take full advantage :-) Hair was appealed
to about the light as well, and he seemed willing to
consider it, walking over to Bucknor to consult (Bucknor
never took the question to Hair at all, in any of several
complaints), but they decided against granting it.

Then came the decision above. The ball moved away *a lot*,
which is a mitigating factor in Bucknor's error. But still,
there was no sound (confirmed on mic-replay, which showed
no change whatsoever as the ball went past). And the replay
showed distinct light between the bat and ball as they
passed (though there was a lot of movement after it went
by the bat). Kamran Akmal caught the ball and didnt even
really appeal - Razzak did, and kept appealing on no reaction
from Bucknor, sort of a hand-raised continuation of the
appeal for a bit. And after a *loong* wait (I mean long by
Bucknor's standards, by anyone else's standards it was
enough of a wait for the bowler to restart the runup :-)
Bucknor raised his finger.

Anyway. Ive actually always been a Bucknor-fan, I think he
was a great umpire (and actually a nice guy too, once in
Toronto we accosted him while there was a rain-delay and
he came over and talked to fans too, very civilly, even
though we joked with him etc). Even when India had all the
troubles with him in Australia I didnt have too much of a
problem with Bucknor myself - he made a clear error in the
Tendulkar LBW in Australia, but that happens, I really dont
think it was too awful. He was clearly annoyed with the
Indians by the end of that tour, but there was some
excessive appealing by the Indians and we did at times
seem to have a bit of a persecution complex with him.
Bucknor was making errors, more than he used to, but I thought
he was still a pretty fine umpire and not biased at all.

In this match, I think Bucknor has done a very fine job
before now - he has made the odd error (the no-ball etc),
but basically he has also made some excellent decisions.
This decision today however was awful - but not just because
it was a poor decision IMHO. He just seemed annoyed by
the appealing for bad-light, and seemed to be more and more
unwilling to even consider the appeals out of annoyance
(as the light was getting worse). The Indians didnt help
by appealing repeatedly - maybe just a quiet word would have
worked better. But still, that isnt how one should react as
umpire - Hair seemed much more amenable even with the appealing.
I really do think, give how long he waited to make the
decision (again, long even by his standards) that he might
not have gotten a great look at the ball - and that was probably
*because* the light had faded so much. But, almost on
instinct, he gave it anyway. I dont think he's biased - he
has made basically fair and pretty good decisions for 3 days
so far other than this one. But it seemed almost that he
was just pissed off at the Indians for their appeals against
the light, and it felt as if he let it cloud his judgement
on the caught-behind appeal. Which, IMHO, is worse than
actually just making a poor decision to give it out.

Relations were deteriorating even more after that happened -
Tendulkar looked unhappy as he walked off, but first I thought
it was just frustration due to the light-issue, it was as he
neared the boundary that he clearly seemed upset by the decision
itself (and replays confirmed it wasnt close). Ganguly obviously
thought so too - he came in shaking his head and asking about
the light before he played a ball, and continued to ask for
it almost every ball. After being turned down a couple more
times (almost lost a bouncer directed at him once, taking
his eyes off and hooking/fending), he smacked a ball thru
cover for four almost out of spite, and then still shook his
head as if he couldnt believe he wasnt being given the
light :-) He talked to Hair about it too, at square-leg
IIRC. Finally it was in the middle of next over that Hair
walked over to Bucknor again, and they decided to offer
the light.

Anyway. It was a terrific day, and some wonderful batting
after tea that had almost taken the game away completely
from Pakistan, with seemingly no chance of a reprieve.
The game seemed to change completely with the light
fading - the batsmen seemed more agitated when it was
not considered, and the bowling side suddenly seemed to
get life from nowhere. Then came the wicket (albiet by a
very poor decision), and the pressure in the game shifted
totally - it looked totally to be going the other way right
at the end (though thats only a myth, because tomorrow will
be a fresh start which will favour India probably). It was
intensely absorbing cricket, an awesome post-tea session
especially between two sides trying very hard - the *only*
thing that marred it was the acrimony over bad light and
the poor decision that turned a hard-fought game around.

Hopefully that alone hasnt changed the course of the match
(and/or series) - and hopefully tempers will be much
cooler between the umpire and team tomorrow ,than they were
by days end. It doesnt do much good for anyone if the
team feels theyre being victimized on purpose, and the
umpire feels mostly just annoyance towards one of the
sides (as it seemed for the first time in the match this
evening).

Sadiq [ Dravid and Sachin had looked *really* good ] Yusuf