On a day of hard grind, Pakistan's batsmen put together a disciplined, no-frills performance to eke out a first-innings lead and end the day in a position of considerable strength

At seven down, with less than 150 on the board, a Pakistan attack of older vintage might have expected, reasonably, to scuttle a previous Indian batting line-up for under 200

The 23 year-old Akmal, from Lahore, has long been touted as a potential national wicketkeeper, and his pre-World Cup debut performances in Zimbabwe and South Africa for the senior team confirmed this growing reputation

It is debatable whether or not the dust actually ever settles in Multan, but for Pakistan it must

At the post-match press conference, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Haroon Rashid, the manager, identified what went wrong and how it will be rectified for the next Test

The press conference, the first Inzamam had given since the match began, centered around the problems of Pakistan's bowling, the flatness of the pitch and whether or not the match can be saved

When a batsman scores a triple-century, and when he does it in the thrilling fashion in which Virender Sehwag did so, as an onlooker you cannot hold many regrets

If Pakistan could do nothing about the two elements of nature - the pitch and the stifling heat - there was little they could do about the third element - Virender Sehwag

If Pakistan could do nothing about the two elements of nature - the pitch and the stifling heat - there was little they could do about the third element - Virender Sehwag

If the recently concluded one-day series is to be taken as a marker, then the real excitement may be about to begin tomorrow

How Pakistan fare in the remainder of the series may well depend on how often Abdul Razzaq meets expectations

It wasn't for nothing that Steve Waugh and his Australians used to believe that the battle is often won early on in a match, whether it is the first session of a Test or the first 15 overs of a one-dayer

And, finally, there is only the cricket

Osman Samiuddin introduces Pakistan's new medium-pacer, Rao Iftikhar Anjum

Over the last year, it had become the norm for pundits and journalists alike to routinely express shock, dismay, horror and disgust at Pakistan selections

With the logistical preliminaries finally out of the way, the sense of relief in Pakistan is palpable

The PCB, by ensuring that both Karachi and Peshawar will host the Indians for a day, has opted for the only path it could have chosen in what had become a no-win situation

In politics, if you can please some people some of the time, then you have done well

Following South Africa's curtailed tour last October and the Kiwi whistlestop tour in December, Karachi and Peshawar are again in line to bear the brunt of vague security concerns

Wasim Bari, the chief selector, has been busy looking at various players not originally announced in the probables list