For three days now, hundreds of thousands have been sleepwalking through their days, and spending their nights wide awake and engrossed in the unfolding drama at Toronto, where India and Pakistan are now locked at 2-1 in favour of the former, with two games to go.
The enormous interest could be because of the traditional rivalry between the two neighbouring countries - not to put too fine a point on it, the public in both nations tend to see an India-Pakistan cricket match as some kind of proxy war.
It could also be because both teams play the game with passion, with panache, with flair and a high degree of skill. Ergo, the first three matches have provided great batting displays, superb bowling performances and - surprisingly for matches involving India and Pakistan, some great fielding both in the air and on the ground.
And so we move on to the climactic weekend - when the two nations meet twice in two days to settle previous scores, and decide once for all which of the two is top dog in the limited version of the game.
The Sahara Cup series is important in that it sees the revival of Indo-Pak cricketing ties - but I submit there is a larger interest, for both nations. Within the next few weeks, both nations are going to find themselves in the thick of frenetic cricketing action. Pakistan, for instance, will almost immediately leave for Kenya, where they will play a quadrangular involving, besides the hosts, also Sri Lanka and South Africa. India, shortly thereafter, will be involved in a triangular series against S'Africa and Australia, not to mention one Test against the latter and a series of three versus the former.
And then there is still more action to come, for both sides!
Which is why this tournament, besides its obvious importance as a head on clash between international cricket's bitterest rivals, is also important as a sort of preparation for more stern tests to come. And in this context, we attempt here a sort of balance sheet, at the half way stage. A look at the pluses and minuses, the gains and losses, for both the sides...
India: pro and con
The most visible gain for India is the captaincy of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
Just weeks earlier, in Sri Lanka, he looked tense and nervous in his first outing as India's skipper. In Toronto, Sachin is obviously more relaxed, more in control of the situation and his own nerves. And the difference is showing - his prodigious ability to read the game is resulting in innovative field placings (vide the use of Jadeja and Tendulkar to cut the short single and mount the pressure, his use of two gullys against Saeed Anwar in the third game - a brilliant ploy to make the Pakistan southpaw think twice before essaying his trademark slash-drive outside off stump, and so on), razor sharp fielding and, most importantly, an attitude of bristling aggression on the part of the entire team. So often in the past, India has walked into the field and, if things go badly in the first few overs, hung its collective head and given up the game as a lost cause. Under Tendulkar, though, the team refuses to give up the fight, even in the face of a batting blitz like the one Anwar mounted in the second game of the series.
Gain number two follows from gain number one - viz, the batting form of Mohammad Azharuddin. In both games two and three, Azhar has looked so totally relaxed, so totally pressure-free and so in control of his game, that he is beginning to play more like the batsman who, not so long ago, hit the fastest hundred in the limited overs version of the game. His timing is coming back, he is giving the Indian lineup that strength it has lacked in the middle, and his experience more than anything else helped the young Rahul Dravid settle into his new found role as the sheet anchor of the innings. An Azhar in form is of paramount importance for the Indian lineup, and it looks like the former India skipper is relishing the freedom from responsibilities, and from the unwelcome attentions of a nosey media, and getting back to what he does best - decimate rival bowling attacks.
Gain four again follows from number three - the batting of Rahul Dravid which, in a word, has been sensational. ``Any bowler can take wickets on a turning track, only a great batsman can get runs on it,'' said the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers while naming Dravid the man of the match on Wednesday - and those who watched the youngster play on both Tuesday and Wednesday, coming in when the Indian team was in crisis and steadying the innings with calm, sensible batting and rocklike solidity, will not grudge the youngster those words of praise. With Dravid now settling into the number three role and Azhar in the number four slot, India is now in the happy position of being able to experiment with the rest of its lineup.
Five, the return to form of Anil Kumble. In England, it was the leg-spinner who, more than any other player, set the team cause back by running into a patch of abysmal form where he could get neither line, nor length, nor direction, right. With the result that after Srinath and Prasad had applied the initial pressure, India were not in a position to keep the screws turned. Now Kumble is back to prime form, and India once again finds its bowling options wide open. Tendulkar can, as Azhar has before, use Kumble to attack when he needs wickets, or to contain when defense is dictated by the existing situation. And this in turn leaves the Indian skipper the freedom to play around with the rest of the bowling lineup.
Sunil Joshi's performance - with bat, ball and on the field merely underlines the impression he created in Lanka, that he is easily India's cricketing find of the season, so we won't harp on that, but move rather to the cons.
And first crack out of the box, we find the enigmatic Vinod Kambli. The Indian southpaw came into the team needing to make up lost ground - ground lost, we must remember, by his own refusal to adhere to team discipline during the Wills World Cup. But rather than seize the opportunity to re-establish himself in the side as one of its pre-eminent strokeplayers, Kambli thus far has tended to dither. Dangerously, one must add - for unlike earlier, this time he finds his place threatened not only by Saurav Ganguly, but also by the likes of Navjot Singh Sidhu who, when he makes his inevitable comeback into the side next month will displace someone, and as it stands that someone looks likely to be Kambli himself, and even by the likes of emerging players back home such as the free-stroking Hyderabad batsman VVS Laxman, or the big-hitting Tamil Nadu player Rueben Paul.
Another obvious entry on the debit side is the opener's slot Nayan Mongia, after one stunning success in Sri Lanka, has failed to duplicate it in Toronto. And that gives India's think tank a headache when it readies to take on South Africa and Australia - who will open along with Tendulkar to give the innings badly needed momentum at the top of the order? It is a question Sachin, Sandeep Patil and the selectors will be pondering deeply in the days to come.
A third con lies in a name that, just months ago, was the toast of India - Saurav Ganguly, to wit. There seems to be no perceptible drop in his form, and he has been as sharp as ever in the field. Yet, in the first two games, his bowling arm was not employed at all, even though India badly lacked an extra bowler in both those games. And then, he found himself dropped in the third game - something pundits and punters alike would have sworn, before the start of this tournament, could not happen. The Management is mum on what the problem is - but the fact remains that Ganguly, both as batsman and bowler, gives India added options and if he is not considered good enough to be in the first eleven, then it opens up a gap that needs filling in a hurry.
Pakistan: pro and con
India is a team making a transition - from experience to youth, from one captain to another, from one management style to a totally different one.
The gains for Pakistan, thus, are less obvious - but still there, to be seen.
And first crack out of the box, one considers the batting of Salim Malik. In England, though he did score one century in the final Test at the Oval, it was a laboured effort, and not consistent with his awesome talent. But in Toronto, Malik has once more come into his own - and a Malik in form fills the gap in the Pakistan lineup that the departure of Javed Minadad left - that of a combative, experienced batsman who can, in the middle order, play according to the dictates of each particular situation. It is this stability that Pakistan, boasting the flamboyance of Anwar and Inzamam, has lacked in the immediate past, and Malik's return to form will be welcome for that reason alone.
Item two on the black side of the ledger is the performance of Saqlain Mushtaq. That the teenager is one of the most promising off-spinners in the modern game is a given - but in course of the Sahara Cup, he has gone one step beyond that in displaying a maturity, a level-headedness that would have surely gladdened Akram's heart, for he now has yet another attacking option to his bow. The absolute cool with which he bowled the final overs in both games two and three means that Akram does not have to risk a possible mauling of Younis at the very end, and that is a great gain. And if this were not enough, Saqlain has shown in the last two outings a definite penchant for batting - head down, level-headed, sensible batting, that is, and a reluctance to give away his wicket no matter the nature of the pitch or the opposing attack. With neither Mushtaq Ahmed nor Waqar Younis exactly calculated to inspire awe in opposing bowlers, Pakistan needed one person in the lower order capable of hanging in there - and in Saqlain, they seem to have found it.
Plus number three is the fielding - for a team rated the worst fielders in international cricket today, Pakistan in Toronto has been a revelation. Sure, they continue to fumble - but there is increased effort, and it is showing in the number of fours cut to twos, in the number of short singles not taken, and in a general spring in the strides of the bowlers. For as any bowler will tell you, when they are confident of backing by the fielders is when they are able to bowl at their best - and this, finally, is happening when Pakistan takes the field.
Cons? A great big one to start things off with is injury. Inzamam has a trick knee, Anwar has a damaged finger, Mushtaq again has a trick knee... While these are susceptible to treatment, Pakistan cannot afford to be less than one hundred per cent fit when it goes up against Sri Lanka and the Proteas in Kenya come October, and the Pak physio must in consequence be a very worried man.
Item two is the bad form of Aamir Sohail - patch that began in England, and has been continuing here. Pakistan needs the aggressive southpaw to come good at the top of the order - when he fails, Inzamam and Ijaz immediately come under pressure and neither batsman, as Toronto has shown, is immune to mistakes when trying to accomplish the twin tasks of keeping their wickets intact and at the same time scoring quick runs.
Salim Elahi was tried as an option in the third game, and perhaps one game is too little evidence to judge. But I would reckon that if he doesn't stop that pronounced shuffle to off, he will find himself in all sorts of trouble against bowlers like Srinath and Prasad, and also forthcoming opponents Chaminda Vaas (who, bowling from over the wicket, is apt to be delighted at the sight of Elahi's leg stump visible in all its glory as the batsman moves ponderously to off) or Allan Donald, who is apt to beat him for pace nine times out of ten and bowl him around his legs.
So much, then, for our impromptu balance sheet.
Now on to the weekend, and the final two clashes between two teams neither of which likes to lose to the other - an ironclad guarantee, that, of some great cricket.
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