JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

One cricketing legend stole the limelight from another legend on a day that will never be forgotten. Brian Lara showed truly remarkable drive and single minded determination when he siezed his Test cricket batting record back from Matt Hayden who had set his 380 just seven or so months ago. Not that one would wish to detract from Hayden's monumental achievement, clearly Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and to some extent the West Indies are easy pickings these days and mere fodder for all sorts of records being set against them. Zimbabwe has been a fairly wretched outfit over the last couple of years and with the exodus of the few reasonable players they had left...expect a host of world records to be set in Tests featuring their side in the near future. A huge shame as the records set against these sub-standard sides are clearly unworthy of the status they are accorded. Hayden's record never "felt" like a record and I reckon the whole cricketing fraternity, even the many Lara detractors are at least relieved that at least crickets most high profile record is a bone fide record as opposed to the soft record that many rightly or wrongly considered Matt Hayden's record to be.

If that wasn't enough monday the 12th of April also saw the official retirement of a bowler who was for two or three years from around 90 - 92 one of the most potent fast bowlers the game had ever seen. Those hugely swinging yorkers homing in on the stumps at blistering pace were one of the cricketing highlights of the early 90's. Though he claims he is only 32 and looks fairly fit, fact is he has been a mere trundler albeit a good one for the last couple of years and father time had clearly caught up with him. None the less, he will be remembered as one of the truly great fast bowlers of his time and together with Wasim Akram he formed arguably the most potent new (or especially old) ball attack the game has ever seen. Waqar's announcement was rather overshadowed by Lara's heroics in Antigua but he deserves acclaim for his achievements and for his service to Pakistan cricket.

The third Test match began in Rawalpindi with the buzz being that the toss would play a vital role and that the ball would dart around in the pre lunch session. Ganguly, back from his injury called correctly and gleefully elected to bowl but in the first 40 minutes or so his bowlers served up some true rubbish, threatening to utterly waste the new ball completely. Ashish Nehra started horribly with a wide but then settled down and then began to make some decisive inroads which led to a cave in by the home side. Balaji after a wretched first four or five overs settled down and explioted the conditions intelligently while Nehra chipped away at the other end with help from Pathan who had been swinging the ball all over the park. A late flurry by Sami and the most unlikely Fazal-e-Akbar saw Pakistan past 200 but on a pitch that should turn into a batting paradise they will have their backs to the wall from now on unless Shoaib, Sami and co can blast through the Indian top order in the first session of play. If not, Pakistan might have done to them what they managed to do to their opponents in Lahore.