He has been an absolutely sensational find. His big hitting with almost perfect technique was a revelation. Yes: Mehandra Dhoni has arrived on the World Cricket scene with a bang in the fifth one day match of his career. After making two hundreds for India “A” Vs Pakistan “A”, it was the turn of main Pakistani side to receive thrashing from Dhoni.

Earlier in test matches, Dinesh Karthik hammered a beautiful 93, only to see falling apart in the next test match. Let’s see, as the teams move to the home ground of Dhoni in Jamshedpur on Saturday, if he can maintain the momentum. According to Dhoni after the match talking to Ravi Shastri, the crowds at Jamshedpur will be simply maddening.

When Dhoni entered the ground after Sourav Gangulay had won the second very important toss in a row at the VCDA Stadium, Visakhapatnam, India after only 3.2 overs, were flying high at 26/1. Sehwag on strikers end had already hit 3 4s and 1 6 and was batting on 21*, while Tendulkar had returned brilliantly run out by Yousuf Youhana for only 2. Then Dhoni saw Sehwag hitting Rana Naved-ul-Hasan for a six and four.

First ball Dhoni faced from Mohammad Sami was banged straight down the ground on the offside for four runs. Next over Dhoni slashed the first ball he faced from Rana to the third man boundary for four (had there been a second slip, it would have been an easy catch). First time he faced Abdul Razzaq, the first ball he cover drove for two and the third ball inside edge to fine leg for four. This showed Dhoni wanted to get on top of each bowler from the very first moment, a sign of maturity and taking a big risk for the sake of team strategy at the beginning of his career.

For a change, Inzimam took a bold decision and brought Shahid Afridi in the eighth over. That did baffle Dhoni, who inner edged the first ball onto his pads. On the next ball, Dhoni was lucky to survive a confident LBW appeal, as the ball came back into him and he was totally deceived driving forward (he was 20 not out at that stage). Umpire had other ideas and did not give him out. The next two balls went to extra cover fence, one for four and the second into the crowd for a huge six. Shahid Afridi already feeling wounded by the umpire’s decision, got professional hammering from Dhoni, who did not get deterred by that loud appeal.

During the next over of Naved-ul-Hasan, Sehwag hit his 7th 4 to reach 50 in just 26 balls. In the next over of Afridi, crowd saw brutal hitting of Sehwag as 17 runs came from the first five balls fthe first four going past the boundary. The extraordinary hitting of Sehwag gave Dhoni much heart and laid the platform for his enormous 148 runs in 123 balls with 15 4s and 4 6s.

Ganguly after hitting a confident four got bowled out for another paltry 9 by a tremendous swinging yorker of Mohammad Sami. However due to intense heat, Mohammad Sami could not repeat the similar swinging Yorkers, since such bowling takes much toll and he was not able to sustain his spell.

Going back to Dhoni’s performance, his quality batting style could be seen, when he was batting on 126. Dhoni got another let off, this time not by the umpire, but by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who missed an easy stumping chance again of the bowling of luckless Afridi. As done earlier, totally wounded Afridi got hit for two sixes and a four the next thee balls by Dhoni in perfect executing manner. Such viciousness totally destroyed the spirits of Pakistani players. Before that, Inzimam was seen vociferous and keep talking to the bowlers and fielders, but then after Akmal’s lapse became silent.

All the way through, Dravid guided Dhoni by keep taking singles and eventually scored 52 in only 59 balls with just 3 4s (which shows the amount of singles he was taking and giving Dhoni more chances to thrash).

As such India reached in only 41 overs three wickets down 289 runs. At last, Dhoni made another mistake due to fatigue playing in 30+-Degree-Celsius off the bowling of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik did not make any mistakes at the normal mid-wicket position as ball went almost sky high. That revived the positive attitude in the Pakistanis and they had the Indians reeling at seven wickets down for 318, through spirited bowling by Naved-ul-Hasan. But Harbhajan Singh 11, Balaji 17 with 1 6 and Zaheer Khan 17 with 2 6s made useful contribution to take the score to 356/9. If Pakistan had bowlers of the past like Waqar and Waseem, Indians could not have gone beyond 330 and that would have made the eventual target not very difficult; the only genuine bowler other than Naved-ul-Hasan, that is Mohammad Sami could not accomplish this.

Inzimam for a change was seen fired up in the field, as he was on the last day of the Third Test Match at Bangalore. He was especially upset with the bowling of senior off-spinner Arshad Khan, who despite getting two important wickets may have played his last International game for Pakistan (however one never can say for sure). There is every chance that leg spinner Danish Kaneria will play in the next game, as Pakistan needs some specialist bowlers other than the all-rounders. However remember Kaneria was expensive in the test matches and he has to rely on a huge first innings score by the Pakistani batsmen to exploit the foot-steps of the bowlers in the evening during the second innings (Inzi has not yet won the toss, to take advantage of that).

It was good to see Inzimam going to his bowlers, especially Mohammad Sámi and Arshad Khan, on regular intervals to discuss bowling and fielding strategies and also had some harsh words muttered for some fielders including himself.

While batting, Inzimam clouted the first ball by Harbhajan Singh well into the crowd and from there onwards, it was clear Indians will have enormous difficulties to win, if they could not get Inzimam out. Unfortunately for Pakistan in the next over, a tired Abdul Razzaq could not run when ball went to fine-leg and batsman Abdul Razzaq kept looking at the ball rather than looking in front at his partner Inzimam, who was going for what was an easy run (however it was difficult run for the exhausted and hamstring injured Abdul Razzaq, as he was going through cramps). This was another time, when Inzimam was seen shouting loudly at a most sad Abdul Razzaq. Inzimam’s body was totally trembling when he shouted two times - Man: It was My Call: Myyyyy Call. He was so furious that he slammed his bat on the floor of the pavilion and was not seen for the next twenty overs. Hopefully Match Referee Chris Broad will spare him for doing this, since Broad himself sometimes used to do the same in his playing days.

It was really sad to see Pakistani captain getting out like that. Had he not got out and played just another five overs, there was every chance Pakistan would have created a world record in crossing Indian score of 356/9 in the 50th over.

Abdul Razzaq played gem of an innings of 88 off 93 balls. His leg side weakness due to his batting stance got exposed and fully used by the Indian bowlers to restrict his scoring which were initially more than 100 runs per 100 balls.

Yousuf Youhana did it again; after failing in the first innings of a series, he returned in the second game with a thump playing an incredible innings of 71 off only 56 balls with 2 4s and 4 6s. It was truly refreshing to see him hit sixes with minimum power. Kamran Akmal also batted beautifully for 41 off only 28 balls with 4 4s and 1 6. He brought back one last hope of reaching near the target of 357.

Pakistani innings ended 35 balls earlier due to the huge 357 target. Had Pakistanis did not loose heart after lapses in the field and may be the umpiring decision going against them, they would have easily got Indians out between 300 and 325. Such disciplined effort by Pakistanis would have eventually resulted in a famous win. Not much is lost. Pakistanis should take the heart from this performance and returned with much closely controlled performance in the field, to make a dramatic comeback in the series. They also need luck in winning the toss as well, since batting second seems to be kind of difficult once the target is around 300.

Pakistanis may need to make a few changes. Since Shoaib Malik can not bowl, he may have to leave; if he was allowed to bowl, he would have played and Mohammad Hafeez dropped. Now Pakistan has to play Mohammad Hafeez, since he can bowl. Pakistanis have been troubled by the leg spin bowling of Tendulkar and Youvraj Singh. If there is a left handed batsman playing and have the art of rotating the strike, it can create some problems for the Indians. Salman Butt must remember he needs to play long enough to play off the spinners as well and not go for pinch hitting after getting settled down. Also Pakistan has an excellent left hander in Asim Kamal; they may as well play him for his first one-day international at Jamshedpur instead of unlucky Shoaib Malik. The second change is to bring in Danish Kaneria, as that brings specialized bowling option to the overall strategy.

As such, the probable Pakistani team for the next one-day International is: 1) Salman Butt – 2) Shahid Afridi – 3) Abdul Razzaq – 4) Inzimam-ul-Haq – 5) Yousuf Youhana – 6) Asim Kamal – 7) Mohammad Hafeez – 8) Kamran Akmal – 9) Rana Naved-ul-Hsan – 10) Mohammad Sami – 11) Danish Kaneria – 12) Shoaib Malik.

Pakistan must be happy to see Indians loosing Balaji due to injury. Pakistanis started this trip to India as favorite for one-days and not suited for test matches. The results up-till now have been quite opposite. Let’s see if Pakistanis can avoid a total one sided result in Indian favor. They have all the talents and available resources to accomplish better outcomes. Eyes are specifically on Shahid Afridi.