History in numbers

Until recently, history in these matches tilted towards Pakistan. India, to start with, had only two series victories to Pakistan's four. Javed Mianded still tops the batting charts. Kapil Dev, though he leads Imran Khan by five in the wickets tally, played six more Tests and averages six more runs per wicket. In many ways, the encounter - the really tough fight - rarely ever happened. Purely in terms of victory and defeat, the closest margins of victory have been by 12, 16 and 46 runs. And Pakistan won all three.

Then things took an interesting turn. A more aggressive India visited Pakistan and won for the first time in 12 presidential terms. Walls had crumbled by then, an empire had fallen; 12 terms is a long time in politics, as well as cricket. That brings us to this series, where Pakistan's pace attack, a feature of India's nightmares in past years, is scant but eager, and India's batting is on the upswing after a bare season, except for a spurt of runs against Bangladesh.

Figures since India's tour of Pakistan in 2003-04

Player	Matches	Wkts	Avge	S/R	5/10w
Shoaib Akhtar	4	19	26.78	38.30	5/0
Mohammad Sami	3	9	44.66	67.6	0/0
Danish Kaneria	5	30	30.66	57.3	3/1
Abdul Razzaq	4	8	46.87	90.5	1/0
Shoaib Malik	3	1	126	216	0/0
Naved-ul-Hasan	2	6	45	70.8	0/0

Player	Matches	Runs	Avge	Avge - Bang series	50/100
Virender Sehwag	8	584	48.66	51.73	2/2
Gautam Gambhir	5	307	43.85	26.60	1/1
Yuvraj Singh	2	47	15.66	N/A	0/0
Rahul Dravid	8	508	50.80	43.50	3/1
Sachin Tendulkar	6	409	58.42	20.83	1/1
Sourav Ganguly	6	315	45.00	31.20	3/0
VVS Laxman	8	211	19.18	18.88	1/0
Mohammad Kaif	3	153	30.60	N/A	2/0

Only one name from the present stands among the 20 best in these encounters. The ten most prolific batsmen still read like a list of recollections, but among the bowlers is Anil Kumble, whose ten wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla in 1999 accelerated his rise to the league of prolific wicket-takers. This absence of modern names is due to the low frequency of series. Since Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly made their debut in 1996, they have played Pakistan only twice. Over a similar period, from 1978 to 1987, the teams met in six series.

Who rises above themselves in these games packed with hopes and tensions? Who falls? Chandu Borde's average rose by more than double. Zaheer Abbas's rise signalled the end of India's spin quartet, for his plunder reached its apogee in 1978-79, when he accumulated 583 runs at 194.33. His average jumped from 44.8 to 87. Sachin Tendulkar's average, on the other hand, falls by 17.44 in India-Pakistan contests.

Both teams have their own favourite mode of dismissing the opponents. India's has been to let the fast bowlers do a bit and throw the spinners at 'em, while Pakistan, gifted with as many legendary pacemen as India has spinners, chose to use spinners in between. For India, using spinners to the hilt was a good idea: compared to the first innings, they gave away 17 runs fewer for every wicket in the second innings. Pakistan, on the other hand, have tended to press on with fast bowlers regardless of the innings.

Indian pacemen compared to Indian spinners

	Pace/spin (P/S) overs bowled	P/S wkts	P/S avg	P/S strike rate
1st innings	2709/3586	232/197	34.98/43.05	70.06/109.22
2nd innings	832/1418	73/113	35.26/27.22	68.38/75.29

Pakistani pacemen compared to Pakistani spinners

	Pace/spin (P/S) overs bowled	P/S wkts	P/S avg	P/S strike rate
1st innings	3787/1910	328/120	30.70/42.68	69.27/95.50
2nd innings	1493/1042	117/69	34.63/36.96	76.56/90.61

So it is unsurprising then that Pakistan's fast bowlers have dismissed top orders and tailenders more frequently than their spinners. But India's main weapon, the ubiquitous spinner, has been less successful dismissing Pakistan's top order than the fast men.

Wickets claimed by team's pace and spin bowlers

	India pace/spin	Pakistan pace/spin
Top order (1-6)	211/191	287/115
Lower order (7-11)	94/119	158/74