Calm under pressure (Younis Khan)

Last night in the heat of the battle between Hafees and Steyn, Younis was at the other end watching and when he got the opportunity to bat, he got beaten repeatedly outside the off stump. Credit entirely to him, that he did not allow these balls to play on his mind and played a calm innings of 73

Partnership building has been his forte right from the debut Test. In that match he shared a partnership of 145 runs with Wasim Akram for the 9th wicket. Those partnership sharing characteristics were to fore today as he shared partnerships of 58,56,40,49 with Hafees, Asad, Afridi and Razzaq respectively. He himself underlined the value of the partnerships when he said "There were partnerships in the game and when you are chasing a big total, 3-4 partnerships always help"

What was commendable in this innings of his was the self-control. He did not hit his first boundary till he reached the score of 55. He concentrated on supplying the strike to the big hitters and wanted to play around them as his aim was to stick around till the end. "My initial aim was to play as many overs as possible. We would have had won the last game had one of the batsmen stuck around" and he did exactly that till a lapse in concentration made him to chase a wide and a fuller ball outside the off stump. He inside edged it and left with Pakistan still needing 55 runs

The most heartening aspect of the innings was the way he took the lead and allowed the natural stroke-makers in Hafees and Afridi to thrive. They both went after Steyn and negated his effect on the match. In the partnership with Razzaq he took the lead in scoring the runs thus allowing Razzaq to settle down into a rhythm. "I needed to provide support to Razzaq, so that he can have a go at the bowlers. The way we are playing right now, we look like an experienced team" he said about the partnership with Razzaq and about the youngsters in the team

There is a lot of positive buzz around Younis right from the time he arrives at the crease. Though he remains susceptible to the ball coming in as he tends to fall over early in his innings. Once set the bat exploits the off side like no other batsman can

With the World Cup being just about 100 days away, Pakistan would want this lion-hearted player to continue with this kind of displays

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