Associated Press

Lahore, March 20:

Pakistan cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq wants to keep the winning momentum going and wrap up the five-match one-day series against archrival India.

“It’s an important game for us. We want to wrap it up tomorrow,” Inzamam said on the eve of the fourth day-night limited overs match at the Gaddafi Stadium.

India won the high-scoring series opener in Karachi last Saturday by five runs, before Pakistan won the next two games by 12 runs and four wickets respectively to take a 2-1 lead.

Batsmen from both teams have completely dominated the series in which so far 1,830 runs have been scored in six innings.

Inzamam blames the flat pitches for the abundance of runs and hopes wickets in the remaining two games would give some assistance to the bowlers.

“Wickets should be more positive so that a bowler doesn’t get demoralised,” said Inzamam. “The wickets were very flat and that’s why bowlers didn’t get the edge,” he added.

Inzamam lost a major chunk of his match fee from the first two games due to the slow over rate of his bowlers. They ensured their skipper escaped suspension for a third offense when they completed their 50 overs in the allotted time at Pehsawar on Friday.

If the Pakistan team fails to complete its quota of overs in its allotted again within 12 months, Inzamam faces a minimum eight match ban.

“Yes it’s (slow over rate) a big pressure on me while I lead the side in the field, but we are trying our best to complete our quota of 50 overs in the required 3 1/2 hours,” Inzamam said.

The Indian team includes New Delhi medium fast bowler Amit Bhandari after left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra was ruled out from the series in the second game when he split his webbing of the bowling hand. Bhandari joined his teammates on Friday night.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly believes the pressure is still on both teams despite Pakistan’s 2-1 advantage in the series.

“We lost two matches, but they were close games,” Ganguly told reporters at a practice session at the Gaddafi Stadium. “Every match is crucial and I think the pressure is on both teams.” Prior to the loss of Nehra, India’s top three bowlers — medium fast Ajit Agarkar, and spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh — failed to tour due to injury.

“We are lacking in bowling. Any team will suffer who is without four top bowlers, but that’s not excuse,” Ganguly said.