India - 5, Pakistan - 0

India made to the finals of the World Cup 2011 with a resounding victory over their arch-rivals Pakistan. The splendid victory gives India a chance to become the first host nation to win the World Cup when the Men in Blue take on SL at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on this Saturday. The win is also indicative of the complete dominance that India has enjoyed over Pakistan in all the World Cup matches and and hence the title of this article.

Toss: India won the toss and rightfully decided to bat first. In a pressure game like a WC semi-final, batting first and letting the opposition chase the runs is always the better of the two options and Dhoni did precisely that. However, Dhoni also announced that Ashwin was dropped and replaced by Ashish Nehra, something that nobody (including the likes of Sidhu and Ian Chappell in the studio and me) could understand. On the other hand, it was not completely shocking considering the fact that the pitch at PCA stadium Mohali has always favored fast bowlers. The only point was if it was worth playing Nehra at the cost of Ashwin. Pakistan, on the other hand, went unchanged which meant that there was no game for Akhtar.

Indian innings:

Nothing calms you more than to see Sachin and Sehwag go and open the innings for you. These two are phenomenal batsmen and the duo has demolished the best bowling attacks in the world. Gul had made his intentions clear of targetting the Indian top order, but instead it was him who was in the firing line. Sehwag unleashed a barrage of strokes in the third over as Gul was hit for 5 boundaries and 21 came off that over. Sehwag hit a few more before he became Wahab Riaz's first victim in the sixth over (48/1 in 6th over). However, Sehwag played quite a useful cameo of 38 and it gave India the early momentum. Gambhir joined Sachin but the fall of Sehwag did put a brake on the scoring rate. However, none of the pacers that Afridi employed looked to take a wicket and he had to turn to his spinners as early as 9th over. Saeed Ajmal was the one to start the spin and immediately made some sort of impact in his second over. Sachin was adjudged LBW by the umpire Ian Gould, but survived courtesy of the UDRS. Off the very next ball, he survived a close stumping call and that was perhaps the beginning of an innings that not many people will associate with Sachin. There was more spin on offer as Afridi got himself in, then brought Hafeez and the three of them (including Ajmal) slowed down the scoring considerably. Gambhir played quite well (he is easily one of the best players of spin in the world at the moment) while Sachin continued to benefit from dropped chances. Things were pretty fine for India until a moment of adrenaline rush caused Gambhir to charge down the track to Hafeez only to be stumped (116/2 in 19th over). That brought Virat Kohli to the crease and he looked quite normal at the crease but India's scoring rate continued to dip. It was not really an alarm at that stage because the plan must have been to consolidate in the middle overs and then attack at the end. What caused alarm to me was the fact that the ball was turning quite a bit and India had opted for 3 seamers. Anyways, Afridi gave the older ball to Wahab Riaz in an attempt to see if he could get some reverse swing, and boy, he found it quite appreciably. He got rid of Kohli and the man-in-form Yuvraj Singh of successive deliveries, and from a position of strength, India suddenly were looking quite uncomfortable as the score read 141/4. Dhoni came in and negated the hatrick, but what followed thereafter was a very slow recovery from India. The boundaries completely dried up while bowlers like Hafeez were very hard to score off (he ended with figures of 10-0-34-1, quite an achievement for an allrounder, if he one). There were few comic moments in between though, as Sachin was dropped repeatedly. Sachin eventually fell to Ajmal, the man who started it all, and was caught by Afridi (it was off Afridi's bowling that Sachin was dropped thrice, the score 187-5 at the end of 37 overs). Entered Suresh Raina, and boy, has not he made an impact in the limited opportunities that he has got. Raina and Dhoni batted quite slowly, and it was not very pleasing to see the always dipping scoring rate, but at least, there was no collapse. Dhoni got out to Wahab Riaz in 42nd over (205/6) which meant that Raina had to grind out with the tail to take India somewhere close to 250. Raina did that very well in the company of the tail, and for a change the batting PP was quite fruitful for India as 43 runs came off it for the loss of only Harbhajan's wicket. Umar Gul could not fulfill his desires of ripping through the Indian top order, instead he got repeatedly hammered even by the lower Indian order and ended up with rather ugly figures of 8-0-69-0. India did well to reach 260, considering the fact that it looked that India may not even bat their entire quota of overs (because of the collapses that India is so strongly associated with in this World Cup). But crossing 250 and being able to bat out the entire innings did give some psychological boost to the team. However, the general sentiment was that India had frittered away the early advantage of a rapid start and ended atleast 20-30 runs short. For Pakistan, Wahab Riaz was the pick of bowlers with a 5 wicket haul and that is no mean achievement by any measures. The spinners did well too but Afridi could not get a wicket today and ended his WC campaign with 21 wickets which is quite impressive.

Pakistan innings:

Zaheer Khan opened the bowling for India while for Pakistan it was the duo of Kamran Akmal and Mohd Hafeez who came to open. Pakistan started their chase in an emphatic manner as Kamran Akmal sent the first ball of the innings to the boundary and followed it with another one of the last ball of the same over. Nehra was the one who shared the new ball with Zaheer and bowled a decent line and length. However, there was no swing on offer and runs came at a decent pace initially with both the openers looking comfortable. Zaheer was replaced by Munaf in the fifth over and the plan looked to give Zaheer a bit of breather and then bring him on from the other end. Nehra and Munaf bowled a couple of steady overs before Zaheer actually returned from the same end in the 9th over and got the vital wicket of Kamran Akmal (44/1 in 9 overs). In came the little known Asad Shafiq to give company to Hafeez. Dhoni also introduced Harbhajan quite early in the 11th over and obviously he was looking for wickets. Bhajji did not get one but Munaf did get one when Hafeez (who had played quite well until then) tried to play a dilscoop only to get a faint edge to Dhoni (70/2 in 16th over). It was at this point that India made a comeback as they brought down the run rate and had picked a couple of pickets as well. Younis Khan joined Asad but the none of them really got going. Dhoni also brought Yuvi in the attack to see if he could get some turn and cause problems for Pakistan. He started by bowling a bit short but soon switched to a fuller length and the turn was there to see. Yuvi finally got one in his 3rd over when he had Asad bowled off an arm ball that came straight into the right hander and had the middle stump uprooted. That brought Misbah-ul-Haq to the crease and together with Younis Khan, it was the most experienced pair in the Pakistani batting line up. However, Younis had a rather indifferent WC and his misery finally ended when he was caught by Raina in the covers off Yuvraj (106/4 in 26 overs). He made a very modest 13 off 32 balls and never looked comfortable. The dismissal of Younis brought the junior Akmal to the crease and with his arrival began the tiny little period when Pakistan looked really serious about the run chase. Akmal collects his runs very quickly and his never shy of playing the big shots. This was evident when he started to hit Yuvi (something that not many have tried in this tournament) and a couple of sixes came in successive overs. It was probably the only time when Pakistan posed a real challenge with a combination of youth and experience at the crease. However, Bhajji had the better of Akmal when he had Akmal bowled off a quicker one (142/5 in 34 overs) and that was a huge blow. Akmal was the one who was playing all the shorts while Misbah was even struggling to rotate the strike. Afridi gave Razaaq a promotion in the batting order as he joined Misbah. However, his stay was again short lived as he was bowled by a beautiful leg-cutter from Munaf Patel (reminiscent of the way Prasad used to trouble right handers) and Pakistan slumped further (150/6 in37 overs). Afridi finally made way to the crease, and while this may suggest the might of a batting line up when you have someone like Afridi coming as low as #8, it actually is quite the opposite. People like Razzaq and Afridi have ceased to be the batsmen that they once were, and hence they essentially come to bat at positions that are reserved for bowlers. Afridi looked to set a few things right with his batting today (Rameez Raja was surely impressed when he said that Afridi looks very good when he had made 17 off just 14 balls :) ). However, Afridi was bogged down by the pressure as the required run rate kept climbing and Misbah kept batting in a rather bizarre manner. He was eventually out for 19 caught by Sehwag off Bhajji in an attempt to score some very quick runs. After that it was only a question of finishing it off, though in a game as vital as this, Dhoni just could not take anything for granted. It was only after Afridi had departed that Misbah came to senses and started to hit a few boundaries. However, it was too late by then and Pakistan eventually folded for 231 in the last over. Misbah in the company of the last three batsmen added 47 runs and also got to his individual half century but it was way too late. The last few overs saw some excellent display of death bowling by Nehra and Munaf though Zaheer was a bit rusty. India eventually won by 29 runs and this win complements the quartet of the earlier WC wins- Sydney(1992), Bangalore(1996), Old Trafford(1999) and Centurion(2003).

This win was set up by the Indian bowlers who bowled their hearts out and made sure that this victory was achieved quite comfortably. All the 5 bowlers who were employed by Dhoni took 2 wickets each and it would be hard to say whose 2 were the most important in the context of the game. However, the Indian bowling unit clicked in unison and answered all the critics who had labelled India as the team with the weakest bowling attack. Two successive impressive bowling performances (restricting Aussies to 260 and successfully defending 260 against Pakistan) tell an altogether different story.

Inspite of all the media hype, the match was played in a very cordial manner and there was not even a single on field incident that could be termed ugly. Pakistan did well to reach the semis considering that they do not play any cricket at home, their team is always mired with controversies but even as a neutral observer, I would say that they were no match for India. They did match India in the bowling department (or even have better bowling resources) but they come noway near to India in batting. They have no specialist openers (Hafeez, I heard throws his wicket after a lovely 30-40 while Akmal is a different case), no specialist middle order batsmen (Younis was not just in form while Misbah was painfully slow, Umar Akmal starts very positively but rarely converts his starts to big ones), no real finishers (Afridi's batting woes do not seem to end and Razaq is more like the Indian equivalent of Ravinder Jadeja). Their fielding is horrible too and that only allowed India to post 260. They also need to find a proper wicket-keeper and a specialist opener rather than persist with someone like Kamran Akmal who is a compromise solution but still a very bad keeper. But still congratulations to the Pakistan team for the way they performed and best wishes to Shoaib Akhtar for his future.

India take on SL in the final on Saturday and this does not get any bigger (or more bore ?) than this. The two teams have faced each other on so many occasions in the past couple of years. Revenge is the first thing that comes to my mind (of the 1996 semi-final). Hope to see Dhoni with the trophy on the coming Saturday.

Good luck to the Men in Blue

Vande Matram !!!

Jai Hind !!!

Score card (courtery: Cricinfo)

India march in the semis

India stormed into the semis of the WC 2011 with a comprehensive win over the once invincible Aussies. This win sets up one of the most eagerly awaited contests in the fascinating game of cricket when India and Pakistan take each other at PCA Stadium, Mohali on the 30th of March. The win also marked the formal end of the era of invincibility that started way back in the summer of 1999 by an Australian team lead by Steve Waugh. But before I write more about the outcomes of this match, let me write about the match itself.

Australian innings

MS Dhoni lost the toss and it was not the best way to begin a high pressure game. Ricky Ponting chose to bat and die hard fans like me immediately went into the prayer mode wishing that it does not turn out to be an encore of the WC final at Kingsmead exactly 8 years ago (the date was 23rd March, 2003) . India opened bowling with Zaheer Khan and Ashwin. Opening with Ashwin was a brave but intelligent move because the 2nd placer who plays for India (be it Nehra/Sreesanth/Munaf) does not really exude confidence. On the other hand, Ashwin is someone who looks like a gutsy spinner willing to take on the challenge. Watson and Haddin started in a reasonably quiet manner though boundaries started to come by gradually. Then, in a moment of madness when Watson could not connect a pre-mediated sweep and lost his offstump in the process saw India take the first breakthrough. In walked Ricky Ponting, a man who has been at the centre of controversy for quite some time now. He started quite cautiously with his nemesis Bhajji bowling at one end. After seeing off Bhajji for his short spell, Ponting began to grow in confidence while Haddin was in usual single-double-occasional four mode. The two were also helped by the introduction of India's weak link in bowling- Mr Munaf Patel. Yuvi was introduced into the attack in the 16th over but did not make an immediate impression. But in this WC, Yuvi is the person who cannot be kept out of limelight for long. Yuvi got rid of Haddin (who made a nice 50 but again failed to convert it into a bigger score), thanks to a nice diving catch by Raina in the covers. In came Michael Clarke who had a mini struggle before Yuvi ended his misery as well. Subsequently, the scoring rate dipped while Dhoni attacked in all possible manners (which included giving an over to Sachin, then one to Virat Kohli) to get more wickets. Dhoni's go-to man did get him the big fish- Mike Hussey but Ponting continued to bat with supreme ease at the other end. White gave company to Ponting for a while but really struggled to time the ball before he eventually fell for 12. That brought the junior of the Hussey brothers- David Hussey to the crease. David Hussey seemed to the the person Ponting was looking for all the while. The duo was able to play some shots and accelerate at the end (with 44 runs coming off the batting PP), something that Ponting could never do before as wickets kept falling at the other end. Ponting made a classy century before he got out for 104 but in the illustrious company of David Hussey propelled Aussies to total in excess of 250.

The story of Aussies innings was all about one man- Ricky Ponting. He did not find much company though and if it was not from the support of Haddin in the earlier part of his innings and David Hussey in the latter half of the innings, the Aussies could have well have ended with something below 250. Indian bowlers (the same people who have been completely written off by our fabulous media) deserve credit for the way they kept things under control. The Aussie batsmen were made to work really hard for each and every run and the fielding was quite good (bolstered by the inclusion of Suresh Raina). All the frontline bowlers with the exception of Munna were good though Bhajji did not manage to get any wicket. However, the pick was again Yuvi who finished with figures of 10-0-44-2. Pretty decent by the standards of a pie-chucker :).

Indian innings

When Sehwag and Sachin walked into face Lee et al I could actually feel my heart pounding. I was wondering how hard it must be for the players who carry the expectations of a billion people. Anyways, Sehwag survived a referral in the very first over bowled by Lee and never looked very comfortable. Sachin on the other hand looked quite calm as he hit Tait for 2 fours in his opening over. India got off to a decent start as they raced to 44/0 before Sehwag tried to pull Watson only to offer a simple catch to Hussey at square leg. That brought Gambhir to the crease and this man really has nerves of steel. I would not say that he is the best player but I have never seen him give up easily. Ponting started to rotate his bowlers as Johnson was brought into the attack while first Watson and then Lee were bowling from the other end. However, as I said earlier, Sachin was all calm as he was hardly troubled by any of the Aussies bowlers. Sachin batted quite solidly for his fifty and in the process also made his 18000th run. However he was done in by an outswinger from Tait and when he departed, the score read 94/2. In came Kohli sa'ab and he took a while to get going. By this time, Ponting also introduced his spinners (Krejza was supposedly the strike bowler while David Hussey and Clarke were supposed to provide him support) but they never looked penetrative. Kohli and Gambhir started to milk the spinners before Kohli sa'ab hit a full toss from Hussey straight to Clarke at short mid-wicket (143/3). Yuvi walked in and got off the mark of the first ball when he dispatched a friendly full toss from Hussey to the long-on boundary. I would say that this was the time when Ponitng missed a trick. He allowed the likes of Clarke, Krejza and Hussey to bowl to Yuvi and this allowed him to get his eye in. In my opinion, he could have attacked a bit more with one of his frontline pacers when Yuvi was new to the crease. Perhaps, he wanted to exploit Yuvi's inability to start well against the spinners but it completely backfired. Gambhir's weird running ultimately lead to his run out (nobody knows what was going through his mind when he wanted to run for practically everything but nevertheless his fifty was so important to the team's cause) with India needing 93 off the last 17 overs. Dhoni came to the crease but his stay did not last long as he was snapped by Clarke at point leaving India in a real spot of bother (74 needed off 75 with 5 wickets in hand). However, the inclusion of Raina for this match meant that India had a technically more competent batsman than the previous matches, in principle atleast. Yuvi and Raina looked under a bit of pressure initially with Ponting going back to his pacers and making life difficult for Raina, in particular. It was advantage Australia at that point. However, Lee was hit for 3 fours in the 40th over and then 13 came off the next over from Tait and this brought the momentum back to India's run chase. These two big overs also made sure that the required rate won't be a problem anymore as India needed only 41 off the last 9 overs. Ponting obviously was quite disappointed by the show from his pacers and turned to Krejza and Watson. The duo of Raina and Yuvi played a couple of silent overs from Krejza while Watson was hit for 14 in his 2 overs in a very good exhibition of risk free cricket. At the end of 45h over, India needed only 22 when the PP was enforced by default. Raina welcomed Brett lee by hitting his first delivery for a huge six of long on and then collected a single. 7 came of that over but India did not lose any wicket (which they donate so generously during batting power play). The subsequent over from Johnson yielded 11 runs which meant that India needed only 4 runs from 3 overs. The winning runs came when Yuvi hit Lee for 4 through the covers. And that was it- the end of a reign and the beginning of a new chapter in the history of World Cup as Aussies were dethroned.

For India, the win was a result of complete teamwork as all the bowlers chipped in while fifties from Sachin, Gambhir, Yuvi and a nice little cameo from Raina set up this pulsating win. One moment that really caught my attention in this match was the responsibility that Raina and Yuvi showed at the end. With only 22 needed of 5 overs, and batting PP in operation, they could have tried to get all the 22 in only over. But they did not. Love you guys !! Well done.

Ponting was graceful in the speech that he made after the loss and despite of all the hatred that he has earned over the years, it was a bit sad when I realized that this man may not captain Aussies again. He could have even been axed but for the century that he made today. Ponting was also critical of his bowlers and he is quite right. Tait is easily Mr Wayward while Johnson is Mr Moody. Lee was very good in the entire World Cup but you could not expect to win matches continuously with only one world class bowler (Now do not ask me, how India does that :) ). Even the likes of Kenya and Canada managed to post decent totals against Aussies but I do not think they even realized their bowling deficiencies, forget addressing them. This world cup could be the last for Brett Lee and I will miss him for sure. For the rest, I do not even know who is going to play in the next series or is CA going to make wholesome changes.

The win also sets up a mouth watering semi-final between Indian and Pakistan for a place in the finals at a venue which is so close to my heart. Before the competition began, I figured a trend in India's performances at the WC. They do well in every alternate edition of the WC. In 1996, it was semis, in 2003, it was finals and now is the time to get the trophy. Go India go.

Jai Hind !!!

Scorecard available here (Courtersy: Cricinfo)

Kevin O' Brien- you beauty !!!

Ireland produced the biggest upset so far in this World Cup and as someone who has adopted Ireland as his second home country, I am delighted. Before the match went underway, there were a lot of jokes doing the rounds in case the highly improbable happens i.e. Ireland beat England. Some of them included declaring a national holiday in Ireland, Queen willing to marry Gadaffi and so on. Things looked pretty much on course for England during the first three quarters of the match but when the tsunami came in the form of Keven O'Brien (KOB), the English were completely washed away.

England innings:

England won the toss and opted to bat. Strauss and Peitersen started with a flourish until Strauss tried to be a little too cheeky and ended up losing his off stump with the score reading 91/1. Trott walked in to give company to Peitersen who looked well on course to get a three digit score, something that has eluded him for quite some time now. However, he fell in the same manner as Strauss, trying a reverse sweep when all he needed to do was to keep batting in the manner he had done until then. He did make a well composed 59 and looked in pretty good form, though. Trott and Bell then produced the kind of middle overs batting that is so central to the foundation of posting a huge total. In the process Trott also became the fastest batsman to reach 1000 ODI runs (or is it some other record ? I don't care, anyways :) ). Bell continued his fine run of form and the two rotated strike quite effectively in addition to frequent boundaries. At some stage, English looked all set for a total in excess of 350 (just like India against England) but that never happened. This time, it was not the batting PP though that derailed their batting cart. The fall of well set batsman (first Bell and then Trott) and the inability of the lower order (Collingwood and Prior- both of them have a pretty ordinary tournament so far) to come to the party eventually cost them at least 25 runs. However, the Irish also bowled a disciplined line and length and never gave any freebies. They were able to restrict them to 327 which looked a bit too much for Ireland at point of time.

Ireland innings:

Ireland started on a disastrous note losing their captain Porterfield on the very first ball of their innings as he drove loosely to Anderson and in the process dragged the ball on to his stumps. That brought Ed Joyce to the crease (funny as it may seem but this guy was playing for England in the last WC in Carribean). However, the tiny little innings that Paul Stirling played was definitely worth a watch. This guy is only 20 but he was hitting the likes of Broad and Anderson as if they were some nets bowlers. Stirling eventually got out when he top edged a pull which was safely pouched by Pietersen but nevertheless made a strong statement. That brought the first of the O'Brien brothers, Neil who played another little but attractive knock of 29 before he was castled by Swann. Ed Joyce seemed unperturbed and looked quite solid at the other end before he charged down the pitch to Swann, only to be stumped. That brought THE MAN to the pitch. KOB started in quite a lazy manner as he aimed an off drive to Swann, only for the ball to take an outside edge and run down the third man boundary. Things only became worse for Ireland when they lost Wilson to Swann with the score reading 111/5 in the 25th over.

With more than 200 runs to get, and with half of the batsmen back in the pavilion, even the most optimistic Irish fan would not have entertained the thoughts of a highly unlikely win. But KOB had other plans. Even as the wickets were falling at the other end, KOB went for his shots. First Yardy was hit for 2 fours in an over and then Swann was hit for 2 sixes (something that Sachin did the other day) in the next over. Subsequently Broad was hammered, courtesy of some brutal hitting and sloppy glove work by Prior. KOB also seemed to find an able ally in Alex Cusack who was willing to hold one end up but did not deter from punishing the loose deliveries either.

Ireland opted for the batting PP at the beginning of the 32nd over and this was the time when KOB just went berserk. 6 fours and 3 sixes came from the bat during this period (all from KOB's) and none of the bowlers was spared. 62 runs came in this PP and this definitely put the exciting run chase back on the track. At the end of PP, Ireland needed 99 from 14 overs. But it was pretty evident that if KOB is going to stay on for a while, the match could well finish before those 14 overs. As KOB was putting the English attack to the sword, records started to tumble and a lot came under threat. The first major one though was the fastest century in a WC game which was held by Matthew Hayden before this match. At the end of the 40th over, KOB looked all set to make this record his own as he was batting on 97 which had come off only 47 deliveries. KOB eventually got to that landmark in a mere 50 deliveries and I am sure that his moment of glory will be etched in the minds of cricket fans forever.

Ireland needed only 56 off the last 9 overs and it was only a question of holding their nerve then. There was a little moment of confusion when Cusack got run out (with 54 still needed) but he played second fiddle to KOB to perfection. He stemmed the fall of wickets, made an invaluable 47 (at a pretty decent strike rate) and so selflessly sacrificed his wicket to let KOB continue. Hats off to you, man! The departure of Cusack did change things though. Mooney was the new man in, and he initially struggled to rotate the strike. It also meant that KOB could be frustrated by the lack of the strike and may try something extravagant when he does get that eventually. However, the rub of the green went the Irish way as Mooney started to find boundaries (does not really matter if they initially came of outside edges). Ireland reached 300 in 46 overs and with only 27 needed off 4 overs, I declared that Ireland cannot lose from here (even though Connor silently prayed that I am not jinxing Ireland). Ireland needed only 12 off the last two overs and the unfortunate run out of KOB may have raised some hopes for the English, but with the experienced Johsnton (who hit the first ball he faced for four to release the pressure, if any) and the now calm-as-cucumber Mooney at the crease, Ireland won with 3 wickets and 5 balls to spare.

Needless to say, it was a fascinating game of cricket but I believe that it brings more joy and hope to a nation which has gone through a bit of turmoil off late (especially with the banks collapsing and the IMF coming in). While KOB's innings was a masterpiece, I would also like to draw parallels to something that not many would remember. It was exactly the same day (as per the Hindu calender- the Maha Shivratri) eight years ago at Centurion in 2003 (March 1,2003, to be precise) when Sachin Tendulkar demolished the Pakistani pace battery with a masterclass 97 off just 75 balls.

I am sure that KOB's knock will be in record books for a long time to come. And I will always feel privileged to tell the future generations that I witnessed a part of this knock while I was in Lab 1.27 in Lee Maltings, Cork, Ireland. :)

Good luck to the Irish team, but beware you are bumping into India next !!!