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)