Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-xTN9rKEqM&feature=related
Thursday 31 March 2011
India vs Pakistan - ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - Semi Final [India Won by 29 Runs] - Presentation
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7QloJkJjU
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India Pak up the semis. Mumbai here we come.
Mohali: The Indo-Pak semi-final, billed as the match of the century, lived every inch up to its expectations as momentum swayed to and fro but in the end, it was India who held their nerves to put it across Pakistan by 29 runs to book a date in the final with Sri Lanka in Mumbai on Saturday.
With this win, India also kept their unbeaten World Cup record against Pakistan.
But it must be admitted that the Indian score of 260/9 was a good 20-30 runs short of a par score on the high-scoring Mohali track but the Indian bowlers Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Yuvraj Singh - all of whom took two wickets each - put up a disciplined performance to keep Pakistan 29 runs short of their target.
Earlier, Pakistan openers Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez looked in no trouble whatsoever as MS Dhoni chose to open the bowling with Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, who surprisingly replaced R Ashwin in the playing XI.
The Pakistani duo reached 44 runs in the ninth over and looked in no trouble whatsoever. But just when the two openers relaxed, Zaheer skittled out the dangerous Kamran (19), who was caught at point by Yuvraj.
Hafeez and Shafiq then buckled down in an attempt to play out a spell of tight overs by Indian bowlers, where Munaf, after bowling a maiden over, came back in the next over to remove a set Hafeez (43 off 59 balls) who played a loose shot off a wide delivery. The ball took an edge and went straight into Dhoni's gloves.
Youngster Shafiq and veteran Younis Khan then took the score past 100 and looked to steady Pakistan innings after Hafeez's wicket.
But Dhoni kept ringing changes and brought India's man-of-the-World-Cup Yuvraj Singh to bowl his left-armers.
Yuvraj began well to keep Pakistanis under control and then struck two decisive blows. First, he castled Shafiq (30) and then in his next over lured Younis (13) into a drive that was nicely caught by a leaping Suresh Raina in the covers.
That brought Umar Akmal on the crease and the youngster's hit-all approach made the pitch look totally different.
He took on India's top wicket-taker Yuvraj and hit him for a couple of sixes during an innings that started taking a match-winning shape.
Dhoni got his boys together on the second drinks break and his Midas touch once again did the trick, twice.
First it was Harbhajan, who struck first ball after the break by ending Umar's threatening stay at the crease after he had made 29 off just 24 balls.
Munaf's perseverance with line and length too paid off as he removed the dangerous Abdul Razaaq (3) for his second wicket of the innings.
All this while, Misbah-ul-Haq was playing the most perplexing innings, eating up deliveries by blocking and blocking, which is sure to invite criticism from all quarters.
Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi then walked in with the hopes of Pakistan resting on his and Misbah's shoulders.
The seasoned duo took the score from 150/6 to 184/4 and for the first time in the World Cup, Afridi looked to be getting his act together.
The Pakistan captain reached 19 off 17 balls but then they say, old habits die hard. The 'Boom Boom' man hit a Harbhajan delivery straight up and the skier was taken comfortably by Sehwag. Afridi, the seventh Pakistani wicket, gone for 184.
Wahab Riaz (8) was in next, and he was also the one to depart next: dismissed by Ashish Nehra as Sachin took the catch.
By now, the writing was on the wall for Pakistan as the required run-rate went past 11, making it look increasingly impossible for the visitors.
Misbah - who perhaps left it too late for Pakistan's comfort - was waging a lone battle, where despite hitting a few lust blows in the batting powerplay (40-45), he had already lost the plot. And in the end, when he holed out at long-on as the final Pakistani wicket to fall, the whole of India leapt in air to rejoice a cherished victory.
In the afternoon, after Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first, Sehwag got India off to a rampant start.
Sehwag hit Umar Gul for five boundaries in the pacer's second over and also brought up his 1000 runs against Pakistan. Meanwhile, India raced to 50 in the fifth over of the innings.
But Afridi's decision to bring on left-armer Riaz into the attack brought immediate result as the quickie took out a dangerous Sehwag after the Indian opener had made a brisk 38 runs of 25 balls.
Sehwag immediately called for a review of Simon Taufel's decision, but it remained unsuccessful.
On the other end, Sachin Tendulkar looked pretty assured and took India to 73/1 in 10 overs, after which two deliveries stopped India's heart.
Tendulkar looked out for all money on an lbw appeal by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal but the master, after consulting Gautam Gambhir, took a review which turned out to be successful.
But off the very next ball, Kamran Akmal's smart glovework seemed to have caught Tendulkar out of his ground but once again the TV umpire gave it not out as Sachin seemed to have got his toe back just in the nick of time.
Thereafter, Sachin and Gambhir buckled down to bring up their 50-run partnership that helped India cross the 100-run mark.
Hafeez was pressed into service by Afridi in the bowling powerplay where the Pakistani spinners pulled back Indian scoring giving away just 26 runs in overs 11-15.
Then after putting a lid on scoring, Hafeez drew Gambhir out of his crease to get him stumped and give Pakistan their second wicket. Gambhir made 27.
Gambhir's wicket was shortly followed by another life for Tendulkar, when Younis dropped an easy chance at short cover off Afridi.
After that, Tendulkar's charmed life reached a 95th ODI fifty as Pakistan looked destined for a punishment from the master.
Riaz then came back for his second spell and immediately got reverse swing to put Indian batsmen on guard.
That actually accounted for Virat Kohli (9) who was caught at backward point after being hurried into a shot by Riaz. In-form Yuvraj Singh came in next with all eyes on him to give Tendulkar company. But Riaz had a heartbreak planned for Indian fans as he castled Yuvraj (0) off the very next ball to jolt the Indian innings.
A scratchy Dhoni then accompanied Tendulkar as the two decided to buckle down to score in ones and twos.
Tendulkar, however, continued to live a charmed life with edges flying off his bat until one, at 85, flew straight to Afridi at short cover and he didn't commit the same mistake his team had been doing throughout the afternoon. Saeed Ajmal had finally got his man.
India now needed a partnership from its last recognised pair of Dhoni and Suresh Raina but it didn't happen as Wahab Riaz had other ideas in his final spell of the innings.
The left-armer returned in the last 10 overs and struck right away to take his fourth and the Indian innings' sixth wicket in the form of Dhoni, who scored an untidy 25 off 42 balls.
Thereafter, it was about how Raina can hold the tail together for a final flourish.
Raina and Harbhajan chose to take the batting powerplay from overs 45 to 49 and began well taking 22 runs off the first two overs but the wily Ajmal drew his counterpart Harbhajan out of his crease to get him stumped after scoring 12.
At seven down, it was now about playing out the 50 overs, which India finally were able to do with a not-out innings of 36 off 39 balls from Raina.
But it wasn't before Riaz completed his five-wicket haul with the wicket of Zaheer (9). Ajmal was the other notable contributor for Pakistan with a spell of 10-0-44-2 while Hafeez picked up one wicket.
Rahul Gandhi enjoys slog overs in general stand
Mohali: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi took the spectators in the general stand by surprise by sitting there during the fag end of the Indian innings in the cricket World Cup semifinal against Pakistan.
Rahul entered the North Pavilion from gate number seven at around 6 pm surrounded by SPG and Punjab police personnel.
The stand also had few Pakistani spectators sitting in it.
The moment Rahul entered the stand it took the spectators by surprise and many of them started clicking his photos by using their mobile cameras.
The scion of Gandhi family also mingled with few spectators and was seen shaking hands with them.
Rahul preferred to remain seated in the general stand during the innings break.
He made it a point to watch Pakistan's run chase for the first seven overs from the same stand.
When Pakistan were 38 for no loss, Rahul left the stand with the crowd waving to him and he responding to them.
MoM: Thank heavens, Sachin missed his 100!
New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar's dismissal for 85 runs against Pakistan in the second semifinal on Wednesday gave me a sense of relief. His good karma had seen him through this innings but it would have been difficult to stand up and applaud a non-trademark Sachin knock had he achieved the record hundredth international hundred with it.
Even though many would say that he was destined to get to his 100 and should not have missed it after getting as many as six reprieves, Wednesday's Tendulkar was not the batsman one had grown up watching.
Twenty years and 218 days from the day he had scored his first hundred against England, each of Tendulkar's hundreds has been a memorable journey. Wednesday's knock, though an important contribution to India's total of 260/9, didn't seem to come from the Tendulkar who even at the age of 37 has seamlessly blended the boldness of his youth with all his experience.
Tendulkar survived an lbw and stumping appeals off consecutive Saeed Ajmal deliveries early in his innings as the umpire decision review system and the third umpire ruled him not out.
Soon after Misbah-ul-Haq put him down at midwicket on 27 and Younus Khan spilled a regulation catch at cover when Tendulkar was on 45. Kamran Akmal then dropped what was a tough chance yet again of the bowling off Shahid Afridi when Tendulkar was on 70. And a final reprieve came from Umar Akmal when he dropped a long hop catch at wide midwicket with the batsman on 82.
And despite all the reprieve, Tendulkar played non-trademark shots edging deliveries and taking a swipe at balls outside the off stump. Clearly he was living a charmed innings, and when he was finally caught by Afridi off the bowling of Ajmal, the relief was evident.
It's not that Tendulkar did not play some fluent shots in his innings, but this was not the innings that deserved to go the full distance and bring him to the milestone of milestones. The hundredth hundred deserves a better knock!
What went wrong with India's batting?
New Delhi: The story of the Indian innings in the semifinal against Pakistan at Mohali on Wednesday was a story in two parts. The first 25 where India scored 141 runs for the loss of two wickets. And the second where they lost seven wickets for the painful aggregation of 119 runs.
The game was being played on numerous fronts - for a place in the final, for Tendulkar's hundredth hundred, and for cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan. The only man who probably didn't think of any of these was Virender Sehwag as he despatched Umar Gul with disdain to the fence five times in the third over to set the tone for the first part.
Even though he was trapped lbw by Wahab Riaz for 38, India were already nearing the 10-runs-per-over mark by the sixth over. His departure slowed things down as even Sachin Tendulkar despite playing some handsome looking shots, didn't look like the players he's looked through in the tournament so far. He played and missed and even edged quite a few, while Gautam Gambhir at the other end hardly looked comfortable. He stepped out to the spinner only to defend and then stepped one too many to be stumped with ease.
If Pakistan had done well in pulling back the Indians by the end of the 25th over, they managed to get on top at the very start of the second part of the Indian innings.
On the second ball of the 26th over, Riaz sent back Virat Kohli who played a strange looking shot, jabbing at a delivery that was swinging away and one wondered whether the batsmen had any clue why he even played that shot. With the very next ball, Riaz drove a nail into the Indian innings as he clean bowled Yuvraj Singh with a peach of a delivery that just didn't land on the pitch and just clashed into the stumps.
While wickets fell at one end, Sachin Tendulkar survived as many as four dropped chances and two close calls as the Pakistan bowlers went from strength to strength, bowling a tight line and giving away just one or two runs away in an over.
It was surprising to see that neither Tendulkar nor MS Dhoni were either able to find the gaps or clear the infield. When Tendulkar was finally dismissed for 85, India were 187/5 after 37 overs and there was still hope that despite the pitch assisting the slower bowlers, another 100 runs was in the taking. But it was not to be and with Dhoni's dismissal, Raina was left to battle out the remaining overs with the tail who didn't manage to wag either.
At the end 260/9 is what India managed on a pitch that experts had claimed was good enough to get 300 on. But with the play the pitch played, it seems everyone read the pitch wrong, especially the Indian batsmen. And while it will always be difficult to chase in a crunch game, for Pakistan, at the end of the Indian innings, it looked like a good toss to lose.
Sachin, Team India build on dropped catches
New Delhi: India upstaged archrival Pakistan by 29 runs in the so-called "mother of all World Cup matches" to progress to the final against Sri Lanka, giving Sachin Tendulkar another chance to reach his 100th hundred after his charmed innings fell just short on Wednesday.
Sachin Tendulkar enjoyed an incredible run of luck as he got six lives during the cricket World Cup semifinal against Pakistan.
After being dropped four times, getting a referral in his favour and surviving a stumping chance, Tendulkar finally walked back to the pavilion after scoring 85 runs when he was caught by Shahid Afridi off Saeed Ajmal.
The great escape story started in the 11th over when Tendulkar was ruled out leg before by on-field umpire Ian Gould off Ajmal on the fourth ball of the over but the decision was overturned following a review.
The review showed that the ball was somehow missing the leg stump. On the very next delivery he survived a close stumping chance and Ajmal was left frustrated.
Then Misbah-ul Haq dropped the little master on the bowling of skipper Shahid Afridi. He was on 27 then and Afridi was left red-faced when Younis Khan spilled a chance at mid-off on the third ball of the 20th over. Sachin was then on 45.
Another frustrating moment came for Afridi on the third ball of the 30th over as stumper Kamram Akmal dropped Tendulkar. It was a tough chance behind the wicket.
Then it was was turn of Kamran's brother Umar to drop Tendulkar as he failed to latch on to a pull at wide midwicket. He was on 81 then. Tendulkar finally ran out of luck when Afridi caught an uppish drive at extra cover, Ajmal being the bowler who finally got the wicket he probably deserved much earlier.
Indian fans celebrate, Pak fans heartbroken
Mohali: Indian fans broke into wild celebration even as the the Pakistanis were left heartbroken after their team lost the high-voltage semi-final of the World Cup to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men here on Wednesday night.
Watched by the Prime Ministers of both countries and accompanied by top dignitaries, the semi-final had generated a lot of hype, and when India took the last Pakistani wicket, the capacity crowd at the PCA stadium erupted.
"India deserved to win. This fact had been admitted by Afridi, who had yesterday said that India were the favourites," said Anuj Gupta, an ardent fan.
History repeated itself as India maintained their record of remaining unbeaten against Pakistan in World Cup.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was watching the final moments of the match with her son and party general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, looked delighted on India's win and so did the Nehru-Gandhi scion, attired in a white kurta pyjama.
The win also brought smiles on the faces of Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who was seated with Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and UB Group chairman, Vijay Mallya.
"After Kapil's devils won the Cup in 1983, Dhoni's men will bring this Cup back to India," Gupta said.
Even as the the Indians basked in their team's glory, the fans from across the border were shattered.
"I was confident that Pakistan will win. We are disappointed and some in our group are heartbroken, but I think in the end it is cricket which has won and brought the two sides closer once again," Waris Baig, Pakistan's leading film singer, said.
Cricketing ties between the two nations had been suspended after the Mumbai terror attack in 2008.
Meanwhile, outside the stadium, people burst crackers and did the traditional "Bhangra" to celebrate the victory.
India Vs Pakistan - The fan and the observer (ICC World Cup 2011)
In India, most people would give an arm and a leg to have the job of a cricket journalist. Since only eleven men take the field and only fifteen are part of the squad, the closest one can come to living the dream is to follow the fortunes of the team day in and day out - and what could be better than to do it as a profession? I have lived that life for two years, and in many ways it is a dream job. The one downside is that it tends to push the 'fan' in an individual to the background and bring the more objective observer to the foreground. The fan can wear his heart on his sleeve, can dance when his team wins, can yell when his team does well, and can curse when his team fails. The observer is not supposed to have a team.
This World Cup has seen the Indian team get off to a stuttering start, find its groove and then roll like a Mercedes into the final. Through it all, for the most part, the observer was able to do his job. And then came the semi-final. India versus Pakistan. A match that could possibly have TRPs, viewership and hype greater even than the finals.
I had thought that the observer would continue to hold sway, but at the toss itself, he beat a hasty retreat, and the fan took over. Firmly and decisively. I realised it when I had a disproportionately angry reaction on hearing that MS Dhoni had dropped R Ashwin for the match. R Ashwin - who had been our best bowler after Zaheer? R Ashwin who was a better batsman and fielder than any of Munaf Patel and Ashish Nehra? R Ashwin at the expense of Harbhajan Singh who's figures and stats were much worse?
That Pakistan didn't pick Shoaib Akhtar, in what turned out to be the final time they could have picked him, passed by only as a fleeting thought. Clearly if the career of a man such as Akhtar was ending, it demanded more attention. It got very little though.
The realisation sank fully in when the game started, and when Virender Sehwag teed off on Umar Gul. Gul had been Pakistan's best bowler in the tournament along with Shahid Afridi, and the sight of India's destroyer dismantling the opposition's strike bowler was exhilarating. The immediate anger at Ashwin's exclusion was forgotten.
For six overs, Sehwag ran amok, and visions of a 350-plus score started swimming hazily past. There were more than 44 overs (or about 90 percent of the innings) left, but when you're immersed in the situation only the previous ball counts - and when Sehwag was batting, the previous ball had been just fetched from the boundary most of the time.
It was obviously too good to last, though this time Sehwag couldn't be accused of 'throwing away' his wicket with a bad shot. True, he probably would not have got out if he hadn't looked to score off that particular ball, but then he wouldn't have been Sehwag.
His departure seemed only a momentary blip though, with Sachin Tendulkar easing into his game. One particular wristy hit to the mid-wicket boundary was tiramisu for the eyes.
But then the script seemed to go wrong. Saeed Ajmal came on and Sachin Tendulkar couldn't read him properly. An lbw appeal was over-turned, a stumping chance survived. And during one of the over-breaks, somebody must have run out onto the field and applied butter to all the Pakistanis' hands. Catches were spilled off Tendulkar as if Pakistan had started to believe the myth that if had scored a ton, India would lose!
No matter. The fan was happy. Who cared how the runs came, as long as they came. And who cared how scratchy an innings this was as long as he was still there?
And then suddenly it did seem to matter. He was still there, but the others started leaving in droves around him. Gautam Gambhir seemed to have played himself in, but was stumped off Hafeez. A part-time spinner had got one of India's best players against spin out. Virat Kohli then came, but did not last long. Wahab Riaz got his second wicket when Kohli's tentative prod to a ball that bounced a lot more than he expected flew straight to point. The cue to panic happened a ball later. Yuvraj Singh had strode out, looking every inch the man that had rescued India so many times in the World Cup, but even a man in good form and high on confidence wouldn't have survived the first ball that Yuvraj got. Riaz sent down a fast, swinging ball that sneaked past bat, evaded pad and body and homed in on the stumps. Where do Pakistan unearth their army of world-class fast bowlers from? They clearly have a limit-less supply.
India were left with Tendulkar, still standing and still being dropped, and an out-of-form Dhoni along with a Raina who hadn't played too many matches.
It did seem odd that Tendulkar, of all people, was playing this kind of innings. The start had been Rolls Royce like. After that, it was like an Ambassador on a pot-holed road, with a leaky fuel tank who just happened to find a fuel station everytime the gas ran out.
The Pakistanis too were surprisingly lax. After all, this was the man who had been man-of-the-match in two of their four previous losses to India in World Cups, and more than that, this was the man who held out hope for the entire team by his very presence. And yet, they kept dropping him. The fact that Tendulkar gave so many chances, and that Pakistan fluffed so many, was a good indicator of the nerves that had accompanied this match.
Eventually, he gave one chance too many. The fan groaned. Tendulkar's scripts were supposed to be written from up above. If he had been dropped so many times, wasn't it ordained that he would get to his 100th international ton against India's arch-rival in the biggest match of his life? Even after he hit the ball to Afridi, who caught it and immediately gave his now-famous Christ-like pose, in the split second during which Tendulkar stayed at the crease in disappointment before turning off, there was the thought that he might not be out after all. It might have been a bump ball, a no-ball. Only when he walked back did the suspension of disbelief end. And the fan mourned.
85 runs for the champion out of a total of 187/5 - how many more times would we have to see him wage a lone, losing battle? It was supposed to be a 300-run pitch and the Indian attack was supposed to be about 10 good overs (Zaheer Khan) and 40 average ones (the rest). MS Dhoni hung around for a while, but not long enough to hark back to the 2005 vintage, but Suresh Raina fought gamely. Even though Wahab Riaz was giving over after over of solid demonstration of why had been preferred over Shoaib Akhtar, Raina held firm. Eventually, Riaz got a richly deserved five-wicket haul, but Raina stayed unbeaten. India were guided to a respectable, but not threatening 260/9.
It is a quality unique to fans that when things fall short of their expectations, they expect the worst. Consequently, I thought Pakistan were the strong favourites heading into the break. And of course, the mutterings about team selection re-surfaced. Pakistan's opening stand did nothing to allay those, until an ordinary ball from Zaheer accounted for Kamran Akmal. Faint hope was rekindled, but I'd spent a decade watching India lose before they recently started winning, and what hope there was, was kept firmly bottled up.
And then Munaf got into the act via a self-destruct shot by Hafeez. Hope started tapping gently on the door. It apparently had enough of tapping, and with the entry of India's man for the moment - Yuvraj Singh - it neatly knocked down the door and barged in. Two wickets in two successive Yuvraj overs and India was right back in it.
This was the key phase of the game. Misbah ul Haq and Umar Akmal had been Pakistan's men in form, and they were together with Pakistan on the backfoot. In a brief 36-run stand, the younger Akmal showed why he is such a highly rated player, smacking Yuvraj Singh around and threatening to put Pakistan back on a footing from which they would be favourites.
The stand was broken by Harbhajan Singh, with a ball that left Umar completely unsure of how to play it. The result was he ended up looking lost, and the ball ended up crashing into the stumps. India was pumped, Bhajji even more so. The team - and indeed the nation - believed that this match was now headed only one way. The observer would have probably thought that even though Harbhajan had bowled well, Ashwin would have probably done better. The fan simply rejoiced, and joined in the full-throated cheering of his team.
Umar's dismissal did indeed prove to be the key wicket, and after that Pakistan were always playing catch-up. Abdul Razzaq came and went, done in by a Munaf Patel leg-cutter. Shahid Afridi had purpose in his eyes, but no form in his bat. For the rest of the batsmen, the ask was too much. Misbah ul Haq did stick around, but sticking around without scoring runs has not won sides limited-overs matches, and Misbah was not scoring enough runs.
That the Indians won didn't come as too much of a surprise after that. And even then, it was the cue for much rejoicing.
In the preview to the match, I had mentioned the less significant battle - between India's bowling and Pakistan's batting - could be just as crucial, and it did prove to be so. The bowling was the best it had been in the tournament, and it chose a perfect time to peak. Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel - who had been considered weak links - returned combined figures of 4/73 off 20 controlled overs. A success by any yardstick.
MS Dhoni's captaincy was spot on, and the way he rotated bowlers was superb. Each one, it seemed was given a spell for just the right amount of overs, and the only time a spell appeared not to work was when Yuvraj was hit around by Umar Akmal for a second successive over. One over wrong in fifty is not a bad record though. Curiously enough, Dhoni admitted at the end that the pitch had been read wrongly and that three seamers might not have been the best idea. But he had backed his gut - as he has done often - and his gut had delivered.
It had been strangely liberating in a sense to kick back and let the fan take over. So liberating, in fact, that I suspect he will be in residence till April 2, 2011.
Source: http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/39303/the-fan-and-the-observer
Tendulkar targets final glory
Tendulkar was dropped four times in his man of the match innings to anchor India to 260-9 against their arch-rivals before his team's bowlers applied the pressure and the brakes to secure a 29-run win.
"The final in Mumbai will be a fantastic occasion. We will focus on the job in hand and try to get the job done," said Tendulkar of Saturday's title match against Sri Lanka.
Tendulkar again missed out on making 100 international centuries but had the satisfaction of having played in all five of India's World Cup wins over Pakistan.
Now he hopes to be at the forefront of Saturday's campaign where India will look to capture a second World Cup title, 28 years after their first and only triumph.
"It's always memorable to play against Pakistan and to be on the winning side five times against them is a memory I will always cherish.
"But it was a brilliant effort in the field and by the bowlers today. When we batted we had to make sure we got a fighting total. I thought 310 or 315 would have been a good par score.
"Then the ball started stopping and spinning and something closer to 270 was par."
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