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Mohali:
It was a match destined to go down in history. And it did as India
triumphed over Pakistan Wednesday to enter their third World Cup
final and the entire nation erupted in a frenzy of jubilation, warm
hugs and firecrackers.
Pakistan were lulled into believing that half their job was done
when they restricted the mighty Indian batting to a scratchy 260/9
when 300 plus were considered the par score. They did not reckon
with a rejuvenated Indian bowling and fielding and never looked like
getting there on a slow turner, even after they got a good start. In
the end, India bowled them out for 231 with a ball to go to win by
29 runs.
Whoops of joy echoed across India as the boys in blue, led by
Mahendra Singh Dhoni are now just a step short of grabbing the World
Cup -- the first time since 1983 when the Kapil Dev-led side won the
Cup at Lord's, London.
India now take on Sri Lanka in an all-Asian final at the Wankhede
Stadium Saturday. The Sri Lankans Tuesday beat New Zealand in the
first semifinal at Colombo by five wickets.
It was all worth it. Leaving office early, postponing that urgent
dentist's appointment, rescheduling that important assignment to sit
in front of the television and root for India, ball to ball, stroke
by stroke.
India's skipper Dhoni got it all right, right from picking his
eleven for the match to planning his bowling changes and posting the
right men at the right positions in the field. He chose just five
mainline bowlers to do the job and that included Yuvraj Singh.
Before he went in for toss the experts thought the decision to drop
Ravichandran Ashwin and play Ashish Nehra was ill-conceived.
Like Nehra against South Africa, Munaf, too, had a bad game against
Australia, but both bowled superbly Wednesday. The other maligned
bowler Harbhajan Singh turned the game India's way by castling Umar
Aklmal when he was threatening to take it away with his belligerent
hitting. A coincidence, the wickets were shared equally by the
bowlers -- Zaheer Khan (2/58), Munaf Patel (2/40), Ashish Nehra
(2/33), local boys Yuvraj Singh (2/57) and Harbhajan Singh (2/43).
It was such disciplined work in the field that India did not concede
an extra till till the 38th over. This is quite in contrast with
what the Pakistanis did in the field, dropping catch after catch and
that, too, of Sachin Tendulkar.
The Pakistanis fell back on the asking rate after the mandatory
Powerplay and could never recover as none of their top-order batsmen
could force the pace. By the time the slog overs began, they were
well behind and only Misbah-Ul-Haq (56) lasted at the crease with
the tail. They got to the 200-run mark only at the end of the 45th
over and by then they had lost nine wickets. Their batting Powerplay,
taken in the 46th over, became meaningless.
It was the brilliance of Man-of-the-Match Sachin Tendulkar, who may
have missed his hundredth international century by 15 runs, but he
took India to highly competitive 260 for nine in 50 overs, with
Suresh Raina chipping in with 36 useful runs.
The Pakistani batting, barring vice captain Misbah (56), failed to
come good against India. All the Pakistani batsmen got decent start
but failed to build partnerships.
Openers Mohammad Hafeez (43) and Kamran Akmal (19) stroked the
boundaries but the singles and twos were hard to get. India's pace
spearhead Zaheer Khan ended the 44-run stand in the ninth over,
enticing Kamran into a drive and Yuvraj took an easy catch at point.
A moment of madness cost Hafeez his wicket. The all-rounder, for
reasons known only to him, attempted a premeditated heave off Munaf
Patel's full delivery outside the off-stump but edged to
wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Yuvraj soon joined the party, dismissing Asad Shafiq (30) and the
veteran Younis Khan (13) in two overs as Pakistan were down to 106
for four after the half-way mark. From there on, Pakistan could
never recover and lost wickets at regular intervals.
Earlier, India, too, failed to capitalise on a good start following
a recurrent middle-order collapse. But Raina's cameo (36 off 39
balls)gave India a decent total.
Seeing he was running out of partners, Suresh Raina struck a few
hefty blows to make sure that India, for once, didn't falter in the
bating powerplay (45-49 overs), scoring 43 runs for the loss of just
one wicket.
Tendulkar (85), who survived three dropped catches and a referral
reversal, and Virender Sehwag (38), scored at nine an over in the
first five overs.
Sehwag was in full flow, stroking the ball fluently. He drove pacer
Umar Gul's third delivery through the covers for a four to bring up
his 1,000 runs against Pakistan. Gul, who has been one of Pakistan's
most successful bowlers in the tournament, did not know what hit him
in his third over as Sehwag trounced him for five fours to garner 21
runs.
Tendulkar, who struck 11 fours in his 115-ball knock, and Sehwag
then came down heavily on Abdul Razzaq, prompting Pakistan captain
Shahid Afridi to replace the veteran all-rounder with young Wahab
Riaz and the left-arm pacer suddenly started posing problems with
his angle. He looked more dangerous once he started getting reverse
swing and he ended up with his first fifer -- five for 46.
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