'THE GAME' has finally arrived!

The most talked about game is here. Before the start of the World Cup, the question doing the rounds was whether India and Pakistan will get a chance to have a go at each other since these two teams were in differnt groups. As things stand, they do and that too in the semi-finals. Once India beat Australia at Motera, every other match that was going to be played was forgotten. The talk is now dominated by only and only of the big tussle between the arch-rivals.

The hype surrounding the game has been enormous. Every news channel is coming up with the most minute detail of the games played between these two great cricketing nations, more so of the World Cup’s. This is what the game between these two countries does. Javed Miandad reacting angrily to Kiran More’s appeal for a caught behind in the 1992 World Cup or his last ball six to Chetan Sharma, dismissal of Aamir Sohail in the 1996 World Cup, Sachin Tendulkar smashing a six over third man to Shoaib Akhtar and Virender Sehwag following suit against Waqar Younis in the 2003 World Cup, all of these providing a platform for the super built up for Wednesday’s game.

Looking at the game through the eyes of the two captains’, one can immediately feel the difference. Shahid Afridi is someone who is not scared to show his emotions on the field. Reacting angrily to a bad delivery bowled or a misfield or setting the field with vibrant hand moments. It’s all a part of his captaincy, aggressiveness written all over it. M S Dhoni on the other hand has a calm aura about him. He hardly seems ruffled by the things that go around him always looking to control what he can. If the bowler bowls a bad delivery, leave the bowler alone or give him a few words of encouragement. That’s the attitude he has carried along with him since he took over the captaincy. So we have two captains with exactly opposite behavior in the handling of the teams but with the same desire-to win the match for your country.

Shahid Afridi and his team came into the tournament as mercurial outsiders, while India was the favorite. But as the tournament has gone along, this has reversed! India struggled in the group stages but dazzled against Australia in the quarter-finals. On the flip side, Pakistan came into the tournament with all sorts of controversies with spot fixing doing the rounds and 3 quality players in the form of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir banned. Moreover it was not sure who will be leading the side, whether it would be Afridi or Misbah Ul Haq with the selectors having named the 15 for the World Cup but without a captain. But this Pakistani team has made sure that things of the past should stay in the past, living and playing every moment of the World Cup as if their life depended on it and here they are now, in the semi-finals of the World Cup. The captain himself is leading from the front with 21 wickets in the tournament so far.

The more one looks at these two sides the more one feels that it will be a battle of India’s batting against Pakistan’s bowling. India’s batting is looking in great touch with the top 6 having had a decent outing in the matches so far. Virender Sehwag & Sachin Tendulkar at their murderous best, Gautam Gambhir has looked solid at Number 3, and then followed by the elegant Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli. Pakistan’s bowling looks to be back to good old days with Umar Gul coming into his own and the spinners in the form of Afridi, Ajmal and Haffez having fired in every matched they have played. It’s the bowling that worries India with only Zaheer Khan looking at his best, and the batting that worries Pakistan with only Misbah having shown some form with the bat.

India has always had the better off Pakistan in the World Cup’s and that is some statistic that Team India would want to keep intact. Pakistan on the other hand would like to remind India that they have never gone past a semi-final of a World Cup when played in the sub-continent having lost to England in 1987 and to Sri Lanka in 1996. But then it’s a new day and a new match all together. The world will be watching and the team that is able to keep its nerves better will win the match. Promises to be yet another cracking encounter. And at the end of it all, one thing is for sure. On one side of the border there will be absolute ecstasy, on the other, utter agony!

And then...South Africa happened!

South Africa had made it to the Quarter-finals without having any real serious problems in the group stages. Yes they did stutter against England, but topped the group and played the fourth best team in Group A which was New Zealand. Everyone expected it be a stroll in the park with New Zealand looking not too convincing in the group stage matches .But then the South Africans have been given the tag of ‘chokers’ not for nothing .And at Mirpur on Friday ,they did it again. They choked and choked heavily under pressure. And instead of travelling to Sri Lanka for the semi-finals, they had to travel back home.

Coming into the quarter-finals,both teams had never won a knock out game in the World Cup's and one team had to break that jinx on Friday and it was New Zealand.Unbelievable as it is, any South African team that has played the World Cup has always come into the tournament as one of the major favorites to win it or at least make it to the semi-finals. Apart from the 1992 World Cup, where the rain rule left them to get 22 runs of 1 ball, something or the other has always gone wrong. In 2003 against Sri Lanka at Durban, they messed up with the par score, the Duckworth-Lewis method stating that the team needed to get one run more than the par score to win the match. Mark Boucher was communicated that they needed to get 229 which actually was the par score, and actually to win the match they needed 230. Once they got to 229, Boucher was very much pleased with it, in fact going on the punch the air. But unfortunately, it was only the par score and they were punched out of the tournament.

Any South African team that has played the World Cup since they got back to playing cricket in 1992 has always flattered to deceive. They have always started as being the hot favorites but have never lived up to their billing. Choke is one ‘C’ word that the South Africans won’t like to have in their dictionary, but unfortunately by the looks of it, it could very well be the first word in the dictionary even before the alphabet ‘A’.


On Friday, they could do no wrong till Kallis was at the crease. Things were just perfect, having bowled out New Zealand for a paltry score of 221 and then 108-2 with Kallis at his vintage best. And then he hit a very good shot which had 6 written all over it till it ran into Jacob Oram who probably took the most important catch of his cricketing career and it was a blinder. Kallis was back into the hut and then South Africa happened!! AB DeVillers, easily their best player of the tournament got run out, probably the only possible way that he could have got out, and then Duminy was cleaned up by Nathan McCullum. From 121-3 they went to 132-7 asking too much of Faf Du Plessis .He tried, but it was always going to be too much after that.


Daniel Vettori’s captaincy was something that we don’t get to see often these days. Once Kallis was out , the overs after that were treated like power plays with at least 5 fielders in the ring. The only way New Zealand was going to win this match was if they took 10 wickets. Vettori knew this very well and he kept on attacking with close in fielders staring at the batsman and the bowling was backed up by excellent fielding, Martin Guptill being the best of the lot. Jacob Oram showed why he is so dangerous with the ball ending up with 4 wickets and the most crucial catch of Jacques Kallis to turn the match in the favor or the Kiwis.

No one gave the black caps a chance before the match, but they came out trumps. They now face Sri Lanka at the lion’s den itself at the Premadasa and no one is giving them a chance again! That’s expected. But then the Kiwis are on a roll, they have knocked off one ‘S’ already in the form of South Africa , can they get the better of another ‘S’? . Only time will tell.

The Knockout Punch

Australia came into the quarter-finals with their halo of being unbeaten broken. India came into the quarter-finals with their ego’s battered – not a single win in the group stages of a kind that will please the Indian audience . If Australia came into the match with not too many mistakes in the group stages , it was exactly the opposite for Team India , starting off with England in a match they should have won easily but ended up with honors even and against South Africa where hara-kiri was at its supreme best losing 9 wickets for 29 runs.

But the major difference between the two sides coming into the quarter-finals was the big match exposure. Australia started off with an easy win against the Kiwis who were yet to get into the groove (as I write this , they have pulled off a stunning victory against South Africa) , then against Sri Lanka which was a washout and against Pakistan where the Australian batsman could hardly get the ball off the square when up against a terrific spin trio of Shahid Afridi , Abdur Rehman and Mohammad Hafeez and then Umar Akmal finishing off the match with a splendid innings to end the Aussie 34 match winning spree in the World Cup’s.

India on the other hand had to battle hard, be it against England or against Ireland. They edged, scratched, messed around, were miserable in the fielding department and the bowling only seemed to start and end with Zaheer Khan, but managed to get two points out of four games and one against England. Against South Africa, they deserved to win, but that was till Sachin Tendulkar was at the crease. They had committed all sorts of mistakes that one could have asked for to be corrected before entering the knock out stages. At Motera, all these mistakes were rectified.

Right from the beginning of the tournament, India’s batting has been at its supreme best, but their bowling has never complimented the batting and their fielders have never complimented the bowlers. All in all it even the hardest of optimist would have relented to the fact that if India had to win the quarter finals, the batsman had to do it and somehow hope and pray that the bowlers concede at least one run less than their opposition, meaning which it was always going to be a win the toss and bat first situation. And this did not happen. Ponting won the toss and as expected, opted to bat first.


This is where the bowlers had different ideas. R.Ashwin probably the most talked about person in the country after the World Cup has started over his non inclusion in most of the group matches was in the side and was given the new ball. It only helped that he is Dhoni’s teammate at the Chennai SuperKings and his temperament was something that Dhoni was very well versed with. And indeed he bowled like a king making Watson look like a pauper asking as if can I hit you for few runs. The answer was Watson’s stumps being castled. At the other end it was Zaheer Khan, the second highest wicket taker in the tournament who seems to be in the form of his life. Harbhajan Singh, although not amongst the wickets kept the pressure on the batsman and although Munaf Patel was clobbered around a bit by Brad Haddin, the bowlers always seemed to have in control.

And finally, the magical Yuvraj Singh, who seems to turn things into gold, whatever he touches this World Cup. His spell of 44 runs of 10 overs with 2 wickets was decisive since his first wicket was of Brad Haddin, at a time in the game when the momentum was swinging in the favor of the Aussies and then getting the better off pup: Michal Clarke who was totally beaten by the flight and ended up holing at long on.

Australia ultimately set India a target of 261, probably 20 runs less than what they would have liked thanks to some superb fielding in the outfield by Ashwin, Raina and Yuvraj. A score very much competitive in a big game and which meant the top 5 for India had to fire. Sachin set up the game beautifully for India but was out in a slightly controversial manner, Gambhir batted in a superb manner till he decided that somehow or the other he needed to find a way to get run out, Sehwag had gone early and so was Virat Kohli, but while they lasted had decent partnerships. At the other end though there was a sedate Yuvraj Singh going about doing his job , not getting affected by the things happening around him : Gambhir’s run out or Dhoni’s dismissal. And with 70 odd runs to get in about 11 overs and having Raina as his partner , Yuvraj decided to break loose and in a span of 10 minutes things changed . Pressure was eased as both Yuvraj and Raina slaughtered Bret Lee and Shaun Tait and from there on there was no looking back. Yuvraj exploded and Raina came up with a six of his own to make sure that there were no further hiccups.


The top 5 did play their part and it was the 7th batsman which is another most talked about topic in Indian Cricket came good in the form of Raina. Ashwin was in his elements and got rid of Ricky Ponting who in all probabilities has played his last World Cup game and probably his last as the captain of the Australian ODI team. It’s almost certain that the selectors will now start looking beyond Ponting to lead the side.
Ponting himself came good at a time when nothing seemed to go in his favor this World Cup by hitting a brilliant century and reminding everyone that the scratcher in him still remains. But unfortunately for the two time World Cup winning captain, his century was in a losing cause and ending the era of Australian Supremacy.

There is no road to success without any punctures. India has had its share of punctures in the group stage. It’s now time to step up the gas and hit top gear. And what better when the opposition is Pakistan in a World Cup semi-final. Mouth watering encounter in the offering irrespective of whether you love cricket or not and a Money Flowing encounter for the organizers!!

When the world spoke of the other Kevin

At 111-5 and chasing 328 to win, one would not like to put the money on the batting team. And certainly not if the batting team is Ireland. And definitely not if the opposition is a formidable English side. But then there are people who have different ideas. Kevin O’Brien did.

At the M Chinnaswamy stadium at Bengaluru, Kevin O’ Brien did what otherwise would have been something impossible for the human mind to achieve. He came out to bat there with only one intention, of winning the match. There was no point in pushing and prodding around and getting a nice little half century. What he saw and which no one of us did was what lay in store beyond that. The moment he stepped on to the field to bat, he had decided that he would go for the kill and in the process played an innings that has to go down as one of the greatest ever World Cup knocks.

Kevin certainly did not clobber the English attack. He massacred them. 13 fours and 6 sixes being an evidence of that and going on to get the fastest century ever in a World Cup off 50 balls beating that of Mathew Hayden that had come in 66 balls . The innings was something that the likes of Kevin Pietersen can only dream to play. The best part about his batting was it was a chanceless innings. His sixes were clean, the only way the boundary rider could catch it was if he was in the stands.

It doesn’t get bigger, does it? Kevin’s innings was power reminiscent of Kieron Pollard but with a calmer head and better technique. What he knew very well was as they were getting closer to victory, the only thing the Irish needed was him to stay out there and not give away his wicket. And he managed to do this till the penultimate over and got out in the most appropriate way in the form of a run out. England would not have been able to get him out in any other way.

Partnerships play a vital role in any match and in Cusack, Kevin found an ideal partner who was willing to weather the storm right till the end. The match changing partnership of 162 meanwhile also raised a totally different debate of what total is safe for the team batting first and how and when the powerplay’s should be used . The Irish pair compiled 62 runs in the 5 allotted overs of power play and this breathed life into the Irish innings. And probably life into the 2011World Cup!

England ran India close, and managed to get a point out of it. But against Ireland, they ran into Kevin O’Brien and the rest is history.