You simply cannot replicate the Stadium Atmosphere & Experience in your Living Room or anywhere else !
My Son and Nephew, who were at Motera too and saw the Aussies being thrashed by India in the World Cup QFs,are over the moon at the Mohali Stadium tonight….”Paisa aur Mehnat more than vasool !”…….India now have beaten Pakistan in the World Cup 5 on 5….Pakistan had never lost to India at Mohali before in any Cricket match….that was till today !
Methinks India did not win it !…rather Pakistan lost it !
India set Pakistan 261 to win with left arm pacer Wahab Raiz taking a brilliant 5 for 46 in his 10 to restrict India which at one time looked like crossing 300…what also helped Man of the Match Sachin for his 85 and India’s cause is the slipshod fielding…butter fingered Pakistanis dropped Six catches !…four of the Little Master !…most were dollies !
All that Pakistan has to do was to take it easy at 5 runs an over…..but their veterans Younis Khan and Misbah let them down !…they batted as if they were playing a Test Match ! ….Younis Khan scored 13 of 32 while Misbah left it for too late and was there till the end and scored 56 of 76 helped by some big hitting a bit too late….all the other main batsmen played to deceive…some simply threw their wickets needlessly going for crazy shots
Inexplicably Pakistan did not take batting Powerplay when they were six down and Captain Afridi and Misbah were the last recognised pair at the crease…Afridi has been the most wicket taker in this World Cup but his batting has not been much too talk about
Indian Bowlers are peaking…today only 5 bowlers were used that were meant to be used to bowl out Pakistan for 231 in the 50th over…they all shared two wickets apiece…Sachin may have got the Man of the Match Award but Sehwag’s blistering 38 of 25 in the beginning and Raina’s unbeaten 36 of 39 at the end set up the 261 for Pakistan to chase…Also four time Man of the Match Winner in this World Cup,Yuvraj made amends for his first ball dismisal on his homeground by taking two important wickets in his ten overs…Even surprise choice Nehra over Ashwin took 2 for 33 in his 10…his tenth over was the Innings 47th in the batting Powerplay…he gave just two runs and took a wicket in it !
My observation is that only one team was playing to win out there on the field today…and they did…both did play in good spirit and there were some lovely chummy moments between the men in blue and the men in green on the field today in front of the PMs of both countries
Now onto Mumbai for the World Cup Finals against Sri Lanka on Saturday at Wankhede….will be there at the stadium and looking forward to Dhoni lifting the Trophy
2 thoughts on “ICC World Cup Cricket 2011 Semi Finals at Mohali….India did not Win it !…Pakistan lost it !”
first of all congrats indian team for their 5th victory against pak.but tht was not the match tht we used to see in a ind-pak encounter! Yes,.they played strange and bad cricket today. The killer instinct was not present for which pakistanis are so famous. I still remember the match in bangaluru where former opening batsman amir sohail and anwar gave them a solid start..tht instinct was missing in the whole game at mohali today..pakistan should rebuild a better team for the future to make any impression in coming high voltage game against india.
it was a fixed match,