That's why it was a toughest exam for Indian team. It was a semi final match & it was the match against pakistan. But one thing was in the favour of India. When India pakistan clashed in the world cup, India always won the match. Wherever the match happened.
But in cricket, history will not help you. Always match day is important & new. Also there was pressure of cricket diplomacy also.Because after 26/11 attack in India , Indo- pak relations again became worse. And now after 3 years , again to make friendship with pakistan, India prime minister invited pakistan president to see the match. So it was double pressure on both teams, to perform in front of there presidents.
Pakistan dark horse
Before this world cup, nobody was ready to assume pakistan as world cup winners even in there dreams.Due to terrorism already no country was ready to play with pakistan. That's why pakistan didn't played a single match before a year. To make the matter worse, some pakistani players arrested & banned due to spot fixing. That was a disaster news for pakistan before the world cup. That's why nobody haven't thought, that they will qualify for even quarter final stage.
& here pakistan made it to semis. Everybody was praising them a lot. But does they really deserve the salute? I don't think so. because before q.f. stage the teams pakistan faced were 4 weak teams. Only two teams were strong teams. From that they lost to New zeland very purely. They won over australia , but that was because , Aus batted bad. & still in chase of just 176 runs, they lost 7 wickets. And again in qf, they won against West Indies , & it is again a weaker team.
Same was with India. They tied with england & lost against south africa. & won against australia.
So in this match, both teams were equal. But what happened in actual match?
The Toss
Dhoni won the toss & selected to bat first. Right decision.But at the toss he told that R.Ashwin is not in the Indian team & we are going with 3 pacers. Why? Everybody was surprised. The wicket at mohali ground , was very slow & turning. More importantly it was very helpful for spinners.R.Ashwin bowled nice in the previous match vs. Australia . Still Team managment dropped ashwin & gone with only one spinner. Why? What will happen in this match??
Sehwag on fire
And Indian team started there innings. Sehwag again showed nice mind control. Didn't tried to hit a 4 on first ball. He knew he should be there till the end of the innings.
But after observing umar gul's bowling for 2 overs, he fired. He blasted all boundries in two continous over of gul. Just boundries. Not a single run without boundries. All Indian supporters were dancing with his shots. They were sure that sehwag will last there till 50 overs & India can even score 400! But....
Afridi tried a spinner in this slow & turning wickets & he did the trick. He got the sehwag on the lbw. Sehwag was out but he took a review. Why to waste a review ? He was clearly out.He should have ask his non striker partner tendulkar. Because he is able to see nicely from a nice & ideal view. Why to waste a review?
Pak bowlers took control.
Already wicket was turning. That means very difficult to bat. Now after this early wicket bowlers took control on batting. Said ajmal was troubling Sachin Tendulkar! Sachin survived two times in one over. That was the example that it was really hard to bat on this wicket.
Therfore Indian batsmen got into there protective shell. On the other side except Sachin wickets were falling. & before loosing there wickets , they were playing so defensively that run rate was not even 4.00 per over.
On the other hand Sachin compleated his half century. He was also marching to his 100 international centuries. But was that inning really deserve it? Is sachin really played like sachin in that match? let's see:
Sachin's most patchy innings 1st time in his carrier
That day sachin played most poor innings in 21 yrs of his carrier. He was not focusing at all. He was playing clumsily against pak spinners. He was dropped six times & survived also in 2 lbw decisions. He firstly dropped on 27 & from that he was playing very poor. We can say that he was batting with bat in one hand & with guilt feeling (of dropped out of 6 times) in the other !
Well, it is not right to write like this , but against newcomer Said Ajmal , Sachin was batting like a school or club cricketar. Therfore his die hart fans also didn't wanted to score him century here because of his patchy innings. & he didn't . Finally got out at 85 runs by scoring a half century.
India in trouble
After Sachin's wicket India was in even more trouble. India was struggling at just 180 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 42nd over. After such a slow rate nobody could bate on India's win.
Raina's small flash
In this tough situation raina came to rescue. He played small but fast innings. He batted nice. because of his fast 30 + score, India managed to score 230 + score in there innings. But this score was still looking very small. & It was also looking like Pakistan will register there 1st win in world 4w. cups over India.
What happened in there innings. Let's see:
Pakistan inning started
Pakistan inning started as they will surely win. They were looking very focused at least in the start of there innings. But then again yuvraj managed to get a breakthrough & even bhajji. Therfore after 2 down,straight away Pakistan reached at 5 down. Surprisingly Aashish Nehra was bowling very good & troubling every pak batsman. Fielding was again very good. After there top order , there middle order collapsed like anything. Just like a sucide they were playing & giving wickets. Soon Pakistan reached at 8 down.
Lower order performance and end of the match
Lower order performance was more bad. Pakistani think tank, wasn't looking as they were thinking. Bcz just misbah was there who couuld win the match for Pakistan. But still he didn't took a batting powerplay. & when mandatory powerplay activated, it was too late . India easily beat pakistan by 80 + runs & reached in finals.
Final
So only 1 match was remaining now i.e. final. Competitor was Sri lanka. Which was having more chance than India.But it was India's chance after 28 years. So Indian team wanted to win the world cup for country & of course for SACHIN TENDULKAR!!!
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