When the history was being written...

This is a piece that I had written (then on another forum) just after Indian cricket team's win over Pakistan in WC 2011 Semifinal.

They say records are meant to be broken. Well, most of them…It is still 5-0 in India’s favor when it comes to ODI WC matches against Pakistan. It was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a one sided contest and it wasn’t (until Afridi got out). You could feel the two teams tussle it out – Sehwag delivering a ‘Uppercut’, Wahab coming back with a ‘Hook’, Sachin taking a host of ‘Jabs’ but standing…and you knew that this is not going to be a knock-out in the third round…it’s going to go right till the end.

Sachin would usually score 100+ runs without making a single mistake but today he struggled - esp against the quite brilliant Azmal – but more importantly stayed for a good part of the innings – many thanks to Pakistan fielding – and made those vital 85 runs. It is only Pakistan who can drop four catches of a batsmen like Sachin, loose 20 odd runs via shoddy ground fielding but still manage to contain the Indian behemoths to 260, which I felt was quite chasable.
Pakistan started well and were on their way until Younis and Misbah adopted a batting style that only they can explain…It’s not the first time that they did this or shall I say, this happened to them but they need to go back and have a long hard look at the way they approach their batting… at the moment it seems very one-dimensional – either blocking every delivery or trying to hit each one out of the park. Maybe take a clue from Dravid’s book who faced similar problems at some point in his career.

Earlier, Dhoni had surprised everyone by dropping Ashwin, but you have to admit that there is something about this team that he knows and we all don’t or maybe it’s just instinct…whatever…who cares as long as India is winning…they must be very happy with the way they bowled – very few extras and all the five bowlers bowling their full quota. Munaf and Nehra were particularly impressive and it is great thing for a team that someone else picks up the ball when your main bowler (Zaheer) drops it (kind-off).

Now the action moves to Mumbai and a Sachin Tendulkar fan (which is pretty much another name that you can call an Indian with) could not hope for a better setup. The local boy – yeah…you could still call him that – is due for his 100th century and should I say long due for a world cup win. Both teams know each other too well and you can expect another fierce contest between two well deserved finalists.