World Cup: India defeat Pakistan

Even as the entire nation held its collective breath, the Blues kept bleeding. MS Dhoni and his men fought as if the self-esteem of a nation was at stake, not just a berth in the final of the World Cup. In front of the prime ministers of the two countries, they showed a gallant fighting spirit and extraordinary temperament to tame Pakistan.

In the end, the 29-run victory looked comfortable but the berth in the final was achieved with a lot of sweat and ‘blood’. Yes blood, as India dived, slid and leaped to stop the ball. It was a new India on the field, with a refreshing fighting spirit after climbing, crawling and clambering their way to a fighting total.

The semifinal resembled the 2007 World Twenty20 final with Misbah-ul-Haq standing till the very end. He rallied around last man Saeed Ajmal but the Indians ensured that the game did come that close. Pakistan needed 30 runs off the last over but Zaheer did not concede any as Misbah was trying to clear the fence. He was finally caught for 56 off the penultimate ball of the match with Pakistan, chasing 261, all out for 231.

With such fighting display in the match that actually saw more spills than thrills, it should be difficult for Sri Lanka to stop the Blues in the final on Saturday. Fingers crossed, the World Cup is in a striking distance.

Earlier, India’s famed batting line-up suffered yet another collapse, ending with a score far less than it initially looked set for. But for a late surge by Suresh Raina, India would have failed to cross the 250-run mark.

Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar provided India with a bullish start. The home team’s score had raced to 50 in no time with Sehwag going after the Pakistan bowlers from the word go. The India opener singled out Umar Gul leaving Pakistan skipper perplexed. Shahid Afridi had no clue over field placements as Sehwag went after his bowlers. With the help of nine fours, the opener had zoomed off 38 before Wahab Riaz had him in front of the wickets.

The much-needed breakthrough slowed things down for India as Gautam Gambhir and Tendulkar failed to capitalise on the breezy start. Gambhir scratched around for some time before being beaten by the flight of Mohammad Hafeez. Virat Kohli struggled for a few minutes before surrendering his wicket to Riaz. Yuvraj Singh, who looked incapable of putting a foot wrong so far in the World Cup, was flummoxed in the first ball he faced in his home ground by Riaz.

Dhoni stayed for over an hour but could not accelerate the scoring. After a couple of boundaries early on in his innings, skipper Dhoni pushed and prodded for some time before he too was trapped in front of the wickets by Riaz. Raina provided the final thrust to the innings scoring an unbeaten 36 but there were a flurry of wickets late in the innings.

Raina was in danger of running out of partners, thanks to some quality bowling from Riaz and mindless batting by the Indians.

But the story of the Indian batting was Tendulkar. Afridi had vowed not to allow Tendulkar to get to his century but the Pakistanis did everything to help him score his 100th international century. Pakistan dropped Tendulkar when he was on 27 (by Misbah), 45 (Younus Khan), 70 (Kamran Akmal) and 81 (Umar Akmal). Four runs later, he was caught by Afridi himself for 85.

Qualitatively, it was one of the worst knocks by Tendulkar. But one should look at the quantity here. Without those runs, Pakistan would have strolled to victory.