PAK PACKED!

By Dr. V.V. Giri

  

Again too many blunders were witnessed at Mohali, where India played Pak.  Yes, Pak did better than India (in making blunders). Finally, the team that did more blunders lost.  It appeared that both the teams tried to lose the game. Pakistan was able to succeed in their approach and India failed miserably!! 

Dhoni started the blunder by dropping Ashwin, the best spinner in India from the playing eleven, the real reason is a mystery.

India won the toss and elected to bat. A great start from Sehwag, who thrashed the Pak opening bowlers and never allowed Gul and Razzaq to settle. That brought the young lefty Wahab and he removed Sehwag in his first over itself. The Simon Taufel LBW decision was questioned by Sehwag and as expected Taufel won. What a great umpire he is. Again, more than the bowler, the pitch played a major role in this incident.  The ball did not come up to even knee height.

Today, I was surprised to see the Indian batsmen struggling so much to Pak spinners. I thought India would handle ‘doosras’ and ‘googlies’ easily but I was wrong.

Sachin was beaten by every spinner. He had no clue on Ajmal and Afridi. After being quoted as saying that he would not allow Tendulkar to score his 100th international century, Shahid Afridi and friends then did their best to guide him in that direction.  The ball was coming slow of the pitch thus posing problems to stroke players.  Sachin was not an exception and his timing on stroke play was not great resulting possible catches.

It took an epidemic of clingers to make Tendulkar's 85 happen. Tendulkar was dropped - Sachin was dropped 5 times - Three times off Afridi's bowling, 3 catches, one late stumping, One DRS survival.

Remember, Sachin vehemently opposed the UDRS all these years and today the same DRS saved him. Finally, Afridi decided to show his underlings how catches needed to be seized. Given that the ball had come straight at him and he'd actually hung on, Boom Boom was allowed to do a bit of celebrating.

Sachin had played many marvelous chanceless innings but hardly won the match for India. Today he played an innings he would not like to remember but won the match and got the Man Of the Match award.  Finally the Jinx that if Sachin scores, India loses was broken.

Pak spinning trio - Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi mesmerized every Indian batsmen.  Worst was Gambhir. This batsman does not know what a front foot forward block is. He needs to go back to school. I have been watching him - for a good length delivery, he plays standing on the crease or little of the back foot.

Whenever he wants to go forward, he walks out and plays. That is a handicap. He is unable to stretch the front foot forward enough to reach the pitch of the ball. You can walk out of crease, only when you sight the ball well or when you are well set. To me he looks like a bunny. I wonder how the opponents failed to do their home work for him all along.

Sehwag, Kohli, Yuvi,Dhoni, Harbajan..., all these batsmen were out playing across the line. Finally Raina came to rescue and batted like a champion in the company of ‘no clue tail’ and India managed to reach 260 for 9 in 50 overs.

Pakistan started well in its reply. Kamran and Hafeez played the Indian medium pacers - Zaheer, Asish and Munaf quite comfortably. Pakistan briefly appeared on course to upset the odds after Hafeez eased their run chase off to a promising start.

But his opening partner Kamran Akmal flashed a square-drive at Zaheer into the hands of Yuvraj at point, and then Hafeez himself spoiled his own good work with a poorly-conceived and executed shot which resulted in his caught-behind departure off Munaf Patel for 43. Asad Shafiq was bowled middle-stump trying to cut Yuvraj, and Younus Khan holed out off the slow left-armer at cover.

Umar Akmal temporarily raised Pakistan hopes again. But once Harbhajan Singh did him for pace with a flatter delivery from round the wicket, only something exceptional from the big hitters Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi could put the match back in the balance – and they could not find the form that has been missing all through the tournament and went out with a whisper instead of a roar.

Misbah-ul-Haq almost grounded to a halt at times in an oddly-paced 56 from 75 balls, and appeared to gamble all on a delayed power play, but by then, as the run rate required rose alarmingly, others had fallen trying and failing to keep Pakistan in contention.

Needing 30 off the last over, Misbah heaved at every ball but could not pierce the field never mind get the ball over the heads of the men on the boundary. India's 260 had looked vulnerable but in the end it proved more than enough.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who top-scored for Pakistan with 56, helped take them from 9-208 to a situation where an unlikely 30 was needed off the last over. That was never going to happen.

Though India beat Pakistan comfortably, I am not at all comfortable with Indian batting. Only Raina played sensibly. Dhoni has no business to go earlier than Raina in the batting order.  Against Sri Lanka, I fear the "triple M" - Murali, Mendis, Malinga would easily fox the Indian batsmen. I don't expect Yuvi, Gambhir, Kohli, and Dhoni to tackle them well.

I was shocked today when Dhoni said he read the pitch wrongly!!  No captain makes this mistake easily, simply because there is lot of time to decide (you have couple of days), there are many advisors with you - Coach, Support staff, Groundsmen and former cricketers. I don't believe this reason for dropping Ashwin.  This appears more as a cover-up against all the criticisms received for dropping Ashwin.  

For the finals, India should play Ashwin for Nehra and Yusuf for Gambhir. I guess he is now injured. Even otherwise, Pathan should replace him.

It's probably fitting that two ornaments to the game get to play off in the World Cup final in what will, for one of them certainly, be his farewell to international cricket.

India and Sri Lanka will meet in Saturday night's cricket World Cup final, with the match set to feature the cricket legends - Sachin Tendulkar and the retiring Muttiah Muralidharan.