India vs Pakistan: Game won!

How did it start? And how did it end! Indian supporters would have never thought of this perfect finish against their staunch enemies.

As usual, MS Dhoni lost the toss and Misbah Ul Haq elected to bat first. His decision was a perfect 300+. The way Mohammed Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed started, it looked like Indian bowlers needed to go back and practice hard. Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan were being smothered. Ashok Dinda was probably playing his last match for Team India. 50, 100, 150, 200... Pak score was climbing at 6+ RPO with all 10 wickets in hand. Then came R Ashwin and S Raina to bowl spin. But no luck. Rohit Sharma too tried luck with the white flake, in vain. The Master Blaster too failed to pick any wicket. The senior Pathan, Yusuf bhai, also could not create any magic with the ball. 

All 8 bowlers were hammered. 35 overs, 220 runs and Pak was surely winning this one at that rate. Excellent batting by the Pak openers scoring a TON each. They kept their cool and played calm. But their scoring rate never fell below 5 RPO. So much so was the setback for the spectators that we started missing our Mohali’s bowling line-up “Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Yuvraj Singh” None of them were playing today!

And then we issued a formal offer “Just in from BCCI: Whoever, if at all, takes a wicket will be given 3-year contract by an IPL team of their choice!”

It worked, Finally, stars smiled at Ashwin and he got Jamshed. Guess Ashwin is happy with CSK, so our offer goes null. But scoring didn’t pause for Pak. But we did see a fabulous catch by Suresh Raina and another marvelous catch by Virat Kohli. Wickets fell, runs came and then, at the end of 50 overs, Pak was at 329-6.

They hit:

27 FOURS = 108 runs

2 SIXES    = 12 runs

Total: 120 runs came of just 29 balls.

Praveen Kumar and Ashok Dinda bagged 2 wickets each while Irfan Pathan and R Ashwin got 1 each.  

Of course everyone was missing Virender Sehwag a lot. That score of 330 would be possible only if we have our firing cannon in action. Little did we know that we’ll win it with 13 balls to spare!

Yes! We won! And how? It wasn’t a dream start at all! Gautam Gambhir OUT on zero meant the end of any chances to win!

On crease were, the most experienced player of Indian Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and probably, his only successor, Virat Kohli. Experienced shots from one end and powerful knocks from the other end. There was no looking back. Virat Kohli kept scoring at a faster rate, Sachin guided him and together they added 133 runs on board. After scoring 52, Sachin Paaji fell the victim to Saeed Ajmal and it was another heart break for Indian supporters.

But to everyone’s surprise, Rohit Sharma came in and didn’t leave the crease so soon. He played slow, his natural game. He took time to acclimatize to the bowling attack and then, hit some very powerful shots. He perfectly complemented Virat Kohli in the biggest run chase of the Indian Cricketing history. Together they scored 172 runs, the biggest 3^rd wicket partnership. Team India was at 307-2 and needed only 23 runs to win from 26 balls when Rohit Sharma hit an unwanted shot over long on and got OUT at 68 runs. Virat Kohli was on 150* and going strong. We all wanted him to score 200 and join the league of big names of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. Well, that didn’t happen and Virat Kohli got OUT at 183.

But the number, 183, has its own significance:

Indian batsmen who scored 183 have went on to become a successful captain
S Ganguly - 183 vs Sri Lanka 99 WC
MS Dhoni - 183* vs Sri Lanka 2005
Now V Kohli - 183 vs Pak 2012 So can we safely say that Virat Kohli is the captain in the making?

Back to match, of course, Raina and Dhoni finished the match! Captain cool hit the FOUR and that marked India’s successful run chase at 330 in just 48.5 overs.

This is how we scored: 

34 FOURS = 136 runs

4 SIXES = 24 runs

Total = 160 runs from just 38 balls.

India vs Pakistan matches are never just about Cricket. It involves a lot of emotions and fights and arguments and excitement too! This match had its charm too!

329 + 330 = 659 runs scored in 587 balls; total 3 centuries were scored and 10 wickets fell.

This match also meant that Indian Cricket was developing. Clearly the bowlers have a lot of homework to do. They need more guidance from the seniors. They need to put a lot of hard-work and efforts. Our weakest department needs revamping. We have potential players and this is the perfect time to groom them.  

The batsmen are readying themselves to take up bigger responsibilities and relive the senior from the worries. This means the future of Indian Cricket is going in safe hands and it is time to pass the baton!

It is the transition phase and ups and downs are bound to happen. We win some, we lose some. But what we learn from these matches will play a bigger role in the coming years of Cricket to play.

India vs SL: On the Valentine's Day! No heart breaks!

Really.. No heart breaks! And the super happy moment was when the team was announced! Sachin paaji back in playing 11 in place for Sehwag (per rotation policy!). The surprise entry of Irfan Pathan for Zaheer Khan! (Finally, Irfan got a match!).. As usual, SL won the toss and decided to bat first... Trust me, I knew we would win.. Biased Indian mentality! 

Rotation Policy: Team India will rotate their seniors: Gauti, Sachin and Sehwag in the playing 11 to allow inclusion of the younger players giving them opportunity to play! Smart move or no? Well, that is a big debate!! 

Back to the action: What a match! Who would expect the end that way? Specially when we started so well.. We bagged 2 wickets in the first 10 overs. 1 by R Vinay Kumar and the 2nd by Irfan Pathan. Steady start! The match went very slow till Sangakarra's wicket fell. Then, Chandimal handled the SL innings strongly scoring 81 runs from 91 balls with a strong support from the captain Jayawardene. 

After scoring 43 runs, Jayawardene fell the victim of R Vinay Kumar. Following his suit, Chandimal immediately got out to R Ashwin. Then, SL crawled to decent score of 236-9 in 50 overs. 

Kinda didn't watch many overs as it was getting boring too! :P :P 

Team India's start was the same. We lost an early wicket of Sachin scoring only 15 runs. Same with Virat Kohli, out on 15 runs. Ditto Rohit Sharma, 15 runs. In came Raina. But he too could not deliver and continued to be out of form getting out at 8 runs. In came, captain cool who kept his calm and gave good support to Gauti who was scoring very well for India. 

An unfortunate incident came when Gauti was on 91. A small mis-match by captain Dhoni led to Gauti's RUN-OUT. Infact, Dhoni accepted the fault in the post-match presentation. But this was the highest partnership for Team India: 60 runs. By this, Team India was 178-5. Jadeja failed to bat longer than 3 runs.

Next over by Malinga: first ball: Ashwin mis-timed it; the ball was in the air for a long time; but as the fate would be, Sangakarra dropped it! 1 life for Ashwin. Second was the DOT Ball. In the 3rd ball, Ashwin hit direct catch to the fielder extra cover. And who did not love that SIX by Irfan Pathan? Well that SIX was a no-ball too! My question is who can risk a full-toss ball at such crucial stage? (Every1 jumped off their seats at this 1!). And the next ball, Irfan Pathan sacrificed his wicket in the 49th over to save Dhoni in a RUN OUT. Bravo, as we must say! 

While I may sound like a commentator from ESPN, I cannot help it.. The match was such a ball-by-ball thrill to see.. Work left aside, all I knew was.. We have to win!! 

Vinay Kumar came next. In the last over.. Team India needed 9 runs of 6 balls. Dhoni to face Malinga! 2 runs, 1 run, 1 run, 1run and OUT! Vinay Kumar goes RUN OUT. Dhoni on strike again. 4 runs in 1 ball. Umesh comes in and just has to run! Malinga throws an almost wide ball. Dhoni hits it at extra cover, fielder stops it at sweeper cover. Till then, we have run 3 runs.... And it's a Tie! 

What? Yes! It is a Tie! .. An amazing thriller to say.. The match ended in a Tie on a Valentine's Day; simply means No Heart-Break! .. Each team got 2 points and MSD got MOM for his calm-headed approach in this tense situation! 

A special mention to Devengere Express aka Vinay Kumar. He is improving by every match and is delivering his 100%. While Umesh Yadav is said to be the find of the Tour, Vinay Kumar too, is making a mark in the Team. So far, he is also the highest wicket taker in the CB series. 

It is also a series of continuous non-performance for Rohit Sharma and might get replaced by Manoj Tiwari in the next match. Well, he is trying and he has got good number of chances too. Probably not the right time. 

Captain cool has again proved how being calm pays of well. In the earlier match, he was called a freak by the Aus captain Clarke! Simply put, that is his strength and that is his weapon!  

All-in-all, Well played both teams! Well done..!