INDIA VS PAKISTAN: SEMIFINAL PICTURES

INDIA VS PAKISTAN: SEMIFINAL REVIEW

India is ready to take on its traditional rival Pakistan in the crucial semifinal of CWC 2011 at Mohali.There is nothing bigger than this for an INDIAN or PAKISTANI cricketer to defeat their arch rivals.It is regarded as the mother of all battles by the media.
           India and Pakistan faced 4 times at world cup and Pakistan lost on all occasions.But previous record does n't matter in India-Pakistan clash.Pressure will be on both the sides.Handling pressure and agressiveness will hold the key to victory.
           Mind games have been started by the teams to pressurize there counterparts as an off field strategy.
Misbah ul Haq on Sunday said they have worked out plans for every Indian player.

Sachin will have to wait until after the World Cup for his 100th international century because we are not going to allow either him or any other Indian player to play a big innings,"Afridi said.
                Mohali is India's fastest pitch but any thing can't be predicted now.MID-DAY said yesterday that it will assist seamers.Some others says that it will be a sporty wicket with assistance of spin like Ahemadabad.

                 INDIA seems as favorite due its present form and home support.Sachin is in his best form and top 3 is always playing really well.Yuvraj Singh had a poor form before the world cup but he is the best all-rounder in this world cup.
Timely replacement of Pathan worked perfectly against Australia.Raina is looking solid at no 7 as a finisher.Only Dhoni's form is matter to concern for batting.It will be never easy for Pakistan to stop run feast if India gets a solid start.In bowling department Zaheer  is leading from the front .Aswin showed his class.Bhajji is improving.Yuvraj is bowling as an specialist bowler.Munaf is bowling ordinarily and Pakistan may attack munaf.I think Sreesanth should be included for semifinals according to the Mohali conditions.
                                       Pakistan will try its seam bowling to trap Indian top order.Umar Gul will be the main threat to Indian batsmans.Pakistani spinners should be played carefully.Senior pak players are advocating for Shoib Akthar but there is almost no chance for him.On batting front Pakistan is little bit unexperienced.With Yunis Batting at no 5 and Misbah at no 6,they have two fine players.Umar Akmal and Asad Shafiq are two key players.

Pakistan vs West Indies:Ist QF Preview

After the loss against India,West Indies finished group B as 4th and it will play Pakistan in the 1st quarter final at Dhaka.Pakistan looks a better team in cards,basically with a strong middle order and having rich experience in bowling.Toss will be an important factor as the Mirpur wicket assists spin and it is difficult to bat on in the 2nd innings.West Indies has played in this venue vs Bangladesh.

                          Pakistan performed superbly in the world cup beating two strong teams Srilanka and Australia.Pakistan suffered an accidental defeat against New Zealand.Opening is a big worry for them.Hafeez and Sehjaad has not given a good start yet.Now Akmal is opening with Hafeez.Asad Shafiq is in his best form at no 3 position.Yunis Khan and Misbah are consistent  through out the world cup.Pakistan has good strikers as Afridi and and Razzaq to accelerate the innings.Pakistani  batsmans have to score big to give chance to their  bowlers.

                          on the other hand the West Indies has suffered defeats from South Africa,India and England.The defeat against England was unexpected as the Windies lost from a winning position.Against India they rested Gayle.Daren Smith played a fine knock of 71  but the other batsmans were trapped against Indian spinners.Chris Gayle is a dengerous customer and can change the course of the game with in some overs.Sarwan is not perfoming as his merit.Experienced Chandarpaul is not playing.Now its the time to give him a chance for solidity in batting. Pollard has not shown his calibre completely,but if he stikes then he will even more destructive than Gayle.Skipper Sammy and Andrew Russail played some quick knocks.It will be the key that how they will play against the Pakistani bowlers.

  In bowling Pakistan are most experienced  side than the Windies.Bowling is the strength of Pakistan comprising Umar Gul,Shahid Afridi,Abdul Rehman and Saeed Ajmal.Shoib Akthar is not at his best form and might be miss the quarter final contest. Afridi is bowling superbly and he is the highest wicket taker of the world cup.Umar Gul is leading the pace bowling department and is devastating with his reverse swing.Saeed Ajmal is not given a chance but he is an attacking bowler.Abdul Rehman is the prefered choice for Afridi and he bowled economically.Razzaq is another bowler can be used as a seamer.Pakistan will try to struct the Indies batsmans with its spinners.West Indies bowling lacks experience.Besides this Kemar Roach,sammy and Russail are bowling well.They have the experience of playing in Mirpur against Bangladesh.If they will get conditions like that day the pace trio could derail the Pakistani batting.Left arm spinner Benn is another bowler who will try to restrict the PAK stroke players.Bishu is a good leg spinner but bowling to sub continent batsmans is always an uphill task.

                       Pakistan is the favorite of this match.

Neither Pathan nor Kohli,Its bowling to concern

After the game of South Africa vs Bangladesh Indian skipper MS Dhoni will be relaxing as with the loss of Bangladesh, India has entered to the Quarter Finals.Now Dhoni may execute some experiment with different options.India has entered into this WC as favorites but hasn't beaten any test team except Bangladesh on its way to last 8 berth.Personal performance of Sachin,Sehwag,Yuvraj,Zaheer has been excellent but India has not performed as a team .India started Its campaign from a run feast at Dhaka against Bangladesh at the opener,two hard working wins against minnows Ireland and Netherlands,thrilling tied game against England(which I even think as a defeat) and a loss from South Africa.Indian bowling is real concern apart from Zaheer.Harbhajan is struggling to take wickets and Dhoni is unable to decide who is the 2nd seamer.R Aswin is sitting on the bench and the unworthy Chawla is playing and playing.Munaf and Nehra both are experienced bowlers but both are inconsistent with their form.Sreesanth was expensive against Bangladesh and Dhoni has lost faith from him.Chawla is totally predictable and bowling every second ball googly.It will be a good occasion for Aswin to show his capabilities against West Indies.Although Yuvraj is bowling 10 overs every game,India need wicket taking bowlers to win the cup.Even England is defending scores as 171 and 243,but our bowlers want more than 338 runs from batsmans to defend.Sources said that there has been serious difference between Indian selectors and MS Dhoni about team selection.India has world's best batsmans in its squad.Starting from master blaster Sachin we have Sehwag,Gambhir,Kohli,Yuvraj,Dhoni,Raina and Pathan.After the loss against the South Africa there has been serious talks on batting.Some people want Raina to play inplace of Kohli or Pathan.Some are upset with Pathan's performance.But when we are scoring 290/330 runs why should we bother about batting.Why to blame Pathan if Yuvi and Dhoni could not accelarate the start Indian openers give?Kohli is a top order player and he should be come on to bat at no 4 as a back up for top order collapse. This will give a good base for the late order on which Yuvi, Dhoni and Pathan will accelerate the score.Now there are two choices for Dhoni,(1)Bringing back the confidence of Indian bowling or(2) Scoring and scoring more until the bowlers be able to defend it

SA thrashed BAN:WC campaign ends for Bangla Tigers

The journey of Bangladesh in the 10th world cup almost ended after
suffering a humiliating defeat against South Africa at home. In this
now-or-never contest at Sher-E-Bangla stadium Bangla Tigers
surrendered before the favorite proteas and lost the game by a huge
margin of 206 runs.South Africa rested their fiercy paceman due Steyn
and Morkel along with in form batsman AB Deviliers but the proteas won
the game convincingly.South Africa put on a huge total of 284 runs by
excellent batting displays of Amla,Smith,Kallis and Du Plessis.In
response to the run chase the Bangladeshi top order was ripped out by
seamer Tsotsobe.Bangladesh never recovered from initial blows and
bundled out for a merely 78 runs.With a negative run rate of -1.361
bangladesh is almost out of this compitition and entertaining England
entered into the Quarter finals.

South Africa snatched a thriller against Confident Host

At VCA stadium,Nagpur another fantastic game ended between two best teams.At the end the Proteas were the winner beating strong Indian team by 3 wickets.Earlier MSD won the toss and decided to bat at the sporty Jamtha wicket.Sachin and Sehwag were at their best and hitting the best bowling line up of the world all around the park.Tendulkar,who made his 48th ODI ton and overall 99th century during his excellent knock of 111.Sachin and Sehwag accumulated 142 runs for the 1st wicket stand in just 17.4 overs.India scored record 87 runs in the mandatory powerplay.Then Shewag draged a delivery of Faf du Plesiss on to his stumps after scoring 73 off just 66 balls.Then Gambhir join the party with Tendulkar and both made 125 runs for the 2nd wicket partnership.Tendulkar scored his century of just 92 balls.Soon he misshit Morkel and got out.India were 267 for 1 at 39.4 overs.But the real tragedy begun then.Gambhir and Promoted Pathan gave away their wickets trying to go for runs.This led the tragic collapse of Indian innings.India scored just 30 runs and lost 4 wickets in batting powerplay.India lost its 9 wickets for just 26 runs in a span of 9 overs.Steyn,who was not impressive in his first spell bowled superbly and destructed Indian innings.Steyn picked 5 for 50 from 9.4 overs.India, which once looked to reach 350 had got all out to just 296.In response the Proteas started watchfully.Smith was struggling to Indian pacers,but Amla was playing well.Zaheer got his bunny Smith in 9th over.But the cool headed Amla and experienced Kallis led the charge and made 86 runs partnership before Amla(61) was caught behind off Harbhajan.Then man-in-form AB Deviliers joined and they were playing well.Crucial run out of Kallis(69) changed the game.But then AB and JP Duminy took batting powerplay and thrashed Indian bowlers.In the final over of powerplay dangerous AB caught on the mid-wicked boundary by Kohli off Harbhajan.Deviliars made a quick 52 off 39 before getting out.India came back to game by taking quick wickets of AB,JP Duminy and Van wyk but cool headed Du Plessis batted sensibly and J Botha smashed some fine strokes before caught on a miss-hit.SA needed 13 runs off last over and this time Nehra was given the ball.Robin Peterson smashed two back to back boundaries for 10 runs.South Africa won the game with 2 balls to spare.Dale Steyn was man of the match for his excellent bowling performance.

India passed Dutch test,qualifies for QFs

India continued their dominance and well on their to quarter finals after beating Netherlands by 5 wickets at Feroz shah kotla.The low scoring contest was almost a one-sided affair.Dhoni again kept faith on UP leggie Chawla. Local guy Nehra got a chance to play in the place of Munaf.The Dutch won the toss and batted first.The Dutch openers Eric(28) and Barressi(26) gave a good start.They put together 56 runs for the opening partnership before Eric was castled by Chawla.Last match's hero,Yuvraj then took 2 wickets quickly by dismissing Barressi and Ten Doeschate.The Netherlands were 3 for 99.Then Nehera on his 1st ball of 2nd spell got the wicket of set batsman Cooper(29).Bas Juiderent was next to depart after being struck square on the pads by a reverse swinging delivery from Zaheer.Then Dutch captain Borren(38) and Mudassar Bukhari(21) made a partnership to help their side to reach close to 200 run mark.But a superb spell from Zaheer dismissed both to conclude the Dutch innings.The Netherlands were bundled out on a modest 189 in 47th over.In response,openers Sachin and Sehwag gave India a brisk start and it looked like the game would be over than expected.But Sehwag(39) caught at cover off Peter Seelar in the 8th over.Seelar then went on to dismiss Sachin (27) and new man Pathan(11) in one over.Sachin past the 2000 world cup runs mark during his innings.In 15th over Kohli was bowled by Borren and India were 99-4 and Dutch were in little bit of hope of an upset.But Gambhir (28) and Yuvraj put 40 runs for 5th wicket stand before Gambhir was castled by Bukhari in 24th over.Then skipper Dhoni and Yuvraj guided India to get past the required score with 13.3 overs to spare.Yuvraj awarded man of the match for his all round performance.The victory over the Dutch virtually sealed a berth for the hosts in the quarterfinals.

England stunned South Africa

One day with dull matches and the another day washed by rain, the weekend was all set to be spoiled,but the spin paradise of Chennai produced one of the thrilling game of the world cup.England , which was once determined as one of the team that could face an early elimination stunned the South African team by beating them by just 6 runs in a titanic encourter.Starting from a thrilling tie against India to the shock of losing to Ireland they have now produced a stunning fight back to beat South Africa in a low scoring contest. England won the toss and choose to bat first.Robin Pieterson opened the bowling and dismissed both the openers in the very 1st over.Bell followed quickly and England was struggling at 15/3.Then Bopara and Trott made a vital partnership of 100 runs.Bopara played one of the finest knock at a devastating pitch.He scored 60 runs off 98 balls before getting out.Trott supported him with his innings of 52 runs.But after they got out English lower order was totally failed due to excellent bowling performance by Tahir and Morkel.Tahir managed to bowl really well and got the figure 4/38 and Morkel got 2 wickets.Only Swann(16) and Prior(10) managed to past double digits.England managed to score only 171 runs in 45.4 overs.In response to run chase the Protea's started watchfully .Left arm spinner Yardy opened the attack.Amla was hitting really well but Smith was struggling to play Anderson and Swann.Amla and Smith made 63 for the 1st wicket in 14.1 overs before Smith dismissed at 22.Kallis did n't extend his innings and dismissed for 15.Amla played on to wicked off Broad at 41.South Africa was in trouble.AB bowled on a brillant delivery by Anderson and Du Plessis was run out by a good throw of Bell.South Africa was struggling at 7-127 but the partnership from Van Wyk and Steyn threatened to take the match away.They had made a good partneship of 33 runs and SA was at 160 for 7 with just 12 runs to win.But Bresnan bowled Van wyk and that was the turning point.Stuart Broad finished the Proteas tail and Sa were 6 runs short of target.A fighting innings from Steyn(20 off 31 balls) had gone in vain.Broad took 4 wickets. Bopara won the M.O.M due to his well made half century.

Indian Bowling:A matter of concern

It is too early to examine the performance of the team but Indian bowlers are totally unimpressive in previous games.India conceded 287 runs to Bangladesh and shared points against England after posting a huge total of 338.If the game against Bangladesh had showed some of the holes of Indian bowling,the match with England has exposed its weaknesses completely. Indian batting line -up is solid and they are performing excellently.Sachin and Sehwag are at their prime form.Kohli and Gambhir are supporting them very well too.Yuvi has regained his form.But the bowlers are totally off coloured.Zaheer is the only bright spot in Indian bowling so far.His tripple blow to England at the crucial stage brought back India in that game.Zaheer has got figures of 2-40 and 3-63 so far,but other bowlers have failed completely.Munaf has been consistent without inspiring,Bhajji has yet to strike.Sreesanth and Chawla gave away too many runs.The fifth bowlers Yusuf and Yuvraj has gone for 67 runs in 10 overs at last game.With Nehra and Aswin sitting on the bench India have to rethink its bowling strategy.Nehera is recovering from an injury.He is a wicket taking bowler and he should be their in the playing XI.On the other hand Aswin has to fight with Chawla for the second spinner spot.Chawla has gone for 72 runs last match.If India has to win the world cup they have bowl excellently and have to take wickets at the dead flat pitches. There has been suggestions coming from former players to play 5 specialist bowlers in final XI.Many teams are playing in this world cup with five pure bowlers.Even South Africa has played with 3 spinners and 2 seamers in their final XI.Pakistan and Srilanka are playing with 5 bowlers every game.Australia has a good combination too.It is now a million dollar question that whether India will play with 5 specialist bowlers or remain with its 7 batsmans theory.With top order striking consistantly Dhoni could take the risk of playing another bowler by droping a batsman.But that will add additional pressure to the top order. it is unlikely that Dhoni will change his configuration. India will face the highly motivated Irish side on next sunday that thrashed the English side with a record breaking chase .India should play another paceman by droping Chawla in this match.

Ireland upsets England

They can beat Australia at their home and retain the ashes one day but they could face a humiliating defeat the very next day. History repeats once again for England. England,which tied the high voltage clash against India few days ago lost to low profile Ireland today. It was the same Chinnaswamy stadium of Bangalore which resistered a thrilling tie last Sunday,became the part of history of Irish cricket. but it was not the heroic of Strauss or Bresnan,It was one man's show.Kevin O'Brian who had hit 6 sixes and 13 fours during his innings of  unbeaten 113.Kevin smashed the english bowlers brutally all around the park and resistered the fastest century at world cup scoring in just 50 balls. Kevin was looking solid against Bangladesh but unfortunately failed to win that game.But this time he delivered nicely for Ireland . We cant ignore the performance of Cusack and Mooney.Both played vital knocks.But it was kevin's night.

England, which was always inconsistant with its performance won the toss and decided to bat first.KP and Strauss started solidly and Trott and Bell capitalised the innings.Bell made 82 and Trott score 92.Collingwood's lack of form continued and england tell collapsed quickly.Mooney took 4 wickets but england was able to post a good total of 327. In responding the chase Porterfield fell on a duck.Joyce,Striling played slowly but once Ireland was struggling at 115/5.Kevin and Cusack combined a match winning partnership.Cusack fell after scoring 47 but Mooney finished the game for Ireland with 5 ball to spare.England bowling was so out matched and well supported by their fielders.Even Strauss dropped one catch.


With this shocking result the battle for quarterfinal place is going to be more competative and the point shared with India will be vital for England.