ASIA CUP - INDIA VS PAKISTAN

India win the high pressure face off against Pakistan, one of their better performances of recent times.As an Indian, the boundless elation, the blend of feelings evoked and the ecstatic cheer it brings is unfelt at any other Indian triumph.The way in which the victory was
achieved revived the memories of Miandad hitting
a six off the last ball by Chetan Sharma and clinching victory for Pakistan.It was pay back time
at Dambulla with Harbhajan hitting that marvelous six off Amir, sparking celebrations through out the country.As expected, the encounter had all the ingredients to form a thrilling contest with many twists and turns and came as a breath of fresh air from cricketing point of view at a time when the focus is at FIFA World cup.

Praveen Kumar started things off for India with a poor over, spraying the bowl outside off but returned to the basics after that. The logic behind giving Nehra the new ball instead of Zaheer can only be explained by Dhoni or the team mangement.Anyways, Nehra bowled well though India was unable to pick up early wickets.Zaheer does not even look like the shadow of his old self. He is lethargic in the field and his bowling is getting increasingly inconsistent, though he did bowl well in the end. Praveen varied his pace regularly and it was a treat to watch him bowl at the fag end. He got the important wicket of Afridi, though he lost the plot when Akmal took him apart.Harbhajan, once again, had an off day against Pakistan. Surprisingly, he has a poor record against Pakistan in the ODI format and today's performance hardly helps in improving his statistics. Harbhajan's effectiveness was also blunted by some superb batting by Malik against him and also by poor field placements by India.India had only 4 fielders inside the ring for Malik and that was a mistake as Malik is apt at finding singles with ease.Once again, India had only 4 fielders in the ring for the debutant Amin. Amin would have been under a lot of pressure as it was his debut match and India were his opposition.Hence, placing a defensive field allowed him easy singles.Not much damage was done as a result of these mistakes as Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals.


It was a very good move by Pakistan to send Malik at No.3 as Butt and Malik have proved to be India's nemesis, more often than not, in the past. Pakistan players tend to reserve their best for India and good running between the wickets was a proof of this.Indian players were scintillating in their fielding efforts.Jadeja's fielding effort got rid of the ominous looking Salman Butt.Rohit and Raina were also great to watch. The catch by Virat Kohli rekindled the memories of glistering performances by Kaif and (younger)Yuvraj in the field. Let's hope the likes Nehra and Sehwag emulate the performance of young guns and that the youngsters keep up the good work.


Shoib Akhtar and Amir started extremely well for Pakistan, keeping things tight and bowling bright lines and lengths.Virendra Sehwag looked completely out of sorts even before his injury. He was beaten several times by Amir and just seems clueless when situation demands him to see off a bowler.Gautam Gambhir was back in form with a gritty and pleasing knock. The singles were coming easily and running between the wickets had much more purpose to it. He also put in a dive at one stage, a good sign.Pakistan didn't help themselves by dropping him at 69.Eventually, he gave away his wicket in the only way he looked like getting out today and that was his repeated failures to late-cut the ball.Virat Kohli looked brilliant in his short stay at the crease.Its still early days in his career and he has to learn to convert the starts into big scores.The move by Dhoni to bat himself at no.4 is certainly debatable as Rohit could have been sent in. Loss of Dhoni's wicket at that stage might have spelled doom for India.It was not to be as Gautam and Dhoni knit together a match winning partnership.I may sound funny but Afridi also played a significant role in the blossoming of this partnership!Dhoni was beaten 3 times in a space of two overs by Ajmal. Removing Ajmal from the attack after his 6 overs and introducing Malik just indicates the mindset of Afridi to give his bowlers defined no. of overs at specific stages of a match. Given the situation, Ajmal deserved atleast one more over and the result could have been very different had he got rid of Dhoni.Dhoni was extremely unlucky to get out in the 43rd over given to Malik, a poor move by Afridi as Razaq had 5 overs in his kitty to go with 3,2 and 2 of Akhtar,Amir and Ajmal respectively. Rohit was casual in his batting display and got out in an obtuse manner. He was dropped by Akmal at 11 off Akhtar's bowling and failed to capitalize.Afridi made yet another poor move by removing Akhtar from the attack and bringing Amir on in the 39th over, though it hardly proved costly.

Watching him bat is frustrating and annoying. He is a bauble as far as cricket is concerned.Today, he scored 6 off 9 balls including 1 off the misfield by Akhtar and 2 off the misfield by a cover point fielder.He was bowled the first ball he faced of a spinner(Ajmal). Yes, i am talking of none other than Ravindra Jadeja, the fruitless and incompetent "all rounder" who is as oblivious to batting as dogs are to flying! To think he did not have time and had to have a go is ridiculous. There is never time for no.7 in these situations, be it a Hussey or a Kemp, a Morkel, a Mathews, a Klusner or a Pollard. Harbhajan came to bat at no.8 at scored 15 off 11 including that amazing and memorable strike off Amir to clinch victory.Now,should Jadeja be batting up the order than Harbhajan or even Praveen for that matter??Forget about his batting position, does he deserves to be in the Indian national team?The fact is that Jadeja is simply not an all rounder! His batting is pathetic, futile and ineffective and his bowling avg. is worse than that of Kevin Pieterson and Michael clarke..Which book on cricketing laws says it is a necessity to have an all rounder in a team?There was a time when India had 4 specialists spinners in their ranks simply because we did not have a fast bowler.Having an "all rounder" just for the sake of it can really prove disastrous in big matches as it almost proved today.
A partnership of 6 off 17 balls is like Christmas for a Turkey! One does not want it!!Jadeja seems to be enamored with playing cricket. His batting in today's match is once again a premonition to the selectors for the situations that may arise.


A match between the arch rivals hardly seems to be complete without a brawl or two these days! Gautam Gambhir and Kamran Akmal exchanged a few words before Harbhajan and Akhtar exchanged verbal blows.As usual, Pakistan players seemed to ignite the brawls.Now, India face Sri Lanka having already qualified for the finals of the Asia cup.Its time to give the likes of Dinda and Tiwary a look in against a strong and confident looking Sri Lankan unit.