Cricket Blog

Hahahahaha. I can’t believe I missed the ending. What a bloody match, as if India-Pakistan are any different. This is what Twenty20 is all about, and I have to say One Day Internationals, better watch out. So far the tournament has been spectacular. Three matches every day, and to be quite honest, this is getting difficult for me to review every single match, but I will try my best.

Pakistan won the toss and put India in to bat. The weather was overcast and it would rain later on. Regardless, India started off disastrously and had lost their top order in the blink of an eye thanks to some sensational bowling from Mohammad Asif. The conditions were favoring the bowlers, and Asif made full use of it as he exposed the Indian batting by ripping through the top order. The score read 36-4 from only 6.4 overs. Robin Uthappa was joined by new skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Together to two put on a much needed 46 run partnership.

Uthappa seems to be going from strength to strength as he registered India’s first fifty in the World Cup. India’s previous match against Scotland, yesterday, had been washed out due to heavy rains and India had to win this match with a decent net run rate otherwise they would have had to suffer the ignominy of another first round exit from another World Cup, albeit a Twenty20 one.

A late flourish from Irfan Pathan, in his comeback game, and Dhoni helped India to a low, yet defendable, total of 141. It was time for the Pakistani master blasters to take centre stage. The masters came, but they got blasted off instead. Pakistan were in a similar predicament as India, however batting second one would have expected them to do a whole lot better. Irfan Pathan was the star with the bowling as he picked up 2 wickets and was the best Indian bowler on ground. His 4 overs conceded only 20 runs and, more importantly, he bowled a maiden over.

Pakistan still managed to motor around and, when Agarkar dropped Afridi to a caught and bowled chance, it seemed that they may just scrape through. However, there was more drama to unfold. Afridi did get out to a top-edge to Karthik giving Harbhajan his only wicket. Had it not been for Misbah Ul Haq (53 from 35 balls) and some hard hitting by Yasir Arafat (12 from 5 balls), Pakistan would have lost the match. Not that they ended up winning. With 2 balls remaining and 1 run required, only a team like India or Pakistan can goof it up. This time however it was Pakistan and they got a runout of the last ball, with the scores level at 141.

This is when the world was given the first Bowl Out in an international Twenty20 match. The rules are very simple - each team selects 5 bowlers and each bowler has to bowl and hit the stumps. There is only the bowler, the wicketkeeper, the umpire and the match referee involved. In case of a tie, the Bowl Out begins again with the same 5 players.

Shoaib Malik won the toss and asked India to go first. India selected Sehwag, Harbhajan, Uthappa, Sreesanth and Pathan. India started with Sehwag who had a look of bemusement on his face, the first shoot-out ever in the history of an international match. He disappointed a lot of, wait…., Pakistani fans as he hit the stumps with a fast, flat delivery. Arafat then came in for Pakistan and he also kept up with the consistency, disappointing Pakistani fans by missing the stumps. Harbhajan was next for India and he continued on with the trend. His celebration was as if he had repeated his Eden Gardens hat-trick feat. Umar Gul was next in line for Pakistan. He also missed and now India were leading the shoot-out 2-0. Suprisingly, Robin Uthappa was given the ball. And in keeping with his sensational form of the past couple of weeks he also hit the stumps. Pakistan were now in a dilemma, after bowling magnificently in the first innings, their first two bowling options in the Bowl Out had failed. So Malik turned to the tried and tested Shahid Afridi, who completely missed going down the leg side. India had won the tied match and the celebrations were just amazing.

Click here for the full scorecard

Match Highlights

Short highlights of India’s batting:

Bowl Out Highlights

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