How did they do it ? : India vs Pak T-20 !

First goal for India must have been to make it to the next round by restricting the run-rate and stretching the Pak innings beyond 14.4 overs. It was as good a goal as winning. But not many were optimistic when India were tottering at 48-4 from 9 overs. But some good work from Uthappa, Dhoni and Pathan saw India reaching a respectable total. Well ! 141-9 from 20 overs was supposedly not good enough especially when the opposition was Pakistan who had the consistent Salman Butt, blazing Shoaib Malik and the devastating Afridi. India had no experienced bowler other than Agarkar and Harbhajan who were nowhere near their best in recent past. So the odds were heavily against India. Yet they were able to pull off a thriller and managed to keep their record of being unbeaten against Pakistan in world cup intact.


Pakistan looked vulnerable right from the beginning of their innings. RP Singh, Sreeshanth, Agarkar, Pathan and bhajji ; all of them managed to keep the run-rate below 6 till 17th over. Just when it seemed that India had clinched the match, came the devastating over by Agarkar who gave away 17 , leaving 12 required off the last over. Sreesanth gave away 10 of first four balls including two boundaries. It looked like India lost it miserably. Just then he managed a dot ball to Misbah-ul-haq. Now everyone was on his feet waiting for the last ball, with the scores tied. Sreesanth pitched it outside the off stump with a decent bounce and Misbah mistimed it and ran for the ONE run which was not to come. Sreesanth made no mistake in taking the bails off at the other end thus leaving every INDIAN in delight.( BITS common rooms were just one example. Everyone was shouting like anything. People were hugging each other and a few even danced.) So the match lived up to its typical reputation.


Since you can't leave it tied in a T-20 match, a bowl out was still in there. Everyone was again surprised when India gave away the list of its five bowlers : Sehwag, Uthappa, Harbhajan ( !!!) with Pathan and Sreesanth. Pakistan stuck to its regular five bowlers. But soon it became evident that Indians were a lot wiser. All three surprise selections did hit on target while their counterparts were nowhere near the stumps. Uthappa took a bow taking his hat off as he rattled the stumps and everyone went in a tizzy when Afridi missed it as a reply !!

So India proved to be a better side at the end. But a lot of questions remained unanswered.
1. Why could India not score big ?

2. Who should open ? Sehwag failure saga continues.

3. Can Dhoni return to his hitting days ?

4. Did India not miss the BIG THREE, especially the master blaster ?

5. India fielded better. When will they be best ?

6. Why didn't Pakistan hit right from the start ? Were they Helping Indian to get through [:D] ?

Anybody for answers ???

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