India emerge winners as Pakistan exits Asia Cup 2010 fighting
In a game that lived up to its hype and expectation, yesterdays game between Pakistan and India went down to the wire as both sides displayed excellent cricketing skills and showed the world just why they are so good at cricket.
One can safely say that the match was evenly poised up till the last over when India required 3 runs of 2 balls. Harbhajan Singh then came to the occasion and smashed the penultimate ball from Mohammad Aamer for a six as India knocked Pakistan out of the Asia Cup with a three-wicket win
Pakistan batting first posted a total of 267 as both their openers gave them a good start and the middle order batsmen all contributed and played their role. At the end of their innings it was suspected that they were perhaps 10-15 runs short of what they could have made. This was exactly the case as India won with only one ball to spare as they scored 52 runs in the last five over’s.
India will now be meeting hosts Sri Lanka in the final to be played on the 24th of June and before that the two sides will face each other on Tuesday in the last game of the draw. Pakistan and Bangladesh, who have not won a match yet and thus stand eliminated, will play each other for a consolatory win as they meet on Monday.
India’s batting started solid as both opener Gautam Gambhir and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni clicked at the time that mattered most for their team. However to their disappointment they could not finish the match. As just when they were cruising home, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal managed to get the wicket of Gambhir, thus, triggering a middle-order collapse with four wickets falling and only 39 runs being added to the scoreboard.
With this Pakistan got back into the game, however India managed to get back their concentration right in time as both Raina and Harbhajan stepped in to lead India's recovery and crush Pakistan’s hopes of an Asia Cup.
Despite Pakistan emerging as the eventual losing side one must add that the country, the fans and the captain could not have asked for a better display of cricket. It always does become hard to come to terms with such a loss especially when u get so close and yet so far. Pakistan unfortunately have been victims of this twice in a short span (the T-20 semi final loss to Australia). Captain Afridi however remains satisfied about his team’s performance and despite the loss praises the Indians for holding their nerves and winning.
As quoted before and is usually the case in such high pressure matches, controlling ones nerves in such situations is usually key to success. Yesterday, the Indians managed just that as they sailed their way into the finals of the Asia Cup.
There can never be a Pakistan-India came where you do not come across an exchange of hot words between players. This emotional intensity was witnessed yet again yesterday. During the match verbal clashes between Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Akhtar and earlier between Kamran Akmal and Gautam Gambhir were witnessed. On both the occasions the field umpires, Billy Bowden and Billy Doctrove had to intervene.
Pakistan’s former captain and wicket keeper, Moin Khan says that a lack of cricket between the two countries is a major reason for this as both teams have to wait too long to seek revenge. Before yesterdays’ Asia Cup match, Pakistan last met India in September, last year, in the Champions Trophy in South Africa and Pakistan had won.
Harbhajan known for his in-disciplinary antics had a spat with Shoaib Akhtar in the finals stages of the match. While, earlier in the innings Gautam Gambhir featured in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Pakistan’s wicket-keeper. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shoaib Akhtar had to separate the two.
The team managers say that the match referee had a chat with the players from both sides and decided not to charge them as he felt it was a heat of the moment incident and even Pakistan’s captain Shahid Afridi played down the incident.
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