The
India-Pakistan match on September 30 became historic not because India defeated Pakistan convincingly, but because
the intense duel continued till the latter threw the former out of the ICC
World Cup T20 2012. India
crashed out despite defeating South Africa
in a thriller by 1 run and thus allowing its arch-rival Pakistan enter the semi finals.
There was a
technical possibility of both India
and Pakistan
entering the semis. For that Pakistan
needed to beat Australia by
minimum 40-run margin and India
too needed to beat South
Africa by a large margin. Unfortunately this
did not happen. What happened was this: Pakistan
indeed defeated the mighty Australia
by a big margin of 32 runs, but not the required 40 allowing Australia
qualify. This gave India the
challenge to win against South Africa
with a good enough margin to better the Pakistan net run rate to throw
their arch-rival out of the tournament. The duel raged on.
India would have loved to chase yesterday knowing
exactly how much they needed to edge past Pakistan’s net run rate. But South Africa
won the toss and sent them in. India
struggled to make 152/6 in allotted 20 overs. Now, India
needed to restrict South
Africa to 121 or less and win the match and
reach the semi finals edging out their arch-rival. The duel finally ended when South Africa reached 122 in the sixteenth over
with the loss of five wickets and Pakistan thundered into the semis.
Making tactical blunders all the way South Africa
skipper yesterday brought in Faf du Plessis in place of out-of-form Richard
Levi, and Plessis ironically threw India out of the tournament single
handedly by making an explosive 65 off 38 balls—the highest individual score of
the match. South Africa,
their dreams being mercilessly broken so many times by other teams, this time
demolished India’s
though languishing with 3 consecutive super eight losses.
Pakistan deserved to be in the semis, because
they stopped the juggernaut called Australia in this tournament. With
four consecutive wins while chasing Australia chose to chase again
yesterday and again restricted its opponent to less than 150. But this time
their match winning machine Shane Watson failed and Pakistan spinners mesmerized them into
absolute submission at 117/7 in 20 overs. Pakistan
meet the hosts and another tough Asian rival Sri Lanka in the first semi final
on 4th October. With India
out of the way Pakistan
has a tremendous opportunity to emerge the ultimate champions.
Maybe India
never deserved to reach the knockout stage. The reasons are all clear: Skipper
Dhoni could never find his best team making experiments unnecessarily and
resting key players in key match earlier on. He succeeded with three spinners
against a weaker opponent and failed miserably against the toughest. He made
the changes with desperation and won against Pakistan. When he should have taken
two spinners against South Africa
who struggled with spin so far he decided to stick to the same winning team
against Pakistan.
Overdependence on Virat Kohli continued throughout. Gambhir continued with his inexplicable
failures. And yesterday, when they needed to post a huge total their all match
winners failed after promising to build on the good starts initially—Virat,
Yuvraj and Sehwag. Yuvraj later made up with his bowling efforts capturing the man
of the match award, but Sehwag fell to a downright rash shot. Even the modest
total of 152 was possible thanks to some lusty hitting by Raina and Dhoni who
came in late, again inexplicably. Only the most balanced team can hope to win
the final honors.
On 1st
October defending champions England
got eliminated losing to Sri Lanka
and New Zealand could not
win against West Indies from a position of
command at least three times.
The rest of the
matches now: October 4: First Semi Final—Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka; October 5:
Second Semi Final—Australia Vs West Indies; October 7: Final. Al day and night
matches in Colombo.
