India Vs Pakistan: T20 Cricket Series Drawn As Yuvraj Wins Ahmedabad Match For India!

By -


If Pakistan is winning India cannot be far behind! And vice versa! Whatever one of these two great competitive neighbors do the other can hardly accept and instead of reciprocation they prefer to retaliate! In politics non-acceptance translates shamelessly into denial, and in cricket defeat translates seamlessly into victory. Of course, Pakistan won the toss both the times and chased both the times…maybe that was unavoidable. But after Pakistan won the first T20 international cricket match in Bangalore India was in grave national danger of losing the Series and facing the music. That too…after five long years and being the benevolent hosts. Therefore India had to retaliate or rather deny Pakistan another victory. India won the second and last T20 international in Ahmedabad tonight defeating a valiant Pakistan by 11 runs thus sharing the honors equally with the Series drawn 1-1. 

Player of the Match Yuvraj Singh has delivered a tremendous match winning performance bringing back his past glory so emphatically. Put into bat India made a rousing start with openers piling up 44 runs in less than five overs. But when Gambhir got out at the team score at 44 followed by Rahane at 53 and Virat Kohli falling to a run out at 88/3 in 12 overs the familiar Indian story was unfolding again. But Yuvraj Singh had different ideas this time around. With a healthy run rate still maintained he blazed away to a stupendous 72 run knock in just 36 balls with 7 sixes and 4 fours. Skipper Dhoni (33 not out) gave him solid support and India reached a commanding total of 192/5 in allotted 20 overs. Though hit initially Umar Gul was brilliant again capturing four wickets—the only wicket taker for Pakistan.

Pakistan gave a fitting reply with openers Jamshed and Shehzad piling up 74 runs in about 10 overs when Ashwin made the first breakthrough. Yuvraj made it 84/2 the next over. Player of the Series Hafeez (55 not out) laid anchors for another crucial partnership with Umar Akmal. When Pakistan reached 146 in 16 overs looking set for an improbable victory the wickets started tumbling. The climbing asking rate and an accurate Dinda contributed largely to the slide. Finally the total of 192 proved too much for Pakistan and they folded up for 181/7 in allotted 20 overs. Continuing with his lapses behind the wicket captain Dhoni managed to save the T20 Cricket Series for now though. With the twists and turns part and parcel of the classic encounters between the two and the vice-versa factor added as a topping the three-match One-Day International Cricket Series that kicks off in Chennai on 30th December does not pretend to be but is indeed a mouth watering prospect. The Scorecard:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raghu Krishna: Adieu!

By -
Image
The man in the blue suit He was more of a dear friend than a boss. Raghu Krishna , the former Chief Producer of Films Division, Mumbai and Director of MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films) for 2004 and 2006 versions, passed away today following a brain stroke and coma. I first knew him as a film director in Films Division, Mumbai. As we became close we started playing table tennis. He was an attacking player specializing in smashes. Once I was defeated by a colleague and next game Raghu defeated him. Later, Raghu came over to my room for a fag and told me proudly, ‘I wanted to beat him because he beat you!’ I sensed his love for me instantly. Raghu appeared for an interview for the top post and finally got selected. He joined as Chief Producer in January 2004 and immediately took charge of MIFF 2004 as Festival Director. Till MIFF 2006 I worked under him and enjoyed every bit of it. He showed tremendous faith in me in the role of
Read more

Local Instability!

By -
Image
The two had not been in a stable state since the outbreak of the pandemic or positively longer perhaps. The problem was they had always been extremely close to each other like next door neighbors; however, the problem was exacerbated by their close physical proximity. Well, neighbors can be next door, but they have separate entrances and independent four-wall habitable units. In this case of the two there was no such personal space, they are almost joined together with separation impossible unless in the extreme case of physical elimination; no social distancing possible even if they wanted which in fact they did want on many occasions. But they had been under a mortal dread of a new entity forcing in its entry if one of them were eliminated. This situation exists even now.   They need each other very frequently on jobs that they have to perform together. For those kinds of jobs they indeed cooperate as much as each one is personally capable of. However, perhaps because of the exis
Read more

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

By -
Image
There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece . It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.   However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away
Read more

Kamalananda Bhattacharyya: Life and Works. And His Beautiful Songs!

By -
Image
Respectful tributes to my grandfather whom I never met in this life, but his music kept him alive in me all my life. January 4, 1951. Assam lost a great poet, composer-lyricist, playwright, actor and freedom fighter Bauli Kavi Kamalananda Bhattacharyya. On his 61 st death anniversary he is remembered fondly by Assam’s intelligentsia, artistes and music lovers. Born in 1894 at Nagaon, Kamalananda Bhattacharyya did not have an easy life. Brought up in a musical ambience he lost his father at a tender age of 15 and being the eldest son the full burden of seven brothers and family fell on him. Fighting against odds he went to Cotton College at Guwahati and passed the pre-university course. But he had to come back home before pursuing higher studies. Again he tried for graduation and went to Calcutta, but could not complete and had to join a secondary school as a teacher back home to meet the growing domestic needs. But even that was not for long. Sensitive and a patriot at heart,
Read more

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

By -
Image
The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming t
Read more

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

By -
Image
We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvemen
Read more

Disturbing Times: Renewed Madness and the Vicious Circle of the Absurd!

By -
Image
Photo: phrases.org.uk The Pandemic, at best, seemed only to have kept the madness of the modern age in a tight leash as long as it raged, creating a mortal fear over the whole of humankind. So, once the humans had discovered enough protection against it and succeeded in keeping it at bay, the modern-day madness seems to have come back with renewed vigor—to get back what they’ve lost over the last two years in real quick time. We can hardly pinpoint anyone to put the blame squarely on; because it’s affected almost every section or individual of the society. Coming to India, once the COVID-19 restrictions were completely lifted life’s started becoming more than normal. From the daily wage-earners and the vendors to the topmost business tycoons—almost everyone started showing extreme hurry to get back what they lost. The local admin authorities, also full of human beings only, joined in too; even the most discreet procedures were thrown out of the window. Tragedies, conflicts, absurdities
Read more