India Innings
37th Over: Tendulkar departs. Afridi holds on to a catch off Ajmal and Tendulkar falls for a well-made 85. The pressure is right back on India. Raina joins Dhoni.
35th Over: Tendulkar DROPPED for the fourth time, now off Hafeez. Afridi cannot believe it. Will it be costly for Pakistan? India are 182 for four
32nd Over: Gul back into the attack for his second spell. Tendulkar and Dhoni looking to build the Indian innings. Crucial phase of play in the match.
26th Over: Riaz gets Kohli. And Yuvraj. On a hat-trick. This is sensational stuff from Pakistan. An out-of-form MS Dhoni walks in to join a solid Sachin Tendulkar. India are 145 for four
22nd Over: Fifty for Tendulkar. The 95th of his ODI career and the second on the trot. And what a way to bring it up too. An exquisitely timed boundary.
Himanshu reckons India are lucky to have Sachin Tendulkar at the crease. It's getting slow and low gradually. The dual bounce means chasing anything over 250 would worry Pakistan.
20th Over: Tendulkar DROPPED for the second time and again off Afridi. The Little Master has already survived an LBW appeal and a stumping chance.
18th Over: Mohammad Hafeez breaks through for Pakistan. Gautam Gambhir departs but India are on solid ground in Mohali. Tendulkar on the verge of yet another fifty. India are 116 for two
16th Over: 100 up for India. Tendulkar and Gambhir going strong after a Sehwag blitzkrieg. Pakistan have somehow managed to tighten the noose, just a bit. A great contest shaping up.
Did YOU KNOW?
Sachin Tendulkar is now the leading run-getter in India-Pakistan ODIs.
Our correspondent Himanshu Shekhar says, "Watching Saeed Ajmal bowl one wonders if dropping R Ashwin was the right move. India would hope that Dhoni got it right. Meanwhile, Sachin has survived two massive appeals and looks like in for the long haul."
11th Over: Ajmal continues. Tendulkar gets a lifeline thanks to the UDRS. Gould has to take his decision back. Nothing for Ajmal. The umpire shakes his head, does not like the mistake he made. Another appeal. Stumped, is he? Third umpire rules in favour of Tendulkar and Mohali erupts. India are 76 for one
6th Over: Wahab Riaz into the attack and strikes Sehwag on the pads. REVIEW! And it goes in Pakistan's favour. India are one down. Gautam Gambhir walks into the middle.
4th Over: Razzak runs in. No respite for Pakistan. A boundary for Sehwag and a delightful cover-drive from Sachin Tendulkar.
3rd Over: Sehwag on the rampage, blasts Gul all around the park. Four boundaries. And a free hit too. Gul gets away with it.
1st Over: Sehwag drives Umar Gul through covers and India are away. What a start.
The Toss
India won the all-important toss and elected to bat against Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal at Mohali.
It was a great sight to see the Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan, Dr Manmohan Singh and Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, shake hands with the team members and pass on words of encouragement.
Even the PMs seemed a bit carried away by the sense of occasion!
CaptainSpeak (MS Dhoni): "I think it is vital and better for us to put runs on the board so we could put pressure on the opposition. I also don't know if I can say its the biggest game of my life but its certainly really huge!"
CaptainSpeak (Shahid Afridi): "I think we would have batted first as well but there is not much concern as I see a decent spread of grass that could come in handy for our spinners.
Pitch Report: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly says the track is full of runs and a score of 300 is chaseable. There is a little bit of grass on the pitch that could keep the wicket intact. Fast bowlers will extract mileage in the evening as the weather will come into play.
Our correspondent in Mohali, Himanshu Shekhar says it is a nice and sunny day as Mohali anticipates a cracker of a game. Covers are on the pitch but one expects it to be a typical one with good bounce and carry that would help seamers.
As the atmosphere builds up with thousands of fans thronging at different gates, the cops seem unable to take control. The entry points are difficult to negotiate and it appears to be as difficult and nightmarish as it feels when crossing the border illegally.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani arrived in Chandigarh today to witness the high octane cricket World Cup Indo-Pak semi-final encounter along with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
Gilani, who landed in a Pakistan Air Force aircraft on his first visit to India, was accompanied by his wife Fauzia and was received at the defence airport by Union Minister of State for Communication Sachin Pilot and Pakistan High Commissioner in India Shahid Malik among others.
TEAMS
India: V Sehwag, SR Tendulkar, G Gambhir, V Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (c), SK Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, MM Patel, A Nehra
Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (c), Abdul Razzaq, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal
MATCH PREVIEW
There will be no David or Goliath in the match. The past encounters between the teams suggest that reputation and experience will count for nothing and that every player will be under tremendous pressure with uncompromising and unforgiving fans on both sides. A good performance here can make one part of the folklore while a failure will be as good as sending somebody to the gallows. Never before was a player so conscious of the sword of Damocles.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni understands the magnitude of the occasion and speaks like a sage.
“There is hype, there is hysteria but we are not getting involved in it and that’s what is important. One thing you know about the hype is that thinking about it won’t help your performance and what doesn’t help your performance should be kept out. We have been preparing well, let us see how it goes,” Dhoni said during a press conference on the eve of the match.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 21 wickets, admitted that the Indians are the favourites going into the match. But despite that he believes he has got a great team which is capable of taking anyone to the cleaners.
“We have played above expectations so far. We've been through a tough time for the last seven or eight months but now we are playing like a unit. India are the favourites but we are pretty confident about our game. This World Cup matters a lot to us and we will try our best to rekindle the interest in the game back home,” the spinning all-rounder said.
India’s record against Pakistan is very impressive in the tournament: they have never lost to their arch-rivals. However when it comes to overall head-to-head, Pakistan by far has been the best side, winning 69 out of 119 matches.
Many cricket pundits believe the match is actually between India’s batting and Pakistan’s bowling. The pitch at the Punjab Cricket Association has always been partial to batsmen and the curator Daljit Singh has given no sign as yet that it would be any different this time.
As far as team composition is concerned, India are likely to field the same team that knocked the Australians out while Pakistan are unsure whether to go in with injury-prone Shoaib Akhtar.
Both teams have been great rivals over the years. Nothing is going to change on Wednesday, no matter how much people talk about cricket being a medium to thaw the relationship between the star-crossed neighbours. You can count me upon that!
India and Pakistan - World Cup 2011
Approaching milestones
- Virender Sehwag (998) needs two runs to complete his 1000 runs against Pakistan in ODIs.
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (976) requires 24 runs to complete his 1000 runs against Pakistan in ODIs.
- In case of a hundred, Sachin (99) would become the first batsman to complete 100 international centuries.
- Sachin, in case of a century, would become the first to register six hundreds in India-Pakistan ODIs. At present, he shares the record with Salman Butt. Both have registered five hundreds each.
- Sachin and Brian Lara share a record for most hundreds (5) against Pakistan in ODIs. In case of his 100th international hundred, he would become the first to post six hundreds against Pakistan.
- Sachin (6873), in case of 127 runs, would become the first to aggregate 7000 runs at home.
- Kamran Akmal (2905) needs 95 runs to complete his 3000 runs in ODIs.
- Misbah-ul-Haq (1949) requires 51 runs to complete his 2,000 runs in ODIs.
- Afridi is all set to establish two important bowling records. With just one wicket, he would take his tally to 22 and to overtake Waqar Younis' tally of 21 at 17.47 runs apiece in eight games in the Mandela Trophy in South Africa in 1994-95 - the previous Pakistan record for most wickets in a competition.
- Afridi, with only two wickets, would set a bowling record for most wickets by a captain in a competition/series. Greg Chappell had captured 22 wickets at 17.04 runs apiece in fourteen matches in the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup in Australia in 1980-81.
- Dhoni (5933) requires 67 runs to complete his 6,000 runs in ODIs.
- Gambhir (3949) needs 51 runs to complete his 4,000 runs in ODIs.
- Virat Kohli (1910) needs 90 runs to complete his 2,000 runs in ODIs.
India vs Pakistan in ODIs/World Cup
ODIs
India have won 46 and lost 69 out of 119 contested against Pakistan (NR 4). Pakistan's winning % of 60.00 is far better than India (40.00)
India have lost both the games against Pakistan at Mohali - by 7 wickets in the Pepsi Cup on April 1, 1999 and by four wickets on November 8, 2007.
World Cup
India enjoy 100% winning record against Pakistan at the World Cup, having won all four.
Overall - World Cup
India have won 37 and lost 26 out of 65 contested - winning % 58.59 (NR 1 and Tied 1)
Pakistan's success % is slightly better than India at the World Cup - Won 36 and lost 25 out of 63 played (NR 2) 59.01.
