WaseemBhai
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WASEEM SIDDIQUI
It's over. India were all over Pakistan
It was a nightmare Pakistan would like to forget as soon as possible. From the word go it looked like Pakistan have seen a ghost. The ghost of Indian ascendency and their record of not to lose to Pakistan in any World Cup match. And they kept to a hundred percent beating Pakistan, their arch rivals, by seven wickets in the curtain raiser of the World Twenty-20 Cup at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka,
It looked like Pakistan are in trance as soon as their openers Ahmed Shehzad and Kamrak Akmal entered the ground. Their comical run out looked like they have seen a ghost in the middle of the strip as both seemed to have frozen at the center of the pitch.
The two batsmen close to a handshaking distance in the middle of the pitch as Shehzad abandoned Akmal as if trying to scape the imaginary ghost. Akmal on his part dropped anchor halfway down and by the time rerurned it was too late to recover the ground as Bhuvneshwar Kumar's direct hit was right onb target.
Their captain Mohammad Hafeez attributed the tragedy to the below par score by Pakistan. But that was not the only reason for their defeat.
It was actually the calm and calculated approach by their opponents to the frenzied and aimless direction by the Pakistani batsmen that brought their downfall. Their terminally ill batting, their perennial weakness, once again let them down.
All the Pakistan batsmen were culrprit of playing rash shots, if one can still call them a shot. Never in control of the stroke or at ease at the crease, they kept on playing into the hands of the Indian fielders.
The settled and planned approach of the Indian players was a marked contrast to the Pakistan response of jittery legs and shaking hands---both while batting and fielding. In comparison the settled Indian bowlers and batsmen went on to clinically complete the total Pakistan annihilation.
Pakistan's hopes of a Shahid Afridi encore of his Asia Cup exploits never materialised and Pakistan paid the heavy price on pinning hopes on Afridi coming to the party again. The odds of an Afridi coming to the rescue are always equal to one winning a US lottery.
Once the Pakistan batsmen were restricted to a below par 130 in their quota of overs it was almost impossible for Pakistan bowlers to restrict the in-form solid Indian batsmen and they cantered to the finish line with nine deliveries to spare.
To add to Pakistan woes Suresh Raina was dropped when only on 7 as the buttery Pakistan figers were unable to hold him. And it was by their best fielder Afridi in the slip. Raina and Virat Kohli gave some good lessons with batting prowess.
Pakistan's main weapon Saeed Ajmal was carted for 12 runs in one over by Shekhar Dhawan earlier but the duo realising that he is the only one capable of causing a flutter with his variations dropped anchors and his next three overs resulted in only six more runs.
The Indians played his overs giving him the due respect but still the target was at least 20-25 runs short to pose any real threat to the Indians.
The defeat has left Pakistan in a precarious position in a group which also has Australia and West Indies to be tackled with and if Pakistan wants to keep their record of having at least played in all semi-finals in the format intact will have to improve leaps and bounds.
