Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Epic begins...

So, all set for the biggest match of this 20-20 World Cup.. Malik won the toss and put India into bat... Mohammad Asif bowled brilliantly and took 4 quick wickets and within 6 overs, India were tottering at 36-4... Uthappa joined by Dhoni put on a good partnership.. Uthappa scored 50 off 39 balls and was out... Dhoni joined the tailenders and pushed India's score to 141-9 in 20 overs... Pathan did a cameo of 20 from 15 balls including 2 consecutive 6's off Afridi before eventually getting out trying for the 3rd... So, was this score enough???
Pakistan started pretty shakily as well... Some accurate bowling by RP and Sreesanth caused some damage in the Pakistani ranks.. Wickets were falling at regular intervals and there came a situation where Pakistan needed some 40 odd runs in 3 overs... Misba-ul-haq and Arafat flayed the Indian bowling attack to all parts of the ground.. And when Agarkar went for 17 runs of the penultimate over, it looked as if Pakistan would get through... 12 runs needed of the last over... In came Sreesanth to bowl the last over...
1st ball -> Arafat hits a single...
2nd ball -> Misbah hammers the ball over covers for a one bounce four!!! Gr8 shot!!!
3rd ball -> 2 runs to long on... So, 5 runs needed from 3 balls...
4th ball -> 4 more!!! Misbah drives past midoff!!! Sexy shot!!! 1 run needed from 2 balls...
5th ball -> A very important dot ball just around the off stump beating the batsman...
6th ball -> A bouncer on the ribs and Misbah tries to run for a single.. Yuvi is faster and throws the ball at Sreesanth who removes the bails in a flash... Misbah is run out!! And ITS A TIE!!!!!

So.. That makes history of sorts in international cricket where for the first time, a BOWLOUT is gonna decide the match... Bowlout is a situation where each team selects 5 bowlers to bowl at the stumps.. A hit gives a point and a miss doesnt.. Similar to penalty shootout in Futbal... So, India's 5 bowlers are Sehwag, Harbhajan, Uthappa, Sreesanth and Pathan... And Pakistan's 5 bowlers are Arafat, Gul, Afridi, Tanvir and Asif... Malik again won the toss and asked India to start the bowlout...

Bowlout:
Sehwag comes in to bowl... His normal run up and hits!!!!!
Arafat comes in.. Bowling in a shorter run up goes for a full toss... But misses it!!!
So, its 1-0 to India...
Bajji comes in next... Bowls straight and hits the leg stump!!! Celebrates like he has got a wicket!!!
Umar gul.. Again a shortened run up... Bowls and its outside the off stump.. He has missed it!!!
2-0 to India!!!
Uthappa comes in next... We havent seen him bowl.. Wonder what will happen.. Is he the right person to do the job?? He comes in... And BINGO!!! Gud action and a gud bowling indeed... And he bows to the crowd!!! He is starting to become a youth icon of sorts...
Afridi walks in... Bowls a leg break and whoa!!! Thats dreadfully down the leg side!! Missed out by quite a few inches!!
India has won it!! 3-0!!!!!
And the points that must come to your notice!!!
India keeps up the reputation of being unbeaten in World cups against Pakistan..
More importantly.. Friday is a lucky day for Pakistan.. Wondering why they lost!!! Friday was over and the latter part of the innings and the Bowlout were in fact on a saturday morning.. The match ended at 1.30am on saturday!!! So, India did it!!! Not to take anything from them.. They fielded brilliantly... Pathan and uthappa rocked the day... But the man of the match!!! was Mohammad Asif... Hope you enjoyed the post... Will blog about any other interesting 20-20 match if it so happens... Kudos!!!

1 comments:

AiShU said...

ChAkDe InDiA!
men in blue repeats d history of being unbeaten by d GrEeN rIvaLry at d WoRld CuP.
gud narration da...especially d change frm friday to saturday was cool...gud job again..

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