Team India Knock Australia Out Of World Cup 2011!

I said in one of my posts earlier that somebody needed to stop Australia before they ran away with the ICC Cricket World Cup for the fifth time! Pakistan stopped them! Team India knocked them out tonight! Incredible, but truly so and magnificently too!

More significantly, now India meet Pakistan the semi final at Mohali on March 30. If today's match was a huge one and hugely hyped, the Mohali one will be a gigantic match and a gigantic hype may be also be inadequate! Eternal rivals clash in a big one and words are not enough to describe the sensation. But one thing is sure, one nation of the subcontinent is going to figure in the final and Sri Lanka may even make it total.

Finally, India bowled better, fielded better and Dhoni shuffled his bowlers better. He also made the right decision bringing in Raina which was strongly suggested in my earlier post on SA disaster. But what's Dhoni doing with the bat? It remains a worry. Only his sweating sweltering ad keeps on coming consistently again and again! Gautam Gambhir messed up running between wicket with Yuvjaj giving the Aussies throwing practice three times and getting hopelessly out the third time. From a winning 166 for 2 India landed up at 186 for 5 which was really tense considering Indian batting collapses in the last matches. But Raina came in at that pressure moment and his handling of the situation was the real difference between Raina and Pathan.

And Yuvraj Singh! What a match winner he has been! All round consistent performances with four half centuries and more than 10 wickets in this world cup. He batted fielded and bowled brilliantly today and more importantly saw India through this well deserved victory. I say well deserved, because India deserved to win all its matches including that against England and SA. But internal individual factors prevented that. Noting of that now. Now for two more breathtaking matches and hopefully the World Cup!

Positives are: bowling & fielding getting better, captaincy getting better, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Yuvraj and Raina batting wonderfully. Sehwag and Kohli are ready to fire next! Maybe Dhoni too! Zaheer, Ashwin bowling wonderfully. Harbhajan needs to adopt a wicket taking habit fast. How is Pakistan feeling? Maybe Afridi will speak out in a day or two!

South Africa take on New Zealand tomorrow at Dhaka. New Zealand could make it real tough for SA. After today's thriller we expect more exciting encounters. You know preparing for the gigantic one!

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