India Vs Pakistan! One Enter Semis, One Crash Out Of Cricket World Cup T20!

 The India-Pakistan match on September 30 became historic not because India defeated Pakistan convincingly, but because the intense duel continued till the latter threw the former out of the ICC World Cup T20 2012. India crashed out despite defeating South Africa in a thriller by 1 run and thus allowing its arch-rival Pakistan enter the semi finals.

There was a technical possibility of both India and Pakistan entering the semis. For that Pakistan needed to beat Australia by minimum 40-run margin and India too needed to beat South Africa by a large margin. Unfortunately this did not happen. What happened was this: Pakistan indeed defeated the mighty Australia by a big margin of 32 runs, but not the required 40 allowing Australia qualify. This gave India the challenge to win against South Africa with a good enough margin to better the Pakistan net run rate to throw their arch-rival out of the tournament. The duel raged on.

India would have loved to chase yesterday knowing exactly how much they needed to edge past Pakistan’s net run rate. But South Africa won the toss and sent them in. India struggled to make 152/6 in allotted 20 overs. Now, India needed to restrict South Africa to 121 or less and win the match and reach the semi finals edging out their arch-rival. The duel finally ended when South Africa reached 122 in the sixteenth over with the loss of five wickets and Pakistan thundered into the semis. Making tactical blunders all the way South Africa skipper yesterday brought in Faf du Plessis in place of out-of-form Richard Levi, and Plessis ironically threw India out of the tournament single handedly by making an explosive 65 off 38 balls—the highest individual score of the match. South Africa, their dreams being mercilessly broken so many times by other teams, this time demolished India’s though languishing with 3 consecutive super eight losses.

Pakistan deserved to be in the semis, because they stopped the juggernaut called Australia in this tournament. With four consecutive wins while chasing Australia chose to chase again yesterday and again restricted its opponent to less than 150. But this time their match winning machine Shane Watson failed and Pakistan spinners mesmerized them into absolute submission at 117/7 in 20 overs. Pakistan meet the hosts and another tough Asian rival Sri Lanka in the first semi final on 4^th October. With India out of the way Pakistan has a tremendous opportunity to emerge the ultimate champions.

Maybe India never deserved to reach the knockout stage. The reasons are all clear: Skipper Dhoni could never find his best team making experiments unnecessarily and resting key players in key match earlier on. He succeeded with three spinners against a weaker opponent and failed miserably against the toughest. He made the changes with desperation and won against Pakistan. When he should have taken two spinners against South Africa who struggled with spin so far he decided to stick to the same winning team against Pakistan. Overdependence on Virat Kohli continued throughout. Gambhir continued with his inexplicable failures. And yesterday, when they needed to post a huge total their all match winners failed after promising to build on the good starts initially—Virat, Yuvraj and Sehwag. Yuvraj later made up with his bowling efforts capturing the man of the match award, but Sehwag fell to a downright rash shot. Even the modest total of 152 was possible thanks to some lusty hitting by Raina and Dhoni who came in late, again inexplicably. Only the most balanced team can hope to win the final honors.

On 1^stOctober defending champions England got eliminated losing to Sri Lanka and New Zealand could not win against West Indies from a position of command at least three times.

The rest of the matches now: October 4: First Semi Final—Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka; October 5: Second Semi Final—Australia Vs West Indies; October 7: Final. Al day and night matches in Colombo.

Apolitical Anna Hazare Vs Political Arvind Kejriwal, And The Fight Against Corruption!

Anna Hazare, the crusader against corruption, first became a phenomenon, then got into frequent spells of silence and confusion, had a few flop shows over the period of more than a year and finally called it a day dissolving his famous Team Anna. His story has been more of a dilemma than success or failure.

In August, 2012 Anna Hazare declared the decision to go political. The declaration was made from the stage shared by his team members who were the ones on fasting that time. The most prominent among them was Arvind Kejriwal who later said that the decision was taken after a lot of brainstorming and with the full permission of Anna Hazare. Anna also announced that there was nothing wrong in going in for a political alternative with a totally unresponsive government to deal with.

A few days later the anti-corruption guru back in his native place in the state of Maharashtra officially dissolved Team Anna. He became more active now writing in his blog and after a gap of few days more stated that the split in Team Anna was brought about by the ‘political’ agenda of his own members. He clarified that it was not the Government of India who broke his team up though they tried very hard for that purpose, but it was the political ambitions of his own members that ended the team. He was silent though about any possible role played by Baba Ramdev.

Finally, Anna Hazare landed up in New Delhi, the national capital, without any of his erstwhile members inviting or organizing any function. Anna too had no plans of meeting his members, not even his earlier right-hand man Arvind Kejriwal. He went there on his own and had media meetings on his own. What he uttered there made the dilemma even more hopeless.

Anna Hazare expressed his hatred for politics calling it ‘dirty’ and declared that he would never extend support for any political party or candidates and even his name cannot be used by any such party. At the same time he made another significant declaration that he would never go on fast again to push forward his ‘movement’. Later in Delhi Arvind Kejriwal reportedly met Anna and an immediate softening of Anna’s stand was reported too. This time he said he might consider supporting good candidates like Kejriwal who could make a difference in politics.

The phenomenon got reduced to a lonely  idealistic old man locked up in his village. India Against Corruption—the team that created a national uproar of late has allegedly got muted and filled to the brim with publicity hungering and politically ambitious people. Anna Hazare still wants to carry on with his movement and Kejriwal too reiterated his support for his mentor. But how and on whose strength was not specified. The political alternative was rejected by Anna, but no other alternative has been offered either. He wants the masses with him to fight corruption, but is unable to give the right direction to them. The fight against the greatest evil of India ever seems to be over.

Meanwhile, on the patriotic occasion of the 143^rd Birth Anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi today Arivind Kejriwal has formally entered politics and released the vision document in Delhi for his new political party to be unveiled on November 26. The document says that if his party is elected to power the Lokpal (Ombudsmen) Bill would be brought in within 10 days which will give right to anybody to complain against anybody, that his party’s elected representatives would not use VIP facilities like cars, bungalows and all, and that full transparency would be maintained on the party’s website. Kejriwal also said that this would not be political party as such, but a people’s revolution.

All of these are rather nice simple and kind of make believe efforts. But Kejriwal should understand that if politics was this simple the whole problem of his ‘movement’ would have been unnecessary in the first place! And, the real problem is his  party will be without Anna Hazare’s blessings and even his mentor’s name cannot be used for any campaigns or promotions. A political movement now without the inspiration or the leader?  Or would Kejriwal’s party be able to answer now the five or six questions posed by his mentor? Or is this just a follow-up step by Kejriwal to keep on his political ambitions and stay on as a nationally relevant India Against Corruption leader? Which anti-corruption leader would the Indian masses choose now?

Where do we go from here? 

Team India Comes Good, Routs Pakistan In Super Eight T20!

The whole of India is celebrating is celebrating as if India have won the ICC T20 World Cup 2012! No wonder, if Indiago on losing the semi final berth and the Cup from here millions of fans all over would still be happy that Indiahad indeed defeated Pakistanon the way! No wonder, if Pakistanproceed from here to win the T20 World Cup it would still rankle millions of fans all over that Pakistangot defeated by Indiaon the way! Such is the passion for matches between these arch-rivals. And, no harm done really as finally it proves the love for cricket one more time.

In the much awaited crunch match in Colomboon 30^th September Indiacrushed Pakistanby 8 wickets with 3 overs to spare. Thus India have kept the record of never losing a World Cup, be it one-day or T20 internationals, against Pakistan unbroken. Pakistanwon the toss choosing to bat first and the decision was instantly criticized by Pakistanexperts, because the chasing team has been winning the matches recently. Indian experts also opined that it was a good toss to lose.

The weak link in the Indian team, its bowling, finally found the length and rhythm. Maybe it was so as finally the best team was fielded with opener Virender Sehwag coming back into the team. Two of the three spinners, Harbhajan and Chawla, were dropped and bringing in pacer Balaji was a masterstroke, because Balaji was very effective against Pakistanand was immensely popular in Pakistanyears back. Seven batsmen option was taken with the part timers expected to deliver. And indeed, they delivered. Yuvraj Singh whose place in the team was questioned by many experts did everything possible as an excellent and competitive cricketer—he bowled exceptionally taking two wickets at a crucial juncture, fielded brilliantly causing a run-out too and batted most sensibly giving support to the man of the match Viral Kohli to take India home remaining not out on 19. Skipper Dhoni took the right decisions this time and his team got inspired.

The Pakistanbatting could never launch anchors with wickets falling at regular intervals. The inept Indian bowling this time got the full team out for just 128 runs in 19.4 overs. Everyone bowled tight—Balaji taking 3 scalps, Ashwin and Yuvraj capturing two each and Pathan and even Kohli getting one each. The two heroic Umars--Umar Akmal and Umar Gul could not rescue the team this time. 

In the Indian chase Sehwag justified his selection by scoring quick 29 runs in difficult conditions never allowing the momentum slow down after losing Gambhir in the very first over to spinner Raza Hasan who opened the Pak bowling attack. After that it was the classic Virat Kohli (78 not out off 61 balls) again who guided Indiato a great victory with Yuvraj’s company. The Scorecard:

In the first match unstoppable Australiadefeated a lackluster South Africa by  8 wickets with Shane Watson  having an incredible all-round run and winning the fourth man of the match award of the tournament in as many matches. The Scorecard:

Now India is in the third position in Group-2 and meet South Africa on 2^ndOctober while Pakistan face up to Australia on the same day in Colombo. Both teams would be trying hard to win their matches and in that eventuality a three-way tie would emerge with  the net run rate deciding which two would go through. Other permutations would work if different situations emerge.