Asia Cup-2014: Pakistan Beat India By 1 Wicket In An Incredible Thriller!

Shahid Afridi today reminded all India and Pakistan fans of the Sharjah one day international in 1986 between the two countries when Javed Miandad gave Pakistan an incredible victory by sending the last ball of the match sailing over the boundary. An impulsive cricketer, as always, Afridi today became the hero of his fans after quite a long time. 

 

Pakistan beat India by 1 wicket today in the sixth match of Asia Cup-2014 ODI Cricket tournament played in Bangladesh. This Pak win almost ends India's hopes of staying afloat.Now India would like to beat Afghanistan with a bonus point and hope Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka. Pakistan is on top now with 9 points (one bonus point earned against Afghanistan) and is almost through the final even if beaten by Bangladesh in their last encounter.

Pakistan bowlers did better than India in both pace and spin; Pakistan batsmen did better than India building longer partnerships and Pakistan fielded better than India in terms of letting go the least chances.

For India the same nightmarish story of missed opportunities continues. The Kohli centric team folded up for less than 250 being put in to bat as Kohli failed to get going this time. Stand-in wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik continues to mess up huge stumping chances. However, for the avid fans this encounter too lived up to a typical India-Pakistan blockbuster with ups and downs till the last minute. When Indian fans resigned to accept the verdict of a defeat Team India turned the match on its head reducing Pakistan to 235 for 8 needing 11 runs off the last over. First ball 50th over one more Pak wicket making Indian fans celebrate victory. Next ball a single and Afridi regains strike. He hits two huge sixes next two balls and Pakistan finally prevailed overhauling the target of 246 with 2 balls to spare driving Pak fans into an ecstatic frenzy! 

The Scorecard: 

India disappointed again, but then what a match!

Asia Cup-2014: Sri Lanka On Top, Do Or Die India Vs Pakistan Tomorrow!

Kumar Sangakkara

Team India seems to be suffering from the overseas hangover in terms of missed opportunities, weak bowling by the pacers in particular, indifferent fielding and Virat Kohli centric batting line-up. In their second match of the on-going Asia Cup-2014 in Bangladesh against Sri Lanka last evening India dropped as many as five catches, other run-leaking fielding lapses, ineffectual bowling by the fast bowlers, a huge stumping chance gone a begging and a batting performance somewhat saved again by a Kohli-Dhawan partnership.  Thanks to the duo it was good going at 130/1 in the 27^th over when Ajantha Mendis, the continuing mystery for Indian batsmen, struck and struck and struck reducing India to 200/5 in the 40^th over making them crawl. Some lusty hitting by Jadeja and Shami enabled the team to reach a somewhat competitive total of 264/9. However, with the aforesaid hangover still lingering it was finally not enough for a strong Sri Lanka. Spinners Ashwin and Jadeja did create winning opportunities, but once they ran out of their overs Sri Lanka, with Sangakkara batting on brilliantly, easily overcame the pacers winning the match by 2 wickets with 4 balls to spare.

Both are proven masters in dry and slow pitches. On this day Sri Lankan masters prevailed with their slow bowlers controlling and suffocating the Indian masters. India sorely missed a third spinner after having Amit Mishra in reserve. They decided to give a second ODI opening to all-rounder Stuart Binny, but it was a totally wasted effort. One could say that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not missed as a captain, but he was definitely missed as a batsman in the middle order especially on his favorite sub-continental pitches. Continuing with his tremendous batting form from the first match against Pakistan keeper Kumar Sangakkara notched up a super hundred (103 off 84 balls). What was more significant about his innings was that he stuck on to his job ensuring his team’s victory and leaving India ruing the stumping chance offered by him early on that keeper Dinesh Kartick could not capitalize upon.  The Scorecard:

Sri Lanka have already defeated both of the strong contenders Pakistan (Sri Lanka winning a thriller by 12 runs in the opening match on 25^th February with a magnificent Malinga burst of 5 wickets) and India, and now faced with only the minnows, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, they are almost through to the final. India and Pakistan are in similar positions—the former depending heavily on Kohli to beat Bangladesh and the latter winning easily against Afghanistan. Therefore, tomorrow’s match would be a do or die encounter for both to stay alive for a place in the final. Since it is now almost confirmed that only one of them would possibly reach the final the Super Sunday encounter tomorrow between the arch-rivals is set to be the virtual final of the Asia Cup-2014 for millions of fans worldwide. At home Bangladesh is not exactly a minnow, but with their present team issues and their skipper’s fitness problem it will be uphill for them to reach the final. However, used to causing major upsets rather consistently Bangladesh is still a force to reckon once they win the match against Afghanistan tonight. Stand-in Indian captain Virat Kohli has a lot at stake presently in terms of giving good leadership and doling out brilliant performances with the bat.

Indian Politics: The Potency Factor!

At long last the right issue has been debated or argued or rioted in Indian politics all over the country at the most righteous time. Indian politics, fortunately, seems to have overflowingly matured making its perpetrators ‘capable’ of judging others. One very important and distinguished member of the Indian Government has called the main opposition leader impotent. Well, immediately after he took immense pains to clarify the ‘reference to the context’, that is to say he meant the ‘word’ in the ‘administrative’ terms and never in the worse possible sense that the ‘word’ is ‘capable’ of implicating. We would rather not take names here, because Indian politics has worsened than just name calling leaving nothing in mere names. The affected opposition party is up in arms calling it ‘unparliamentary’ and most uncouth kind of use of words. Well, we cannot enlighten you further on this, because at the moment we do not know what is ‘parliamentary’.

They (the Indian politicians) seem to have matured so explicitly that they are prepared to go back in time to find and judge who was ‘incapable’, of course administratively or managerially. They are ready as ever to go back to 1984, to 2002, to 1992-93 and even back to the Partition of India. As the riot of words continues to break out in all possible public avenues they might be willing to go back to pre-historic India too. This fact-finding zeal is getting really inspiring.

The citizens of India now have the ‘potency’ factor to judge leaders and contestants in the forthcoming General Elections. Right, before voting you can examine if the candidates are potent or impotent—in administrative or managerial or in whatever terms of ‘context’ or ‘reference’ you may feel like taking into consideration.