Until yesterday, I never knew that the bond between India and Pakistan was so strong indeed. If Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka earlier in the day yesterday, later the same night, its rival India also lost their first match of the super eight of the ICC T20 world cup against the West Indies. If the previous edition of the ICC T20 world cup is to be taken, both the teams entered the finals of the same by losing just one game in the series until India snatched a 5 run win over Pakistan in the finals. India had lot a match against by 5 runs in their super eight opener and Pakistan to India in a bowl out which is needless to be said.
In the 2007 world cup in the West Indies, Pakistan was eliminated from the world cup after their loss to West Indies and then to Ireland. This was followed by the exit of team India who on the other hand lost to Bangladesh and then to Sri Lanka. In 1987, both India and Pakistan lost in the semis of the Reliance world cup. Pakistan lost their match against Australia and India to England. Anyway let us chuck this topic for the moment. Coming to the game between India and the West Indies, I could rather say that it was a good show put up by team India but it fell short of luck that Sri Lanka had earlier in the day in their match against Pakistan.
If not for the initial hiccups, the Indian team did well to contain the West Indian bowlers by scoring a decent 153 on the board. May be if the trio viz Gautam Gambhir, Rohith Sharma and Suresh Raina had gone in for some matured thinking, the total could have had a 20-30 extra runs. This showed the reckless shots that the so called stars of the Indian batting line up displayed the last night. Of course, the catch of Suresh Raina by the wicket keeper-DineshRamdin was just superb and so was the catch of Gautam Gambhir by Simmons in the deep. Perhaps! Had the stunning catch of Yuvraj been taken, there would have been a different mindset in the camp if not for a different result.
And at last, the three consecutive fours by Harbhajan in the last 3 balls showed that India were no less of batting talent. Even last time, India started their super eight campaign with a loss to New Zealand and were eventually termed the world champions of the T20. Perhaps! This time the task is a little bit more difficult especially for India after their loss to West Indies. This was the first major encounter for India this season after they had beaten minnows-Ireland and Bangladesh thanks to the bad scheduling of the event. This time as well, South Africa are on a roll after having been unbeaten so far. Oh! Yes..how can one forget the way Indians tamed the Proteas last season when the odds were against them?
This time England cannot be taken for granted despite being the underdogs for, they host the tournament and have a home team advantage. However, it would not be a wrong guess to call the shots favoring India. But, there are West Indies who are in no mood to compromise either. Unlike the other pool that has Ireland, this pool has a contest between three teams viz India, South Africa & West Indies and a little bit of England. The other pool has a contest between only Pakistan & New Zealand.
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