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India advanced to their third Cricket World Cup Final with a 29 run victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in an entertaining encounter at Mohali on Wednesday. Batting first, India were fortunate to set Pakistan a target of 261 with Sachin Tendulkar taking advantage of four dropped catches to top score with 85. India's effort proved to be just enough as their bowlers produced a top class effort, with all 5 men used picking up 2 wickets each, to bowl out Pakistan for 231 in the final over. The inability of the Pakistan batsmen to string together partnerships cost them dear in the end with not even one pair managing to cross 50 runs at the crease together. India thus continued their hoodoo hold over Pakistan in World Cups, registering their 5th consecutive win over their rivals on the biggest stage of them all.

It was a day when historic phrases had scope to get coined and patented. MS Dhoni’s decision to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin on this Blue Riband game provided avenue for possible statements, if India lost, such as “Dhoni, you left the World Cup sitting out in the hutch”, or “Ash to Ashish, World Cup to Dust”. Ashwin would have provided not just the attacking spinner, but lively fielding, a useful lower-order bat and a match-winning attitude. On the other hand, Nehra would be carrying a questionable mindset, having last bowled a match-surrendering last over against South Africa. Perhaps Dhoni felt he could do with the extra left-armer against a Pakistan side inundated with right-handers. The Pakistanis, on their part, defied popular demand by not allowing Shoaib Akhtar a final hurrah before retirement, and went in with the same team as the one that won them their quarter-final. With the previous night’s rain having melted away, warm sunshine greeted the toss, which Dhoni won as he elected to bat.

Virender Sehwag’s tradition of hitting the first ball for four may have been thwarted when Umar Gul started off with a wide that was not called, but the belligerent batsman more than made up for the lapse in the overs to come. He put the field in disarray when, in the 3^rd over, he walloped Gul for a 21-run pasting that included an uncashed free-hit. Mid-wicket, extra cover, long leg, point, all field placements were penetrated and rattled in the space of 5 balls. He continued in this vein for a couple more overs, before being rapped on the pads, when he had got to 38 off 25, by a short one from Wahab Riaz that pitched on leg, straightened and kept low. With the PowerPlay having been exploited with some stunning shot-making from the openers, it brought India to 73 for the loss of one wicket.

While Gul was busy belying his reputation of being one of the best new ball bowlers going round, Saeed Ajmal was being found hard to pick by the batsmen. A nervy Sachin Tendulkar survived two close calls in the 11^th over. An LBW decision was overturned with hawkeye believing the ball was missing leg; the next ball, he was utterly bamboozled by a ripping doosra and survived a stumping by bringing his foot back down just in the nick of time. While the affable pitch allowed for freedom in stroke-making, the ill-advisability of Ashwin’s exclusion was being exacerbated with every delivery that Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and Afridi beat the batsmen with.

In the 19^th over, Gambhir (27) waltzed down, got fooled by Hafeez’s drift and turn, and was stumped by a typically ebullient Kamran Akmal. A mild discomfort will have entered the Indian ranks, and when Riaz got Virat Kohli (9) to chip tamely to point, before welcoming Yuvraj Singh (0) with a venom-tipped boomerang, the Indian innings was quickly hitting an ebb. Suddenly, a classical start had turned into a panic-swirl by the 26^th over with the scoreboard reading 141/4. However, with Tendulkar getting a charmed fifty (he was dropped twice, whilst scratching around against Ajmal), and Dhoni long due a big one, India could yet hope for a revival to nurture hopes for a 300-plus score, indispensable on this belter of a wicket.

The Tendulkar-Dhoni partnership got the Indian scoring rate into a tangle, as a mix of consolidation and ineptitude helped Pakistan claw their target down by the truckload. Tendulkar continued to be dropped like a hot kettle of coffee. After a total of four lives, however, his blemish-filled innings of 85 came to an end in the 37^th over, when the skipper Shahid Afridi showed his side how to hold a catch, hanging on to a slammed drive off Ajmal’s bowling to put Tendulkar out of his misery.

Dhoni had a troubled stay at the crease, as the wicket seemed to have slowed drastically, the ball refusing to come on to the bat. Riaz exploited the leg-stump channel to lethal effect, and he pinned Dhoni (25) leg before with one that swung across him. An Indian collapse now seeming imminent, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh looked to up the ante while the innings lasted. After the first two overs of the Batting PowerPlay were milked for 22 runs, Harbhajan (12) attempted an injudicious skip down to another Ajmal doosra, only to be duly stumped. With Gul’s day continuing to be shoddy and expensive, Raina and Zaheer picked up the odd boundary. Riaz’s attack was, in complete contrast, a potentially match-winning one, and when he got Zaheer to edge behind wildly, he picked up his 5^th for the day. Ashish Nehra would have worn a coy smile when he was run out off the penultimate ball of the innings, as he will have realised there was something to be had on this wicket if he mirrored Riaz’s modus operandi. Middle-order ineffectiveness had, once more, contrived to chop India's score down to a challenging yet overhaulable total, finishing at 260/9.

Pakistan got off to a cracking start, with Kamran Akmal looking in good touch as he introduced Zaheer Khan to the fence twice in the opening over. Zaheer went for another 8 runs in his second over and was promptly taken out of the attack by Dhoni, who had the luxury of a third seamer in his squad today. Munaf Patel bowled a decent first over when he replaced Zaheer but also went for 2 boundaries in his second over as the runs flowed steadily for Pakistan in the early exchanges. Dhoni, desperate for an early breakthrough brought his lead strike bowler back into the attack in the 9th over and Zaheer responded by picking up the wicket of Kamran for 19 with a slower ball that the batsman sliced straight to the fielder at point. Akmal had continued his penchant for getting starts and getting out, the opening partnership earning Pakistan 44 runs in 9 overs.

Patel switched ends, but continued to be expensive. India were fortunate to get a second breakthrough against the run of play in the 16th over when Mohammad Hafeez threw his wicket away while attempting an outrageous sweep shot off Patel, with the ball miles outside the offstump. The premeditated shot led to the batsman's downfall and he was snaffled up behind the wicket for 43.

Asad Shafiq and Younus Khan scratched around for a brief period adding 33 runs for the third wicket before the former fell for 30, beaten by a slow non-turner from Yuvraj Singh that just went straight on with the arm. India made it a double breakthrough when Yuvraj picked up Younus Khan in his next over, caught at short cover much to the delight of Dhoni, who missed a stumping earlier in the over.

Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal came together with the score at 106/4 and were charged with the responsibilty of batting Pakistan to safety. They adopted visibly varying tactics with Misbah choosing to present the full face of the bat in stoic defence while the Junior Akmal took the attack to the bowler. Umar took special liking to Yuvraj Singh's slow brand of left-arm spin, smashing the Indian allrounder for two massive sixes enroute to an entertaining 29. His cameo was ended by Harbhajan Singh, who beat the youngster for pace in the first over after the drinks break as MS Dhoni once again got his tactics bang on. Akmal's spurt had shown Pakistan the only way forward for them and with clean strikers of the ball like Afridi and Abdul Razzaq to follow there was still hope.

Razzaq came out to bat at the fall of Akmal's wicket, coming ahead of Shahid Afridi in the batting order for the first time in the tournament. It was not to be the allrounder's day though as he fell for 3, beaten by a slower ball from Munaf Patel which kissed the off-stump. Afridi finally came out at no.8 and with his batting prowess Pakistan were still clawing on, but barely. Dhoni chose to get Yuvraj Singh's overs out of the way before Pakistan took the batting powerplay and that allowed the batsmen an opportunity to swing their arms freely. Misbah finally hit his first boundary after spending 42 balls out in the middle while Afridi was charging down the pitch at every opportunity.

Pakistan's decision to delay the batting powerplay for the end of the innings proved to be a poor one as Harbhajan Singh struck once again in the first over of a new spell, ending the Afridi menace for just 19, the Pakistani skipper failing to time a full toss and sending the ball straight up in the air for an easy catch in the covers. At the other end Misbah finally started showing some sense of urgency, but was running out of partners as Ashish Nehra repaid the faith shown in him by skipper Dhoni by removing Wahab Riaz and Umar Gul in consecutive overs to leave Pakistan tottering on the brink at 208/9 in the 47th over. The left-arm seamer who bowled that costly final over against South Africa ended with immaculate figures of 2/33 from 10 overs.

Misbah did his bit to quieten the crowd as Pakistan scored 14 runs from the 48th over and tonked the second ball of the next over for 6 to bring the asking rate down to 31 from 10 balls, unlikely, but achievable. However, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan held their nerve to put the target out of reach for Pakistan. Misbah's brave but much delayed burst ended for 56 on the penultimate ball of the match as Pakistan were bowled out for 231.

Shahid Afridi bravely led his team out onto the field and gave a rousing speech, showing the character of the man and carrying his responsibility as a proud ambassador of his country, on his sleeve. His team really lost the match in the field, dropping Sachin Tendulkar four times too often and those extra runs scored by the little genius proved vital in the end. One couldn't help but feel for 25-year old left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz, who produced on what any other day would have been a match-winning effort.

India will spend the night celebrating their big win in the final before the Final, and will then shift gears to concentrate on what should be another cracking encounter with co-hosts Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, 2nd April. As happy as they will be with their batting, it will be the job done by the bowlers, especially the back-up seamers Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel that will please Mahendra Singh Dhoni the most. The skipper admitted in his post match presser that they misread the pitch but despite that were backed up by a lion-hearted effort from their five lead bowlers. India's bowling had come in for tremendous flak in the early games of the World Cup, but the team appears to be peaking at just the right time and with home field advantage head into the final as slight favourites.

Teams:

India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munarf Patel.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Younus Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal.

Mini Scorecard:

India: 260/9 (50 overs; 5.20 runs per over)
S Tendulkar 85 (115 balls) W Riaz 5/46
V Sehwag 38 (25 balls) S Ajmal 2/44

Pakistan 231 all out (49.5 overs, 4.63 runs per over)
M Hafeez 43 (59) A Nehra 2-33
Misbah-ul-Haq 56 (76) M Patel 2-40

India win by 29 runs to advance to the World Cup Final

File Photograph Copyright: ICC World T20