India hold on,Pak drop out

Dhoni and Co set up final clash with Sri Lanka after defeating Pakistan by 29 runs.

As the digital numbers on the giant scoreboard flashed the figures 53 runs and 24 balls,Misbah-ul Haq pondered long and hard at it,sighing with a sense of destiny,as if overwhelmed by déjà vu. Four years ago,against the same opposition in the World T20 final,the equation had been strikingly similar. Pakistan had needed 54 off the last four overs then,this time it was a shade less. Running down to the long-on boundary for a change of bat,Misbah stared hard at his meaty new blade,ready to employ the weapon. Unfortunately for Pakistan8217;s crisis man,he must have known deep down that he had left it a tad too late this time.

Watching Umar Gul get out off the first ball of the 47th over,Misbah decided to take matters into his own hands,finally. With the last man Saeed Ajmal at the other end,Misbah took the strike in the 48th over. Zaheer Khan started with five wides,and Misbah capitalised by making that opening into a wedge,cracking the left-arm seamer over extra-cover and mid-on,respectively.

The equation came down to 37 off the last two,and Misbah,batting on 49,came into his own. The batsman could still sniff something and he made that a stink with a six off Munaf Patel,but with just one more run in the over,Pakistan were left needing an improbable 30 off 6 to make the final.

Having played out four dot balls,Misbah threw his bat at a Zaheer long-hop,but the ball sailed straight down Virat Kohli8217;s throat at long-on. Back at the World T20,Misbah missed by five runs the similar sounding words forming the basis of a famous cricketing joke,this time he missed by an eternity 29 runs as Pakistan could muster 231 in reply to India8217;s 260/9.

Had it been the last day of a Test match,Misbah would have surely have managed to save it,but in the semi-final of the World Cup and in what was once a tight chase,his efforts turned out to be futile some might even point out harshly at the 20 balls extra that he took for his largely laborious 56.

On that fateful day in Johannesburg,Misbahs scoop had given MS Dhoni his first brush with success as captain,giving him his first ICC title. On Wednesday,it put the Indian skipper on the brink of the glistening World Cup trophy,setting up what would be his biggest match as Team India captain,against Sri Lanka in Mumbai.

And for that,Dhoni will have to thank his wonderful set of bowlers,who managed to defend a very chaseable total with a magnificent performance. Huddled together as firecrackers went off all over Mohali,Ashish Nehra,Zaheer,Munaf,Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh celebrated the win with stumps and embraces. With two wickets each,the five bowlers attacked like a real hunting party,sharing the spoils.

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Munaf and Nehra,who had taken quite a beating against Australia and South Africa,respectively,exemplified control and subtlety,while Yuvraj and Harbhajan clogged the middle-over run flow with vital breakthroughs. One of Munafs wickets was that of opener Mohammad Hafeez,who was looking threatening on 43.

By the time Munaf returned to dismiss the dangerous Abdul Razzaq with a vicious leg-cutter,Yuvraj and Harbhajan had held the Pakistanis by a noose.

Zaheer of course was at his usual best,leading the attack with inspiration and knowledge that few fast bowlers in the world possess today. The left-arm seamer had started the bleeding with Kamran Akmals wicket,and finished it off with that of Misbahs on 56. Dhonis trick to play three seamers at the expense of R Ashwin worked,just like every other trick up his sleeve has during the course of the tournament.

Living to tell the tale

While Sachin Tendulkar dropped umpteen times,something that perhaps cost Pakistan the match received the man of the match award for a very scratchy 85 during the afternoon session,the game was won in the evening,thanks to a well-oiled bowling unit. The batsmen,apart from Virender Sehwag,looked quite the opposite.

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Sehwag got off in customary fashion,whipping a straying Gul for 21 runs in the third over,consisting of five boundaries off his pads on the leg side. But the introduction of Wahab Riaz did the trick,trapping him 25-ball 38. Only two of those runs came in singles.

Riaz was the real star of the Pakistani innings,scalping his career best figures of 5/46,undoing India with terrific seam control. But thanks to a Test-like innings by team-mate Misbah,Riaz will leave the PCA with mixed emotions.