Super Sachin leads India to Super Six

The third qualifying place will be fought out by Zimbabwe, England or Pakistan and could yet be decided on run rate.

India should now be considered serious prospects for the semi-finals, given the mess that is Group B and the fact that one of their opponents in the Super Six will be Kenya.

‘‘It’s been fantastic for us’’, skipper Saurav Ganguly said. ‘‘It was a big game for us and a big game for crores of people back home. We always felt any total was chaseable. I haven’t seen a better innings for a long time.’’

A visibly dejected Waqar said: ‘‘It’s not over yet for us but Sachin took the game away from us. With that sort of start, it was just a matter of getting singles and that’s what Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid did.’’

Pakistan must now hope England lost to Australia tomorrow and then beat Zimbabwe on Tuesday, by a suitable margin to climb up in the net run rate.

‘‘The ball was coming on quite nicely so I thought why not play some aggressive cricket?’’

After the floodlights and the juicy wicket of Durban, Centurion posed a very different scenario for the Indian pacers. The bright sun, a flat track and high-pressure atmosphere around must have had an effect on Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, playing their first Indo-Pak game. An array of wides and no balls meant easy pickings for the Pakistani openers.

Especially Saeed Anwar, that battle-scarred veteran of Indo-Pak encounters who saves his best for such occasions. As today; graceful off the pads and fluent through the off-side, Anwar’s domination forced Saurav Ganguly to change his plans. Ganguly’s tactics were simple: since the wicket wasn’t offering much assistance to his bowlers, shuffle them around to unsettle the batsmen.

It did yield dividends, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra picking up wickets in their second spells after forgettable first stints. While opener Taufiq Umar ensured that after the end of 10 overs Pakistan had a run rate of about six, Abdul Razzaq failed to do what he did for Pakistan in the last World Cup, falling to Nehra after Dravid showed again why he should keep keeping wickets.

Then came the moment that probably changed the course of the match: the run-out of Inzamam, number 35 of his career, following a terrible mix-up with Saeed Anwar. Younis Khan and Rashid Latif played good cameos to take their team’s total to 273.