Great World Cup matches-I

Pakistan Vs Srilanka 26-02-2011 ,R Premadasa Stadium,Colombo.

The host Srilanka were hot favorite to win this match but Pakistan proved everyone wrong and strongly set their foot on this world cup quest. After a week of dull matches , this match proved to be the first closely fought encounter.
After winning the toss,Pakistan without hesitation opted to bat.I should say that the way they batted  very well specially Younis Khan and Mishah-ul-Haq.They batted very sensibly, never worried about the run rate , they just scored ones and twos and they did it consistently in all overs.On the other hand , Srilankan bowlers did not give much trouble to Pakistan batsmen but during the batting Powerplay Murali and Kulasekara bowled beautifully.

Srilanka started well , both Tharanga and Dilshan scored briskly, even though Dilshan was not in his fluent best.Once the openers were down ,Sangakkara tried to accelerate the run rate and thrown his wicket.Afridi was wonderful, he spun the bowl both ways , his straight deliveries were unplayable.But the Pakistan fielding was pathetic,in fact worst.They dropped easy catches, missed two stumpings and missed many run outs.In the end Kulasekara played some good shots and he brought the score very near to the target.

I liked this match very match , reason: the way the Pakistan batted and fought in the fielding(even though they missed many chances & staring one another).Pakistan have to continue to believe in themselves that they can beat anyone but for that they have to improve their fielding a lot.Man of the match:Afridi
Pakistan-277/7
Misbah-Ul-Haq -83*(91)
Younis Khan     -72(76)
Herath  46/2
Murali  35/1
Srilanka-266/9
C Silva-57(78)
Sangakkara-49(61)
Afridi  34/4

India Vs England 27-02-2011, M Chinnaswamy Stadium,Bangaluru
Another epic match,what a finish!!Hats off to both teams!India batted first , as expected they piled the runs.Sachin played a wonderful innings,looked very poised and the shot selection was excellent.Dhoni shuffled the batting order very well.Yuvraj and Gambhir provided good support to Sachin.Yuvraj used this opportunity wonderfully , he played some wonderful shots on leg side.

India lost last 7 wickets in the last 8 overs and got all out in 49.5 years, which was unpardonable.They should have played sensibly, specially 6th and 7th batsman.The should have reached 350 easily.Swann bowled first four overs nicely but he got hit by Sachin, what a sight !Sachin hitting Swann for sixes!!Tim Bresnan was the stand out bowler for England, he bowled mostly wicket to wicket.Anderson gave lots of runs.

England run chase:
What a run chase!Strauss played a gem of an innings, the best by an English captain.The great thing about his batting in this match was that he scored boundary/ies in almost all the overs.Bell too played well , one of his best.Bell was very fortunate to be rule not out for the LBW appeal by Yuvraj, lots of confusion regarding the distance rule.Im not sure why then they replayed that appeal again and again on the big screen causing lots confusion among fans as well as the players.The replay clearly shows that the ball will hit the stump.!!

One of the worst bowling performance by Indians, none of the bowlers bowled in line and length.Munaf patel bowled somewhat better than others.Dhoni would have tried with Shewag and Sachin.Piyuesh Chawla needs to play more.Fielding was pathetic,none of the fielders showed any energy , many misfield, couple of half chances missed.

England would have won comfortably if they would not taken the batting power play at the time and waited for 3-4 overs.But still their batsman showed lots of characters.The result was a good one - TIE.
India -338/10
Sachin - 120(115)
Yuvraj -   58(50)
Tim Bresnan 48/5
England-338/8
Strauss -158(145)
Bell       -  69(71)
Zhakeer Khan 63/3
Munaf Patel     70/2
Man of the match : Andrew Strauss

If India bowls like this in coming matches, it will struggle to win matches.They have to improve a lot in bowling and fielding.