World Cup - Semifinal Thoughts

Probably the Biggest match of my cricket-watching career. Nervous anticipation in the morning. Even office had given an unprecedented half day leave "to cheer the Indian team to victory" (as per the wordings of the mail). After all, team aise hi nahi jeeti hai, jeetani parti hai (My contribution - wore blue to work & FB display pic is now the Bleed Blue logo). And for the match it did live upto the expectations of a hyped up India-Pakistan game. Now that the entire thing is done and dusted, some thoughts about the game.

• First up, Shahid Afridi. "I am sorry to my nation". With that one line, he certainly did win the hearts of most people watching the post match presentations.
• The calm confidence of Suresh Raina when he said, "I am there" on being asked if India would miss the off-spin of Ashwin.
• Dhoni admitting that he misread the pitch. Yet Ashwin could hardly have done any better than his replacement Nehra (10 overs, 2/33).
• Do not judge the quality of the pitch as long as Sehwag is batting. Till Sehwag was there, pitch was called a batting paradise and immediately turned bowler friendly on his departure.
• Sachin Tendulkar's innings was ugly to say the least. Yet he got the runs.
• "You just dropped the world cup, son". The iconic Steve Waugh line for Gibbs could have been used for the entire Pakistani team as they gave SRT one chance after the other. Nice to see a fielding unit which is worse than ours.
• Shoaib Akhtar quietly faded into the background. Was Crazy, controversial and really FAST. Would be missed.
• Funniest moment of the day. The Akmal brothers holding on to their Shahid bhai when he had finally taken Tendulkar's catch.
• India vs Pakistan in World Cups: 5-0 India (make it 7-0 if we include T20 WCs)

Now its to the finals

Prediction - India to win (As for my blue shirt, I hope I get the shade correct)