Rivals face-off in a crucial contest

September 29, 2012 05:18 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 04:33 am IST - Colombo

Pakistan cricketer Umar Gul during an practice session on the eve of ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup match against India in Colombo on September 29, 2012. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Pakistan cricketer Umar Gul during an practice session on the eve of ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup match against India in Colombo on September 29, 2012. Photo: K.R. Deepak

The roads were deserted and as Colombo embraced the holiday spirit with its monthly ‘Poya’ festival here on Saturday, the Indian cricketers too opted to break the monotony of their regular practice schedules. At the tree-fringed Colts Cricket Club ground, the ‘Men in Blue’ wearing their bright phosphorescent training apparel were a mass of whirling legs and endless laughter.

‘The beautiful game’ was the extensive balm they opted for before a round of nets. On an evening in which football reigned, it was evident that the players just wanted to forget the thrashing received at the hands of Australia on Friday. At the same time, they also wanted to stay afresh for the tougher contest, in purely psychological terms, on Sunday.

India against Pakistan is a clash that slows down life from Rawalpindi to Rameswaram besides drawing universal attention and it will be no different when the two rivals face-off in the ICC World Twenty20 Super Eights Group II match that will impact their respective semifinal prospects.

At the crossroads of history and the present, India will find happy memories in its undefeated run against Pakistan on the global stage, be it the conventional World Cup since 1975 or the Twenty20 version that was unveiled in 2007. Pakistan meanwhile will seek its positive clues in a warm-up match here on September 17 during which Kamran Akmal’s blinder (92 n.o., 50b, 5x4, 6x6) helped Mohammad Hafeez wrest the match and the mental-edge.

A cricketing past, chronicled in ancient books or in the current dossiers on the internet, however will have no impact as India-Pakistan matches exist in their own immediate context. Dhoni’s men have had a start-stop campaign so far with the slump against Australia being an extreme fall and now India has to ideally win against Pakistan and South Africa.

Failure of ploy

After the five-bowler ploy failed to yield the desired result against Shane Watson and David Warner, it remains to be seen if M.S. Dhoni will revert to Virender Sehwag or just prefer L. Balaji over Piyush Chawla. The weather, with its oscillation between being hot and damp, will also test Dhoni and the manner in which he shepherds his spinners.

For India to prosper, Yuvraj Singh has to reclaim his aura. The doffing of hats for his recovery from cancer is over and now after the warm handshakes, the southpaw is greeted with the snarling delivery that climbs towards his neck.

Pakistan on the other hand will be wary of its own propensity to implode and with Shahid Afridi becoming a mere passenger with the bat, Hafeez will bank on the top-half to deliver and upon Saeed Ajmal to choke the Indians. Umar Gul cannot be expected to always weave fairytales like the one he did against South Africa.

In the last two games, both ODIs, between the two teams over the past 24 months, India prevailed in a World Cup semifinal at Mohali and in an Asia Cup match at Dhaka. Dhoni and company have to continue that trend if they want to stay alive in the current championship.

The teams (from):

India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), G. Gambhir (vice-captain), V. Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, S. Raina, V. Kohli, Rohit Sharma, M. Tiwary, Zaheer Khan, L. Balaji, Irfan Pathan, A. Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, R. Ashwin and P. Chawla.

Pakistan: Md. Hafeez (captain), N. Jamshed, I. Nazir, Kamran Akmal, U. Akmal, Yasir Arafat, S. Malik, A. Razzak, U. Gul, M. Sami, R. Hasan, S. Ajmal, S. Afridi, S. Tanvir and A. Shafiq.

Umpires: Rod Tucker and Richard Kettleborough; Third umpire: Kumar Dharmasena; Match referee: Jeff Crowe.

Match starts at 7.30 p.m.

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