The Best Match of 2011 World Cup So Far....!!!!

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Dear all, The second quarter finals between India and Australia was the best match in this World Cup so far. We have had good ones in the league matches. But this was all that the match had promised. The occasion, the big players coming to the party for the big match, the tension, the anticipation.... all of it made it the best match so far.... And the result has given way to an even bigger match...As Ravi Shastri called it "The Mother Of All Matches".... India vs Pakistan..... Let us dwell on this match, a little. Australia scored 260. Ricky Ponting scored a century. I have never been a big fan of Ponting as a sportsman, but he is a great batsman. He shut up all his critics with him scoring that century. It was a true captain's innings. His previous match against India in a world cup also was a century. But it was in the 2003 Wold Cup final and Ponting batted India out of the match. But this time even though Australia did not win, it just proved that players like Ponting, Tendulkar are all big match players....This match was a fitting end to Ponting's reign in World cups. Australia had gotten off to a decent start, but were always kept under the check by the Indian bowlers. David Hussey came in and played a gem of an innings to propel Aus to 260. Indian batsmen too had a decent start and even though they lost wickets, they were able to put up decent partnerships regularly. Sachin went past 18000 One Day runs yesterday, while completing a half century. There was the "Strange" comedy off errors when Gambhir was run out in bizarre fashion, after three attempts in one over....!!!!! Australia showed why they were the world champions for three consecutive world cups, when they put the pressure back on India, which in the end led tot he wicket of an out of form Dhoni... India needed a sensible partnership then and Raina came in and did just that. Australia sadly did not have good enough bowlers to apply pressure in the middle overs. I am talking about spinners. And in end that made all the difference. I have criticized Raina in the past, but this inning of his needs to be applauded. He did not do anything silly. He played sensible cricket and along with Yuvraj who has been playing well in this world cup, saw the match through. I hope that Raina can do that consistently in the future.. The Indian team raised themselves when they were fielding and bowled well, (may be not exceptionally), and batted well...In the end it was nice team effort...!!!! The result is that there will be new champion at the end of this World cup for sure. But there will be one team from the sub continent for sure...!!!!!! Share your views... Balu