This is it...

Whatever we witnessed on Wednesday was absolutely phenomenal. So, it will be a miscarriage of justice if we do not talk about it here….

First things first. If the inclusion of Nehra for Ashwin sent down shock waves to us, imagine what would have gone through the Pakistanis? Whatever Dhoni thought, irrespective of that, just the shock value would have rattled the Pakistanis a bit.Although I still feel it was an incorrect decision, full credit to Dhoni and Nehra for making it work.

We were off to a stupendous start, Sehwag looking the most dangerous that he ever has in the tournament.One couldn’t help thinking about 2003 encounter, and wish that 46-1 and 55-2 wont be repeated after a similar start. But this game was all about fate, particularly the 1^st innings, so history repeated itself as Wahab Riaz removed Sehwag at the score of 47. Thankfully, the 2^nd wicket didn’t come. Sachin was fated to score that day, as Pakistanis just couldn’t help themselves dropping catches of the master. But, Gambhir tricked himself into getting out, something that he has been doing since the quarters. Their variety and quality of bowling was much better than ours, and it showed as we struggled to gain control of the innings even with Sachin around. Riaz came back like a typical Pakistani pace bowler, with a heady concoction of ferocious pace and cagey reverse swing that accounted for Kohli first, and then Yuvraj-although Yuvi should have played with a straight bat instead of playing across the line of stumps, the ball wasn’t unplayable.Then we labored on slowly until the 40^th over in hopes of getting stability. But with the dismissals of Dhoni and Tendulkar, it was looking really downhill. But, Suresh Raina, who came again in the face of adversity and extreme pressure, had other ideas as he scored just what was required- a cameo of 36 runs that helped IND reach the score they chased down in the quarters-260. Now, they had to defend it.

As I mentioned above, PAK had the better quality and variety than our bowling. But the Indians were an inspired lot in the field. Relaxed mentally, but charged up physically. I really thought that we were atleast 40 runs short, but there are twists galore in an Indo-Pak game, so that gave me hope that there will be chances, we just had to grab them. Mohammad Hafeez gave us the chance. Pakistani players just haven’t learned that when all is going well, don’t play the sweep!! Misbah learned it during the T20 finals, and Hafeez learned it on Wednesday. A terrible shot, absolutely terrible.University coaches would thrash a batsman if he played this shot, let alone getting dismissed while playing this shot!!! And we were in. All the bowlers bowled very well, keeping Pak under a tight leash- their run rate never reached 5 after that. That the first extra came in 34^th over speaks volumes about our bowlers’ control and discipline.The next threat came in the form of Umar Akmal- had he stayed 5-6  overs more, he would have taken the game away from us. But our premier spin bowler came to the rescue as he bowled a magnificient arm ball to castle Akmal. We didn’t look back from there on, as Misbah left it too late, thereby being the cause of Afridi and Razzaq’s dismissals. The way we are handling pressure reminds one strongly of the Aussies. We are just not allowing our nerves to get to us, particularly while fielding. No dropped catches, tight unflappable bowling and no butter fingers while fielding the ball.

So, the game that everyone dreamt of, right when we lost to SL that fateful night at Eden Gardens 15 years back, when we lost to SL 4 years ago in the Carribean, awaits.Lets have a look at it.

The usual Wankhede pitch is a very brown strip, devoid of grass, offers spin and bounce and is not a belter.So, speaking of IND’s combination Ashwin will replace Nehra no doubt while the rest of the team will remain the same. And this is the right combination. We should bat first, put up a good total- I know I have mentioned that we should look to chase, but because we need to put extra pressure on the top 4 SL batsmen, we need “good’ld runs on the board”, as they say. Because if they bat first, even a little bit of a decent platform like 140-150 for 4 will allow the lower SL order to bat more freely than they would do if they are chasing 270-280 and get to 140-150 for 4. That should form our primary bowling strategy- try and get early wickets, even if they are going at 6-7 r.p.o, we won’t mind if they are 20 overs 130-140 if we can pick up their 4 top order wickets. Although I don’t think Ashwin and Zak will allow them to run away initially.

I do not think they will risk Angelo Mathews, although Murali will play for all money.So their attack should be Murali, Herath, Malinga and Kulasekara. Thissara Perrera, ‘India Specialist’ as they call him, should serve as their all rounder.So, while batting, apart from the usual threats, one thing we have to take care of is the 28-34 overs. Malinga will surely operate in some of them, and he can do a Wahab Riaz on us. Although we did it, we wouldn’t prefer to go for a similar recovery again in the finals. So, once the 23^rd -24^th over comes, we should try and preserve wickets and wait for the mandatory ball change in the 34^th over. No problem if the run rate drops. This will be tough, handling Malinga, as once he gets a wicket, there is an extremely high chance he will get another in the very same over, with his ‘Slinga’.

This is our shot at cricketing immortality. This is our chance for redemption, after what happened in the summer of 2007.This is THE chance, for THE man, to make THE dream come true. A billion people are praying. Keep the faith India…