The Real Mahabharat..

India V Pakistan must be the biggest rivalry in sports history if the audience number or emotions or even hype are criteria. And when the contest is for the World cup and a knock-out likely result, it does not come any bigger than this. Often the match-up has lived up to its expectation in terms of quality of cricket. There are many articles clogging up the cyber space these days highlighting that and every one has their own favourite encounter. Being an Indian cricket fan, for me it is difficult to get away from the hype, thouh in recent times my emotions have been tested more by an India-Australia encounter. But still, India-Pakistan is India-Pakistan; the mother-of-all contests. I still remember that incredible Sharjah game, 125 plays 87 game, in 1985 that India won against all odds. And later in 1986 Pakistan returning the compliments at the same venue in another enthralling battle better known as Miandad's game. I still remember the feelings of being shattered as Miandad sent the last ball from Chetan Sharma soaring over the mid-wicket fence for a six to seal the Austral-Asia cup.

Along with these mercurial games I also have some horrendous memories of the tension and genuine fear when India Pakistan games were in the offing. I still remember the news of communal riots in Baroda on the day of ODI in Sahiwal when India were visiting Pakistan after a long break in 1978. The first thing I said was, it must be due to the cricket game. Bishen Bedi conceded that game (!) due to poor umpiring; he believed that India were in great command to win the game (23 runs required in ~4 overs with 8 wickets in hand) but Pakistan bowlers bowled huge bouncers, out of reach of batsmen that were not called wides by the local umpires! Sure enough, Baroda was under curfew for a few days or weeks after that!!! And there are many more such memories of stone-throwing and the fights between intensely communal groups of followers, the usual suspects, in Baroda-Ahmedabad, targeting each others and anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught in-between, presumably in the name of taking out their frustration. I don't know if there ever was a riot or even communal tension in Pakistan when India beat Pakistan! But then, India has always taken great pride in calling itself secular; even at the cost of local peace! I am sure people of my age who lived in Gujarat in those days would remember that, not very fondly. The worst thing was, it completely took the focus off the great cricket both the teams played.

It was one of the most riveting cricket I have ever seen. My memories are still fresh; Imran's bowling; the most incredible swing bowling at extreme pace in the series of 1983 in Pakistan and Sunny Gavaskar's awesome innings of 127 not out, when he carried his bat against rampaging Pakistani pacers, all in a lost cause; or Zaheer Abbas's silky cover drives or Javed Miandad's antiques and and of course, "Alla Kidhar Hai, Upar Hai" umpiring from "world famous" Pakistani umpires like Khizar Hayat and Shakoor Rana (of Mike Gatting fame). I remember Mohinder Amarnath reminscing that in Pakistan, their players do not appeal "Howz that"? They ask umpire "Allah Kidhar Hai" (where is God) and in answer the umpire raises the finger showing the dressing room to the batsmen!!! Jokes apart, and umpiring or no umpiring, Pakistan cricket had upper hand over Indians at that time. But Indians somehow, turned the tables on Pakistan in the world cup games. Who would forget that terrific assault by Tendulkar on Shoaib Akhtar at the Centurion in 2003 world cup? Or the famous Aamir Sohail-Venky Prasad's exchanges and Ajay Jadeja's plucky innings in 1997 world cup? There are many such memories of battles within battles. To me it is like Mahabharat; compelling and riveting and emotionally draining, whatever the result.....

Today's Pakistan is perhaps not as domineering as it was in those days; nor is Indian team as meek as it used to be. I firmly believe that apart from Australia, only other team Indians used to loose the game mentally in the dressing room it self, was Pakistan. However, since Ganguly became a scourge of Pakistan in 1997 Sahara Friendship Cup in Toronto, the famous Inzmam-Aloo episode, Indians started showing a sign of a lot of spine. Presence of match winners like Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dravid, Kumble and Harbhajan provided not only skills but a lot of heart that changed the complexion of the encounters. Since Ganguly took over the reigns of Indian team, there was a perceptible change in the body language and results on the field. Australians will vouch for that! India and Pakistan have come to a level pegging and of late, Indians have dominated their arch rivals even in test and mutual ODI series, both at home and away. The contests, though are still on even keel every time. And so it will be tonight.

As I see, prima-facie it is a contest between Indian batting and Pakistani bowling. The wicket, it seems will be a "patta", a road, or even a highway. I don't think there would be much grass left on the pitch; and will be firm and not yield much to the spinners as well. I don't need to see the wicket. It is obvious to me that it is the only home advantage India can get against this Pakistani team as they have a well balanced bowling attack, though in my opinion, not a world beating one. Afridi, the highest wicket taker in the World Cup so far and fairly successful against all comers, has scalped minnows more than top ranked batters. His economy rate though, is excellent. Umar Gul, on the other hand has been outstanding. As against that, Zaheer Khan has turned the games with his bowling. But Indian bowling starts and stops with him. Yuvraj has been a surprise package with Bhajji a little disappointing. So Pakistan has upper hand over India in the bowling department.

As for batting, there is no comparision. Not a single Pakistani has scored a ton as yet; highest individual total scorer is Umar Akmal with 211 runs. First five in Indian batting order have scored more than that with Kohli at 238 being the lowest. As for fielding, while Pakistan has been nothing less than diabolic, Indians have also not exactly set the grounds on fire. However, if Indians are able to match what they produced in the field in the crunch game against Aussies in the last game, they will easily outscore Pakistanis, a few slow movers in Indian side notwithstanding. I sense the fielding will be a game changer in this contest.

If I have to give score out of 5 for all three departments, I will score Pakistan as 5+3+ 2 (Bowl+bat+field) = 10/15 to India's 3+4.5+3 = 10.5/15. That makes India slight favorites in my books, purely from logic. However, when it is India V Pakistan, logic goes out of window and heart rules. Especially with, as genetically inconsistent a team as Pakistan, one can not predict. Indian team, has also shown inconsistency of its own, having come through two inexplicable lower order batting collapses in the tournament. However, this current Indian team, to my mind, is not likely to give up easily and revert to its pre-2000 days of landslide losses. It is made up of sterner stuff. The fact that it has also come through some extremely tough games in the competition against England, South Africa, West Indies and Australia will stand them in good stead. Pakistan on the other hand have been tested by Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia; WI just did not turn up. To their credit they won two out of three handsomely but that one colossal loss against NZ will remain at the back of their mind; triggered by diabolical fielding performance. As I sense, once the pressure is applied and things start to come off the rail, Pakistanis are less likely to put things back on track as compared to current Indian team. There in lies the clue to the outcome of this encounter.

Let us put aside all the hype. Let us look at this as merely a game and applaud physical skill, temperament, mental attributes and ability of all players, to perform to their optimal, under severe testing environment and enjoy. May the best team win...