Adil Najam
How do I feel today with Pakistan having lost to India in the Semi-Final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup?
I feel exactly as I did on November 4, 1987. I was at the Ghaddafi Stadium in Lahore, as a sports reporter for the newspaper The Muslim, covering the Semi-Final match between Pakistan and Australia in the 1987 World Cup. Pakistan was the clear favorites. Pakistan lost.
How did that feel? Pretty much as today feels. It felt like this:
But as a reader wrote on my earlier post, I am sad, but not angry. Nor am I ashamed or dejected. In an odd sort of way, I am fulfilled. We tried our best.
Today was not our best day; but frankly it was not our worst day either. There have been many days in recent weeks and months when I was ashamed of what was being done in my name. Today was not one of those days. Today, I took many blows, but I stand tall. Today, I wait for tomorrow. Because, tomorrow is another day.
Congratulations, Team India on a well-earned victory.
Thank you, Team Pakistan, for a month full of thrills and chills and making us come together as a country again. Your fielding was rather pathetic, but you have made us proud nonetheless!
Congratulations to India cricket team on this win.
how can you drop 5 catches of Tendulkar…
was the match fixed… its sheer blunder…
Tendulkar was dropped thrice (by Younis Khan, Misbah, and Umar Akmal). Were Pakistan playing a semi-final?
Man of the match should have gone to Wahab Riaz.
It is irritating to read on blogs and newspapers that Tendulkar got 5 chances. How is a stumping where he grounded his bat and an L.B.W. missing leg stump a chance?Furthermore, Kamran Akmal is being unnecessarily blamed for “dropping” Tendulkar. Let’s face it. How may keepers standing up to the stumps can take a think edge? None.
For me the turning point was the ridiculous shot of Mohammad Hafeez. With Pakistan cruising, there was no need to play a sweep off a fast bowler, with a fine leg in place. All that risk for a single, and it got him out. After that a collapse occurred.
In fairness, no single player can be blamed though, as a team consists of eleven players.
I saw the first part of the match (Indian innings) on big screen and my “paisa wasool” was Wahab Riaz’s bowling, his fielding and as a cricket fan, I am disappointed that Sachin (who got 5 chances) was given “man of the match” and not Wahab, who really deserved this award (just as Mohinder Amarnath did and got in 1983 World Cup semifinal ).It was the classic case of bowlers being overlooked and batsmen getting the prizes.
I have full sympathy for Umar Gul because if I could feel like vomiting with tension even before the toss, I could imagine what he was going through, especially when his PM was present their as a guest, Shoaib was not playing and Sehwag was in full form.
No, I’ll not deny that it was a relief that Indian team won, BUT- for Pakistan, I would like to say, it was not just one result but the whole tournament that you people should look at.
I’m glad that this match is over, I do not want to hear anything more about it and if I could, I would hold a India-Pakistan cricket match every day- may be twice a day (20-20) so that people will get so bored that the news of another match will be greeted as “chalo yaar, time mat barbad karo”- and not this gut wrenching tension.