It's advantage PAKISTAN

              So, here’s the big occasion. Pakistan will take on South Africa in the first semifinal of this T20 world cup. A few would have expected Pakistan to be here. But remember, they are the most unpredictable side of world cricket and no one had expected them to play in the Jo’berg final either. But this is it, they are right here to lock horns with South Africans.

               South Africa had entered in this competition with a favorite tag labeled on them and till now, they have lived onto expectations. They are the most balanced side in this tournament. Their batting has been good, their bowling has been brilliant and their fielding has been awesome. Given a cricket match against Pakistan, they are expected to win it. But this is not just a cricket match. This is a world cup semifinal and South Africa had a history of loosing big matches. Be it world cup semifinals against Australia in 1999 and 2007 or champions trophy semifinal against West Indies in 2006, they had ruined their chances everytime. Even in the last T20 world cup, they needed just 126 from 20 overs to reach to the semifinal but they didn’t even get that. So the fact that they had not been able to reach to the final of any world championship will haunt them the most in this match.

                If we look into Pakistan’s prospects, bowling is their main strength. They have some of the best bowlers of T20 in their ranks in the form of Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi. And if South Africa tend to be overcautious against them, they have bowlers like Mohammad Aamer and Sayeed Ajmal who can take advantage of that. Sayeed Ajmal has bowled some very fine spells in this tournament while being unnoticed whereas Mohammad Aamer has all the capabilities to do so.  The inclusion of Abdul Razzak has added some more variety to their attack. The form of their batsmen is a concern for Pakistan but there is one thing from which they can sense some relief. The bowling of South Africa in this tournament is surprisingly based on spin with likes of Merve and Botha doing most of the damage to the opposition. But Pakistan are one of the best sides to play spin bowling and with batsmen like Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Misbah Ul Haq and a in form shahid Afridi in their middle order, they have little to worry about spin. So all Pakistani batsmen have to do is to see off the initial threat of Steyn and Parnell.

              The best thing that Pakistan has in this tournament is that they are playing for the pride of their country. Pakistan is virtually on exile in cricketing terms for the past couple of years. Due to the lack of international cricket, the popularity of cricket in Pakistan is dying. This Pakistan side are on a mission to prove this to the whole world that the political situation in Pakistan man not be that good, the terrorism may have taken the whole country in it’s grasp but when it comes to cricket, they are still one of the best sides of world cricket. So if Pakistan comes out as victorious today, no one should be surprised.

Is it a surprise.......?????

             The defending champion, India are out of the T20 world cup even before they reached the knockout round. They lost two out of two matches in super eight round and even a win against South Africa can just serve as a mere consolation now. Every single expert tipped India to win this event . But all of that was based just on the reputation Indian players, especially batsmen had managed to get during IPL. Now, let's take a look on whether it was a couple of off days for India or it was some sort of an inevitable.    

             So, we start right from squad selection. In batting department, it was more or less justifiable. But in bowling department, those five people led by K. Shrikant had done miracles. They had selected Ishant Sharma. A bowler who even lost his place in the playing eleven of KKR side, a side which finished last in the points table, managed to get into Indian squad and that too ahead of options like Ashish Nehra, one of the bests in the business right now. One might argue and rightly so that Nehra didn't do much good before the selection comity meeting, but there were options like Munaf Patel and L. Balaji too who were far more superior than Ishant for T20. Selectors even got a chance to rectify their mistake, but they ruined it. They could have sent an extra paceman in place of Virendra Sehwag but they sent Dinesh Karthik, a player whose possibility  of making it in the final eleven was negligible as long as Dhoni was there.

              When it came to playing eleven selection selection, things got even worse. They haven't given Praveen Kumar a single appearance. Given his ability to swing the new ball, he could have been more than handful in bowling friendly English conditions. They have dropped Irfan Pathan, one of the key players in this format, for a must win game against England. They have given RP Singh, India's specialist for death overs, a game only when it came to do or die for India and he has shown in that game that if he was there in earlier matches, things could have gone much more smoother for India. What's more, they have given Ishant all four matches.

               India have a captain who is highly overrated. Yes, he is the best available option for India right now but that doesn't make him a good captain. He is the best only because the rest are either too unexperienced or too irresponsible to take the job. His batting form is awful, he shuffles the batting order randomly or probably for his own interests and  his too much faith in Ishant Sharma has cost India dearly. His decision to give Ishant crucial overs has probably cost India both the matches and he did it despite of having better options available on both occasions.

                So, we might be a little bit surprised on finding our team where it is right now, but it was always on the cards. India never had what it takes to win an event like this.