By Anil - 1 March, 2003
March 12 2003

India has crushed Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup in the "Clash of the Centurion", to maintain its perfect record by winning every one of the four clashes between the world's most-followed cricket rivals on the game's biggest stage. After this match, four questions come up:

• Can anybody be certain that the brilliance of Sachin Tendulkar could be matched by Don Bradman if he were alive and playing today?
• How can Zaheer Khan look so much faster, and so much more hostile and dangerous, than Shoaib Akhtar, the established fastest-ever bowler in the world in the same conditions?
• How is it that in spite of their much-vaunted pace, it was Pakistan who were not only psychologically, but also physically battered, with no fewer than 3 of its players seriously injured during the match?
• Just how many people in the world must have watched this game live? And will even 0.01% of that number be watching the game between the Ashes rivals tomorrow?

Saeed Anwar's century was the first in 3 years: the same amount of time that has passed since the last India-Pakistan game. A solid and nerveless, if dull, effort from a batsman counted among the best a few years back. Anwar had 5 reprieves: he looked LBW off Zaheer and Shepherd turned it down, he was completely plumb in front of a Sehwag delivery and then a Kumble one, with Koertzen the culprit who unconscionably turned both down. Anwar was also dropped behind off Kumble's first over, and finally, Nehra was gracious enough not to appeal when the ball slipped out of his hand and knocked the bails off at the non-striker end when Anwar was well out of his ground backing up. I personally felt Nehra should have appealed; this would have been in the same nature as an appeal when the ball accidentally hits the non-strikers stumps off a bowlers hand after a shot. In spite of all this, the effort was a sterling one considering how the rest of his teammates fared. Anwar was struck an extremely painful blow on the arm by a Nehra express delivery, and thus had to forego the second half of the game. Nehra it was who blew Anwar's stumps out of the ground with a yorker right after the century was achieved.

Sourav Ganguly threw the ball to Zaheer Khan to start proceedings, who tried so hard that he bowled 4 extra deliveries in the process. He got carried away then, but came back magnificently. Once he had scattered the stumps of Pakistan opener Taufeeq Umar with a brute of a delivery, he looked as fast and mean and dangerous a bowler as any that have ever bowled in a game of cricket, even on that batting beauty of a pitch. The Pakistani wicketkeeper Rashid Latif who had to retire hurt after being struck on the head by a lovely fast Zaheer bouncer that followed him, and spent the second half of the game in a hospital, would attest to this -- a serious problem for Pakistan, Latif being their wicketkeeper, and it meant that someone not trained at it had to do a makeshift job.

Ashish Nehra bowled well in patches on a pitch that provided no assistance, unable to consistently maintain the sort of line and length he had done in the previous match, perhaps a touch of nerves. But importantly, he clean-bowled Pakistan's best batsman Anwar in the first over of a new spell with a vicious yorker, and had also sent back potentially dangerous Abdur Razzaq early on, courtesy an excellent diving one-handed catch by Dravid behind the stumps.

Javagal Srinath brought all his experience to bear as he choked off runs for the Pakistani batsmen at one end, forcing the best Pak batsman on current form, Yousuf Youhanna, to pop up a catch to midwicket. On a pitch made for batsmen, Srinath gave away only 41 runs in his quota of 10, perhaps the outstanding bowling performance of the game, closely followed by Zaheer who gave 46 in 10 intimidating overs for 2 wickets, actually 3 except for the fact that after he had clean-bowled Akram in his final over, David Shepherd called no-ball.

Anil Kumble with his vast experience and psychological hold over the Pak batting lineup did well enough and was unlucky not to get Anwar's wicket LBW, as mentioned earlier. His figures were relatively economical, he had batsmen guessing many times, and Anwar was also dropped off him early.

Sehwag, Ganguly, and Mongia all chipped in with the ball well, with Sehwag in particular unlucky not to pick up a wicket.

The Indian fielding was electric with not only its top fielders Yuvraj and Kaif performing at their usual high level, but everybody else being on the ball as well. Inzamam-ul-Haq, always susceptible to a run-out, was inevitably caught out his crease very early by a Sehwag/Kumble combination run out.

Sachin Tendulkar

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The genius of the best batsman in the world, now and of all time, was manifest for the audience of over one billion that must have included every cricket fan in the world. Chasing a formidable total of 273, Sachin Tendulkar brutally punished the world's fastest bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who had shot his fast mouth off before the match about his intentions of targetting the master batsman. In his first over, Akhtar was murdered for 18 runs, including a savage six over third man, a stunning four through square leg, and an almost defensive push that screamed straight past Shoaib for four. Waqar removed him immediately after that one over. It seems that Shoaib had not learned from the mistake made by the miserable Andy Caddick of England, who had shot his mouth off similiarly over Sachin in only the previous game, only to be thrashed in similarly stunning fashion by the batsman, with several fours plundered off each of his initial overs, two of which yielded 16 runs each.

Wasim Akram, recognized by Wisden as the best-ever bowler in the history of ODI cricket (and a leading contender for Tests as well), was not spared by the king of batsmen either. He was hammered through the boundary ropes repeatedly by not only Sachin but also Virender Sehwag in his very first over. A bowler the class of Wasim could not manage a single wicket today.

Unfortunately for Waqar, who replaced Shoaib for the third over, he too was smashed by Sehwag for six over third man in a manner similar to Shoaib off Sachin. To rub it in, Tendulkar joined the party by whipping away Waqar's last ball in that over for four.

Thus was Pakistan's trumpetted pace attack tamed from the word go. They looked utterly helpless, beaten black and blue and silly, by the men in blue.

When Sehwag smashed a nothing delivery by Waqar straight to the cover fielder, the bowler rejoiced. And when Ganguly was outrageously adjuged LBW by Koertzen on his first ball that was headed more than a foot above the stumps, Waqar was sobbing openly with emotion, as he was surrounded by teammates. The club of ICC umpires that target the outspoken Ganguly could be taken to court based just based on this decision, made by the same umpire who had turned down two plumb appeals in the Pak innings. However, Koertzen was soon to make another blind LBW decision, to let off Kaif who was caught in front by Afridi. Clearly, only one player was seriously targetted by him in this game - the Indian captain, who has one of the best records of any Indian batsmen against Pakistan, but is also known for not pulling his punches in comments about ICC bungling, especially in the matter of their illegal contracts.

At the end of 5 overs, Sachin's brilliant hitting had helped India to 50/0 with Sehwag chipping in from the other end. Right after Koertzen's shocker to send Ganguly back, India was 53/2. And that was the end of celebrations for the Pakistanis. Sachin continued his attack, joined by the efficient Kaif, and together they built a partnership of 102 runs. Shoaib came back for his second spell, was smashed for another 20 runs, and was ejected from the attack yet again. But Tendulkar had started cramping and was in visible pain well before Kaif departed for 35 when he dragged a wide Afridi delivery on to his stumps, India at 155/3.

Dravid strode in and began a typically defensive initial approach. Tendulkar by this time was in the 90's and had severe difficulty running between the wickets. Drinks were taken a couple overs early and Tendulkar, in clear pain, asked for a runner. Right after drinks, a well-directed bouncer from Akhtar saw Tendulkar edging to point, sadly at 98 runs off 75 balls just short of a well-deserved century, cutting off by far the most brilliant and entertaining knock this World Cup or any other has seen yet, against one of its best attacks.

After that, it was all Yuvraj and Dravid. Yuvraj displayed the required urgency, producing yet another high-quality one-day innings to take India to victory, ably supported by a solidly professional Dravid at the other end who was able to rotate strike and take singles and twos at will. The heads of the Pakistani players were hanging towards the end as they realized that the fourth match in a row to India on the biggest stage of them all was close.

What can you say, except that the batting was simply too good? When a bowler like Wasim Akram has figures that read 10-0-48-0, the other W of that famous pair, Waqar gets 8-0-71-2, and the acknowledged fastest bowler in the world Shoaib reads 10-0-72-1, then you know that India's batting lineup has lived up to its reputation of best in the world. Another bowler, Abdur Razzaq, had his hand webbing torn in attempting to stop a Sachin straight drive, and had to be taken off the attack due to severe bleeding -- the third casualty in the Pakistan side today. The strain showed as the Pak bowling rate at the end lagged a shocking 11 overs behind the required rate, by far the worst bowling rate at the World Cup so far.

Clearly this was a better side than India had beaten last -- England -- which was fortunate to win its own match against Pakistan by bowling under lights, thanks to the vagaries of the toss, in conditions at Newland that generated huge swing. By contrast, when England batted under lights against India in Durban, the ball had hardly swung any more than in the day, and perhaps even less than in the day because the wind had died down almost completely in the evening.

Ganguly seemed to be going out of his way to be unemotional as per his promise before the match when he didn't even crack a smile after India had won, let alone his usual football-style celebrations on field after winning a big one. Sachin Tendulkar received his third Man of the Match award from the 6 matches played so far, for the best innings of the World Cup. Interestingly, the boos that greeted Waqar Younis as soon as he was called upon during the presentation ceremony --- from his own supporters who were outnumbered by the Indian supporters by at least 10 to 1 -- didn't stop until Ganguly and then the hugely popular Tendulkar came forward.

None of the Pakistani players except captain Waqar showed up for the ceremonies, an indicator of how poorly they had taken the loss. Australia, who received help from umpire Shepherd in getting Tendulkar's wicket when he was declared LBW to a ball from Gillespie that was clearly going down leg and above stump height, will have been worried when they saw this match. They may not be as fortunate with a friendly umpire in the final, should India meet them there. The Indian batsmen are unlikely to treat Lee with any more respect than they did Akhtar; McGrath with any more than Waqar; Gillespie any more than Akram. For now, the third team to advance to the Super Six from Pool A will likely be either Zimbabwe, England, or Pakistan depending on run rate, and will hopefully be Zimbabwe which has turned in the best performance of these 3 teams.