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Indian Cricket Team Celebrates After Defeating Pakistan in the Semifinal of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

The hype was there, the teams were there, the players were there, the prime ministers were there and so was the occasion, it was indeed, India VS Pakistan – the 2nd Semifinal of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. With public frenzy and media scrutiny geared on, this sure promised to be a cracker of a contest.

Early in the day, Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat on what looked like a very unlike Mohali wicket. It was slow and sluggish, grass just enough to bind the surface together.

Shoaib Akhtar continued to warm the benches as Pakistan went in unchanged. India on the other hand, decided to tinker with their team, a winning combination, astonishing, indeed. Ashish Nehra was brought in, in place of Ravichandran Ashwin who must be cursing his stars, missing out on perhaps the biggest game of his life.

Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were out there, doing what they do best for India; scoring runs and at a brisk rate. India looked to be marching on towards another 300 run score after a phenomenal start as the opening duo forged a healthy 48 before Sehwag was caught wanting playing across the line to Riaz, dismissed for 38.

Tendulkar and Gambhir then steadied things as Pakistan went on to drop a flurry of catches, Sachin looked a shadow of himself, failing to put away the bad deliveries, giving opportunities to the Pakistanis with every blink of the eye. He got lucky, and as all great players do, they might not be on top of their game all the time, but they scrap and scrap hard. Sachin was no different as the champion made a patient 85 being the rock behind India’s batting.

Mohammad Hafeez accounted for Gambhir as the south paw was deceived in the flight only to be stumped by Kamran Akmal. Wahab Riaz ensured Shoaib Ahktar would not be missed as he put on an impressive spell of fast bowling, using reverse swing to laudable effect. Riaz did for both, Kohli and the in form Yuvraj in a space of 2 balls sending shivers down the Indian dressing room. India were 141 for 4 at that stage and had succumbed the early initiative they had. Dhoni chipped in with a sluggish, albeit vital 25. But once again, the star of the show was Suresh Raina as his contribution along with the lower order propelled the Indian total to 260.

A defendable, but not a winning total. India had to let the scoreboard pressure build on Pakistan and so they did. Pakistan got off to a sedate start before Kamran Akmal slashed at one away from his body, and was caught at cover point, Yuvraj the catcher.

Hafeez, Asad Shafiq and Younis Khan built solid partnerships but it was the rate of their scoring that was huge cause for concern. Despite being a 100 odd for 2, Pakistan were behind the eight ball as far as runs were concerned and you knew, a couple of wickets and the pressure would be right back on the Pakistanis and so indeed was the case. Yuvraj and Harbhajan stifled the batsman with Misbah Ul Haq’s aid who seemed to have dug himself a hole. Misbah was unable to rotate the strike but stuck through and once Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi were making their way back to the pavilion, Sri Lanka knew who they were playing.

Misbah picked up his scoring rate a little, but was a lone ranger as the pace trio of Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan did a fabulous job in stifling the opposition.

A match that might not have quite gone down to the wire, but it was an enthralling one to say the least. The outcome of the match meant that people were dancing in the isles of India as they made their way to a 3rd final, looking formidable to bag the World cup en route giving the greatest cricketer of the modern era a perfect send off on his home ground.

We said it would be a perfect script if India and Sachin would get to the finals, well guess what, they did. Indeed, a Sachin 100, 100th international century will be an absolute treat to the 30000 people who turn up there. Let’s not forget Sri Lanka will be hoping to give the same to Muttiah Muralidaran who too, will call it quits come April 2nd.

The Indian country has a glorious and memorable past with a notable escapade which is still being a revelation to other countries, which is our non-violent endeavor for Freedom, which was served to us in a platter by our great leaders who had the temerity to withstand the bloodthirsty bullets of the British brutes.

Our 62 year old history of freedom undoubtedly is gradually withering away as it has become a place for terror attacks owing to a poor and deficient security system. This statement is clearly proved by the frequent onslaughts and their magnitude in the consequent years from 2003 to 2007 including the recent Mumbai terror attack in Nov 2008. These brutal attacks are gradually defacing the face of our motherland; though this fact has been realized by every Indian, the Government is still denying permission to the states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan to pass their own anti – terror laws. This attitude of our Government remains anomalous, which has again shoved our people into a state of panic as India is constantly receiving alarms from the US government on the odds of another terror attack on our Nation.

The feasibility index for the foray to take place is high as the upcoming series of major holidays could provide terrorist groups an opportunity to stage an attack. The Nov 2008 Mumbai attack provided a vivid reminder that luxury hotels, malls and other crowded areas would be the main targets for the terrorist. We lost many of our citizens to the peckish wolves including numerous foreign casualties during the attack, and this has really created a substandard situation for the foreigners to enter our country. The American and Canadian Governments have warned their citizens who are flying to India to maintain a high level of vigilance and have asked them to avoid going to the highly crowded areas, to maintain their personal safety.

As the saying goes “Prevention is better than cure”, our nation has received sirens and now its time to take preventive measures to safeguard our people and nation from the wicked hands of terrorism. Our Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has promised to strengthen the air and maritime security forces. It is also time for our government to have a radical relook at the anti terror laws because the law should not be so frail that it could embolden the terrorist groups to strike India without fear. The abolition of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) 2004 and the politicization of its anti terror response has left India with no effective central law to counter terrorism.

So as the terrorist groups are becoming technologically advanced and many are functioning with the active help of countries, it is imperative to take extraordinary efforts to tackle them to prevent our nation, our people and our beloved possessions from the scourge of terrorism.

Swine Flu in Doon School, 5 Students Infected The H1N1 virus has struck once again and this time, five students of the famous Doon school have been infected.

Out of the ten swab samples sent to NICD (National Institute of Communicable Diseases) five tested positive in the report sent on 8th September. The Dean of the school for public relations, Mr. Piyush Malviya, mentioned that four of the boys were recovering in their homes, where they had been sent, once the report was confirmed, and one boy was recovering in the school itself where he had been quarantined. Malviya went further to say that the school had taken all the measures required in such a situation, as advised by the Uttarakhand health authorities.

All students with symptoms of flu, however mild, have all been quarantined in a large capacity ward, with added medical personnel. Parents of all students are kept updated on the latest situation and the school has started to curtail activities which require the students gathering in one place like assemblies, classes and so on, and also stopped all events taking place outside the school premises. Malviya also mentioned that authorities were not in favour of a complete shut down of all activities in the school.

The Government of India has classified people with serious symptoms under Category C, and only such students are being tested and the Tamiflu drug is being administered in a judicious manner, as it is known to have side effects in many patients. Dr Peter Mclaughin, who is the school Headmaster, said that the school had been working with the medical authorities of the state of Uttarakhand, from the very beginning, and the school had taken immediate quarantine precautions with all the boys with flu symptoms, when the first boy had tested positive.