Build up to day 2 was awesome due to India-Pakistan match. Indo-Pak match tickets were sold out online within half an hour. Imagine the importance of the match all over the world. Apart from India vs Pakistan there was a clash between African nations as well. South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Game 3: South Africa vs Zimbabwe
South Africa was put into bat by Zimbabwe as the conditions were pretty good for bowling early on. For the first 15 overs I was in awe of Zimbabwe's fielding. I was just surprised to see them field in that manner. It put pressure of DuPlessis and DeVilliers. Hence South Africa looses DuPlessis in 17th over but DeVilliers was handling the pressure well. The moment he started to get offensive Ervine took a blinder to send him back to the pavilion. It was upto Duminy and Miller to take South Africa to a respectable total.
Both Miller and Duminy played sensibly till the 40th over. Then Zimbabwean bowlers were bowling in Miller's V and arc and Miller was hitting the trees out of the park. Duminy supported him well. Both of them together made a record partnership of 256 and took South Africa to the score of 339 which was mammoth total for the team like Zimbabwe. In reply Zimbabwe started well. They lost Sikandar early but there was good partnership between Chibhabha and Masakadza but after that Zimbabwe lacked that fire power to chase that score. Though Taylor made run a ball forty but it was not enough. In the end South Africa won the match by 62 runs. Good start for proteas.
Game 4: India vs Pakistan
Second match was India vs Pakistan. It was the most awaited match of the world cup. As for us win against Pakistan was like winning a world cup. We (Indians) don't have much expectations from India in this world cup but we wanted a win against Pakistan for sure. Moreover India vs Pakistan is always more than just a cricket match it is like a national event or festival for both the nations. Anyways here Dhoni won the toss and after a long long time took a right decision to bat first. Dhawan was way too cautious at the start and Rohit Sharma was the aggressor but he got out soon. Then Kohli and Dhawan started playing sensible cricket and made a base for huge score. Dhawan's half century gave Raina a launch pad he needs thus Raina came and played his natural game. On the other hand Kohli reached his hundred.
Kohli was given couple of chances by Pakistan and he made most of it. Last five overs of Indian innings were most disappointing as India only scored 27 runs of it. I don't know till how long Dhoni will bat like this. Why don't he just play his natural game in slog overs. India ended up exactly on 300 which was 30 runs short of what it was expected. It was a par score which means it was game on at the end of India's batting. Pakistan opened with Shehzad and Younis Khan which was bit surprising and it didn't worked. Shami sent Younis back to the pavilion pretty early.
Then there was good partnership between Shehzad and Sohail but Yadav's second spell was very fruitful for India as he picked Shehzad and Maqsood in it. Umar Akmal got out on duck and Sohail also gave it away. Afridi and Misbah started playing sensible cricket. It was quite surprising to see Afridi playing sensible cricket. That partnership between Misbah and Afridi brought my heart in my mouth as I knew that if they carried on like this then they will finish the game by 48th over at the most. Then Kohli took a superb catch off Shami to dimiss Afridi and then Pakistan tumbled. Pakistan was all out on 224 which gave India a comfortable victory. Whole nation celebrated this victory in their own way. It became the national festival where there was no discrimination of caste there was only 'agony' in that celebration.
Two days of world cup and all the matches have won by the teams batting first and all the teams who have batted first hasn't scored less than 300 runs which is considered to be a par score in this world cup. Now let's see how it goes ahead.
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