This will not be one of the Fridays, Umer Akmal will be telling his batting partners about. On Friday, the two ‘Umers’ got Pakistan out of the jail of the looming defeat. That was a miracle and miracles do not take place ordinarily.

Hafeez opted to bat first after calling it right at the toss, a decision that left many minds boggling, considering the Indian batting depth and the steel, almost any total is chasuble for them. Pakistan got a flyer of a start, Nazir looked dangerous in the first over but as happened so often in his career, the lacking patience brought his down fall. Hafeez took a brave decision to send Afridi at 3 which was right considering the impact what Afridi could have created but the after effects of that decision surely cost Pakistan the game.

Hafeez always has been a bit of thinker and he appeared to be pre-occupied with a lot of thoughts, which brought him under pressure. In this high voltage game, he tried to take the responsibility and held an end up, batting with Afridi and Nazir it was possible but when both left, it became imperative for new comers to score quickly and in doing so Kamran and Jamaheed fell. Eventually, too carious Hafeez also went down. Malik tried to make a partnership with talented Umer Akmal but Umer was left with the tail once more. Arfat failed to change the strike and eventually resulted in Umer’s hit out. Gul tried his best but Indian bowlers were aware of his treat and strengths. The Pakistan innings absolutely failed to get going at any stage after the initial blitz. The total of 128 was not an evening fight score for the bowlers to stand a chance.

Raza Hassan, fresh from a fantastic spell against the South African, started from where he left the other day. He knocked over Ghambir very early in the piece. Hafeez’s tactics were baffling; Pakistan stood a chance of winning by bowling out India only. He hardly had a slip and with just four men in the circle and made no effort to stop the easy singles when the required rate was hobbling around 6, he tried to defend 128 which was not going to happen. He should have brought Ajmal earlier but it also did not happen. After leading so well against South Africa, he disappointed big time against the India with leadership. He tried to take the responsibility with the bat and succumbed under pressure miserably. The bowlers tried their best but defending 128 without any pressure of the required run rate, was much a steeper task than are used to. Kohli played his typical knock of controlled aggression; he never gave an even ray of hope to the bowlers. Sehwag was in sublime form before he threw his wicket away. At the end, Yuvraj, after the heroics with ball delivered lusty blow with the bat.

After so much hyper and the anticipation, the game failed to live up to the expectations but this result has opened the group wide. Australia are through, Pakistan, South Africa and India all still in the race for the spot. So, the best thing that Pakistan can do is a win against the Aussies then hope for the best. Over the years, the lady luck has been very kind to them in these types of situations, let see what happens this time around. For that, they have to win first against the Aussies. The chance of rain is also looming, if it rains all day Pakistan will make it through to the semis with Australia from Group 2.