Story India plays Pakistan in a Home Series!

[sohail]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! OMG MAN WHAT A MATCH! What a way to end my night! Siasrini you are the master in writing stories! I cant wait for the next match!! Pakistan Zindabad!!

 

[SaiSrini]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! OMG MAN WHAT A MATCH! What a way to end my night! Siasrini you are the master in writing stories! I cant wait for the next match!! Pakistan Zindabad!!

I am a Master because Pakistan won rite?? Ha Ha. Anways, I really hope every match is as close as the three ones so far!! Its so much fun to play such close games!!

 

[SaiSrini]

Presentation Ceremony

Pakistan have won a close contest by 4 wickets. The architects of this win for them was Yasir Hameed with a brilliant 130. He was ably supported by the rest of the batsman. India must be disappointed as their bowling was shockingly poor today with lot of wides. Now we get down to the presentation!

Shastri: Another close match here at Chennai. Pakistan emerging victorious by 5 runs. I would like to call upon Ganguly to pick up the runners up cheque of Rs.25,000. So Saurav, must be disappointed with the loss, isnt it?

Saurav: Yes Ravi. We didnt bowl well today. We bowled a lot of extra deliveries and that counted against us in the end. We should have been more discplined.

Shastri: Did you think you could defend this total?
Saurav: Yes definitely. If we kept a good line and put pressure on the batsmen, we could have won. But all credit to Pakistan, especially Hameed. He played brilliantly and took it away from us

Shastri: Bad luck and better luck next time. Now I call upon Inzamam Ul Haq to collect the winners cheque of Rs.50,000 from the dias. So Inzy, elated with this win?

Inzy: We are very happy with this win. We should have got this in the second ODI itself. Hameed played a gem of an innings and almost took Pakistan through. Was nervous when Younis Khan was out, but luckily Afridi finished it off.

Shastri: Were you confident of chasing this total?
Inzy: Yes. We are always confident no matter what the total is. Today, we decided that our openers would stick it out and take us through and the other batsman would go with them and achieve the win. Luckily, we made it. This is been a fantastic and a closely fought series. Looking forward to the rest of the games

Shastri: Thanks Inzy. Now for the Man of the match. A relatively easy choice. Yasir Hameed

(Hameed collects Rs.5000 from the dias!)

Shastri: Congrats Hameed. How does this feel?
Hameed: This feels terrific!! This is the best ever innings in my life. All credit to my team mates as they keep encouraging me to do my best.

SHastri: How was the pressure today? Your team has been faltering when it matters the most in the previous matches!

Hameed: It was nervous to begin with. But luckily, we got through it soon once we had a good start with the bat! Butt at the other end was very composed and kept talking to me in between deliveries. We shared a great rapport during that partnership.

Shastri: Thanks Hameed. Thats all we have from the MA Chidambaram stadium Chennai. See you soon tomorrow for the 4th ODI.

Guys, the next two ODI's will be back to back played in two days. The ODI viewers contest is closed. Change of rule in it - Either correct answer gets reputation points from me (as not many participated!)

 

[Johann]

Wow, great stuff! I am tired after reading this...This is really a brilliant series!

Good luck for the next one. I hope you can go into the final at 2 - 2!

 

[m_vaughan]

Good win that for Pakistan.

 

[The Champ]

Eventhough India has lost, i congratulate Pakistan for their fine victory
Glad to give 500th reply in Sasi story thread. Congrats Sasi great Story. Keep it up

 

[dayne]

what an excellent match, well played india, but i felt as long as abdul razzaq and shahid afridi were still to come, we had the game in the bag. well played saisrini80..!

 

[SaiSrini]

Wow, great stuff! I am tired after reading this...This is really a brilliant series!

Good luck for the next one. I hope you can go into the final at 2 - 2!

I feel I need not play the 6th ODI and waste things up. I am planning to have this as a 5 match ODI series. This series is really close and a 5 match series would bring forward a winner. Two more matches to go!!

what an excellent match, well played india, but i felt as long as abdul razzaq and shahid afridi were still to come, we had the game in the bag. well played saisrini80..!

I too was feeling a bit the same way. But i was confident.

Lets hope the next two matches are as good as these three so far!

Eventhough India has lost, i congratulate Pakistan for their fine victory
Glad to give 500th reply in Sasi story thread. Congrats Sasi great Story. Keep it up

Hey, if you are implying to me as Sasi, call me Sai. Sasi sounds too different!

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I wondered who pinned this up? When the next two matches are over this would be pointless......but it is good enough to be stickied as of now!

This goes to show, average players have more interesting matches(no offence).

 

[Ramz]

Wht a ODI series so far man PAKISTAN ZINDABAD ..... unbelivable

 

[SaiSrini]

I wondered who pinned this up? When the next two matches are over this would be pointless......but it is good enough to be stickied as of now!

This goes to show, average players have more interesting matches(no offence).

Yes man.. Since this story was selected the best for the month of March, it has been pinned up for the next 15 days (2 days already gone!). This story would be pinned only for 13 more days. And Zorax, I am planning to continue my new tournaments in this thread itself. I am planning to ask the moderators to rename the thread according to the tournaments and series that I play! Next will be a ODI series against Sri Lanka and a test cum ODI series vs New Zealand!

I agree - average players surely have more interesting matches!! But its not just being average, i think. For example, I have almost totally cut down on the slog shots. I play without those slog shots. I also use the lofted shots very rarely. This reduces my scoring power and makes the matches more realistic. And the chances of getting wickets increases with playing the Normal shots with Tutsi's patch as at times, i play a particular shot and the batsman ends up playing a different shot and gets caught or bowled! So, I would say bringing down ur slog shots would greatly increase chances of interesting matches!

 

[SaiSrini]

India win toss and elect to field first!

Ganguly has won the toss (this is his third toss win this series!) and he has elected to bowl first on a Hard pitch. A bit of a surprising decision. Lets see what he has to say

Chappell: A surprising decision considering that the wicket is Hard and would be very good for batting.

Ganguly: I think early on, the bowlers can get a good carry through and can hustle the batsman. And now all ODI games are based on the batting and we have the batsmen to chase any total.

Chappell: So Inzy, happy with Ganguly's decision?
Inzy: Of course. We would have loved to bat first on this wicket. But since this is a Day game, we need to be really sure to set a target of around 300 to put pressure on India

(No change in either teams! All set to start!)

TERRIFIC START FROM PAKISTAN!

After the first 2 overs, Ganguly has started scratching his head on whether his decision to bowl first was a wrong one. Butt and Hameed have cracked the first two overs from Pathan and Khan. They have scored 22 runs from 2 overs. The Indian bowlers havent bowled badly. Its just that the Pakistanis are manufacturing shots! Must be that their confidence from the win last night must be rubbing on them onto this match!

Salman Butt GONE - 55/1

Salman Butt has again been stumped by Dhoni. The Pakistani batsmen have so far been out to a lot of stumpings this series and Butt is again a victim. He charged to Kumble and missed the line for Dhoni to do the rest!



Bringing in Kumble in as early as the 7th over does the trick as he managed to stem the flow of runs by giving only 2 runs and picking up a wicket!

 

[m_vaughan]

I see you prefer going with Dhoni in the ODIs. I think its a good move since the lad is a better ODI batsman than Karthick, from what I have seen. Also he is pretty good behind the stumps, as can be already seen in the Salman Butt dismissal.

Good start by Pakistan but pegged back by the man they call Jumbo!

 

[sohail]

Good start by Pakistan! Butt once again Stumped he really needs to sort out his shot selection!

 

[SaiSrini]

I see you prefer going with Dhoni in the ODIs. I think its a good move since the lad is a better ODI batsman than Karthick, from what I have seen. Also he is pretty good behind the stumps, as can be already seen in the Salman Butt dismissal.

Good start by Pakistan but pegged back by the man they call Jumbo!

Yes. Dhoni is a better hitter than Kaarthick. And he is also swift behind the stumps.

Kumble strikes again!

Is this Jumbo's day? It looks like it might be! Kumble has got rid of Shoaib Malik. Malik went for a lofted shot and missed the timing. The ball went straight up in the air above the pitch and Dhoni came in from behind to take the catch. Another good match for Dhoni. Lots of catches and stumpings!

Video clip of Shoaib Malik's wicket

Pakistan 71/2 |Inzamam 5* | Yasir Hameed 30*​

Pakistan in command after 15 overs!

Even the fall of Yasir Hameed did not deter Pakistan as they kept scoring at a very aggressive rate of 7.8 per over. They are 116/3 after 15 overs with Inzamam leading the way with 28* off 27 balls and Youhana 10* off 8 balls. Hameed was out for 33 when he tried to loft a ball but found the mid off fielder Ganguly.



If Pakistan moves at along 5 runs per over from now on, they will reach 291 for sure which should be a very competitive total for India to chase. India have their task cut out - pick up wickets and restrict the scoring of Pakistan!