It was touted as the most important match of the Twenty20 World Cup, albeit a warmup match that was not part of the World Cup. Because of the seedings problem we talked about, the only way Pakistan and India can play against each other in this year’s edition of the World Cup is if both of them reach the finals. Possible, but perhaps unlikely.

In the end, it didn’t even turn out to be close. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat, but were soon reeling at 63/5. Thankfully they had kept their run rate up while all the wickets were tumbling, and Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Yasir Arafat took them to a respectable 158/6. Under the circumstances, it was very commendable and India perhaps missed a trick by failing to keep the pressure on.

But that was all soon forgotten when the Indian openers slowly, but surely made their march towards the target. A 10-wicket thrashing was in the works when Rohit Sharma fell to a top edge with 19 required. Dhoni once again came in at No. 3 and finished the match off with a couple of quick blows. Pakistan will be pretty disappointed with this outing.

A few quick comments:

1. Pakistan’s batting was better than that in their previous outing when they were all out for 127 against South Africa. They were 65/5 then too, but today they managed to score a few more. Since Sri Lanka only scored 109 against South Africa today, Pakistan’s grade is somewhere like “B-” instead of an “F”. But they have to step up. Thankfully with England and Netherlands in their group, they have time to recover.
2. Bowling is a different issue altogether. Conceding 186 yesterday and 159 in 17 overs is a failing grade. And Pakistan was supposed to have the better bowlers.
3. India too has some bowling problems, especially in the death overs. That is why they lost the New Zealand match. And today, they gave the Pakistani bowlers something to defend. They need to keep the pressure on.
4. Is Dhoni going to be the official No. 3? If so, great. If not and he has been using these warm-up matches for experiments the results of which he is not going to use, then India are going to risk facing some unpleasant surprises.
In summary, good comeback for India after the fiasco against the Kiwis. Some more thinking for the Pakistanis before their first match against England on Sunday.

There are 2 points that I want to make in this article .

London and Las Vegas seldom match . In Cricket , as in any other sport , gameplan and tactics are inherent but there should be a master plan to any tactics. Otherwise it is not risk-taking, but gambling.

Its a fashion in Indian cricket following, we have to have somebody to criticise and hang to the sword. In ODIs till this day it were Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dravid, Ganguly in past. Kumble, Fab Four in Tests adding Kumble. So in T20s it has to be the captain.
During the IPL and today in the warmup match against New Zealand, we saw M S Dhoni promote himself up the order to No. 3. His record has been inconsistent. Sometimes it has worked and at other times, like today, it hasn’t. This has happened quite a few times that I get a feeling that Dhoni is being too clever instead of thinking strategically and long-term. A loss in inconsequential warm up game to T20 world cup ended the honeymoon for MS. A man who before IPL could do nothing wrong, now stands in a witness box to answer the critics why he promoted himself to # 3. Man to man basis, he is a better batsman than the regular # 3 in T20s -- Raina boy. So what if he had been failure yesterday? All this talk wouldnt have arose if he had scored runs and hadnt got out to the awkward stumping to Vettori boy and McCullum uncle.

Basically, the problem with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tactics on a given day is not whether it succeeds or fails on that given day. Every tactic is a risk. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, winning can be “in spite of” something rather than “because of” something.
Here are the questions that we should ask about Dhoni’s promoting himself to #3:

1. What was Dhoni’s intention for promoting himself? He came in at 42/1 after 5 overs with India chasing 170. India was not in any particular difficulty as they were up with the required run rate. Did Dhoni come as a pinch-hitter or did he come to shepherd the team to victory?
2. If he did come to play an anchor role, why could that role not be performed by Raina, Jadeja, or Yuvraj? Shouldn’t Dhoni’s role as captain be to empower his teammates instead of trying to spoon-feed them and corner all the glory?
3. The way Dhoni played (6 off 4, a boundary off the second ball) meant that he came in to attack the bowling (although that may seem redundant in Twenty20). If so, why do so with India well-placed? Secondly, why not send someone expendable like Harbhajan Singh who can hit a few?
4. Is Dhoni always going to come in at #3? Or is he going to keep everyone guessing when he is going to come in?

I am not against Dhoni batting at any position permanently. I am not even against him for changing the batting order as needed. What I am against is changing it in an ad-hoc fashion with no rhyme or reason.

This is what the random shuffling does to the Indian team. It sends a message to the team members that they cannot adjust to the different conditions on the field as needed. It lowers their confidence and destroys their sense of responsibility because why should they worry about leading the team to victory if Captain Dhoni can step in? When the match situation is ambiguous, the batsmen may be confused what to do. The next time India is 40/1, should they slog or milk the bowling? If Dhoni doesn’t promote himself then and the team loses, would that be a mistake?

The real time for tinkering with convention is when the status quo is risky. Remember the World Cup T20 semifinal match against Australia two years ago. Dhoni decided to bowl out his more experienced bowlers and let Joginder Sharma bowl the last over. Hayden was blazing away and had to be stopped. To stick to the bowling order would have been crazy and Dhoni rightly shuffled his bowlers to perfection. In contrast, what he is doing now with the batting order is silly and superfluous.
Lets look up to the match with Pakistan tomorrow and see how these points are taken care

Geo Super made spoof on ICC Twenty 20 Cricket world Cup. Life line 20 20 Amitabh Bachan