The second match of the Micromax Cup in Zimbabwe between India and Sri Lanka has a lot to offer. Although the rivalry between the two sides has been intense, so much so that the players must be tired of seeing each other’s faces again and again, yet the contest promises to be entertaining.

Primarily, it is because India lost to Zimbabwe in the first match of the tournament, causing the tournament to be wide open. On the other hand, Sri Lanka would find this a perfect opportunity to make a winning start to their campaign, which could give them confidence to win more as the tournament progresses.

India needed to hit back. Pressure was intense on Suresh Raina, the stand-in captain. However, on a windy day and a slow pitch in Bulawayo, he won the toss and elected to field first. His Sri Lankan counterpart, Tillakratne Dilshan knows the conditions perhaps better than any other foreign cricketer playing in this tournament.

It is because he made his debut at the same venue back in 1999. He too got carried away about what happened at the toss and miraculously for India, Sri Lanka faltered. Upul Tharanga, Dilshan’s opening partner, got run out as early as the second over.

Sri Lanka further struggled with their captain playing a Test-match innings, and forgetting that he was playing an ODI. Dilshan seems to have lost his Midas touch that he possessed in 2009, despite scoring a more-or-less responsible 61, until he was also run-out as well.

Thilan Samaraweera, batting at No.3, also played an uncharacteristic shot, getting himself stumped for just 19 runs. Angelo Matthews batted extremely well in a tough situation at No.4, slamming 75 runs of 95 runs. He was the only bright spark of the Sri Lankan innings which suffered largely due to lack of partnerships, which meant Matthews wasn’t given any support at all.

Thissira Perera tried to up the ante with his 32 runs scored of just 23 balls. However, it was too late for Sri Lanka as they could manage a paltry 242 all out with one ball to spare in the innings.

India did everything right. Their bowling was outstanding in the powerplay overs, a rare sight indeed! Even their fielding could be called ‘decent’ enough with two run-outs in the entire innings.

Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja have yet again proved how their bowling can be crucial to India’s success in this format. However, India had to chase 243, which was not easy considering the Sri Lankan bowling attack having some experience.

India’s openers needed to start well, as the pitch was slowing down. Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay weren’t amongst the runs recently and thus to win it for India was an uphill task for them.

At 47/2 in the 10th over with both of them gone, it was huge pressure. It was then that the centurion of the last match, Rohit Sharma walked in to bat with Virat Kohli at the other end. And it was a counter-attack that would last long in every person’s memory who watched the match.

Kohli has a fascination for Sri Lanka and yet again he proved his increasing maturity with a fine 92-ball 82, with just four boundaries. His batting was outstanding considering how well he could find the gaps in a tight field set by Dilshan for his spinners to attack.

Kohli, the vice-captain on this tour, in fact helped Sharma get his second hundred on the trot, as it was he who looked to tear apart the opposition. Rohit Sharma has been in top form since the IPL this year.

His experience is what Raina has been banking on so far and he has repaid his faith by steering India to a comfortable win of 7 wickets with 7 overs to spare! Looking at the public displeasure in India after the defeat to Zimbabwe, this win was crucial in appeasing them and Raina too, who as captain has to face the heat the most.

Rohit Sharma was the man-of-the-match undoubtedly. Unlike India, it was Sri Lanka’s bowling which struggled. Apart from pacer Nuwan Kulasekara, none of the other bowlers impressed. Tillakratne Dilshan took a huge gamble by taking both Ajantha Mendis and Dilhara Fernando.

Mendis has become too predictable now and Fernando is not much of use on slow pitches. So like Raina, it is Dilshan who will be under the pump, ahead of the clash against Zimbabwe next up.

His experience will be a must for his young team, to help beat a confident Zimbabwe team, who are constantly improving. If Sri Lanka get their act right in the next game, the points table will get interesting further. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Zimbabwe might even beat Sri Lanka convincingly, which means that in my book, they are the favourites to win!

It would have been heartbreak for the Pakistani supporters, present at Lord’s this Sunday, had Pakistan lost another T20 final. It would have been a big shock for all Pakistani Cricket fans worldwide. However, history did not repeat itself as Pakistan shrugged of last T20 World Cup defeat to notch up a convincing win against Sri Lanka, who had through the whole tournament not lost a single match. In fact, Sri Lanka had the better of Pakistan in a Super 8 Game in this tournament. Pakistan played the role of giant killer, as they beat South Africa in the Semifinals and then steam rolled over Sri Lanka in the Men’s T20 World Cup Final.

It has been a sort of remarkable turnaround for Pakistani cricket, after so many incidents happening in their country and cricket being banned in their soil. Pakistan thus became the only team to have beaten both Sri Lanka and South Africa in this World Cup. A remarkable achievement indeed, considering the fact that both these teams have been in prime form and played magnificent cricket, except during the crunch time when they faced Pakistan in a do or die encounter. Perhaps the moral of the story for this edition of T20 World Cup will be that, to win some you need to loose some and play well when it matters.

Winning the toss Sri Lanka opted to bat first, as they wanted to set a decent total for the Pakistani team and put them under pressure. Their tactic soon backfired as the Pakistani youngster Mohammad Aamer got the better of Dilshan in the very first over of the match. With their best batsman in the tournament gone for a duck, Sri Lanka lacked ideas to come back into the match. The change in the batting line up also backfired as Jehan Mubarak was snapped up by Abdur Razaq, ex-ICL player for the second duck of the innings.

Pakistan now had a firm control on the match. Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lankan veteran with a whole lot of experience, tried to steer away Sri Lanka from this position but failed to do so after scoring just 17 runs to become Razaq’s second victim. Things got worse as Jayawardene got out in quick succession to Razaq. The only person left defending the Sri Lankan fort was their captain Kumara Sangakara. The Pakistani bowlers were unrelenting and did not loose focus in the match as Sri Lanka were left tottering at 70-6 after 13 overs.

The rescue act for Sri Lanka started with the partnership between Sangakara and Angelo Matthews, as they took the fight back to Pakistan. Sangakara remained unbeaten on 64 and Matthews scored valuable 35 run with both standing their ground until the end of this innings, as Sri Lanka managed to score 138 runs with an unbroken 68 runs partnership between these two Lankan lions. The score seemed a little less for the high profile Pakistani batting line up, but it still gave hope to Sri Lanka for putting up a fight in the second half of the match.

Coming into bat with a target of 139, the Pakistani openers started cautiously. With the total well entrenched in their minds, the Pakistani openers played normal cricketing shots as Sri Lanka were left searching for answers to get a break through. Sangakara tried six different bowlers in the first six overs of the innings to find a break through that never happened. Pakistani openers on the other hand did not spare an inch for the Lankans to come back into the match. It was then left to the experience of Jayasuriya to get the first wicket for Sri Lanka and affect a batting collapse for Pakistan.

However, the duo of Mallik and Afridi played a brand of cautious cricket unlike to their reputation, to take Pakistan closer to the target as Pakistan reached the 100 mark within the 15th over. With things, getting out of control Sangakara tried to use the experience of Malinga, Muralitharan, and Menids to restrict the flow of runs. However, nothing seemed to work this time as some magnificent hitting from Afridi and an unbroken partnership between both of them saw Pakistan to their second major title, the first one coming in 1992 when they won the 50 over version in Australia.

The win was dedicated to Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan and South Africa coach, as Pakistan did not get twice unlucky. The Lankans had themselves to blame, as they never looked in control of the match. Pakistan with this victory has proved once again that they cannot be taken for granted in International Cricket. When Pakistan plays good cricket the world has to stand up and salute them.