India v Pakistan

On Wednesday, India took on Pakistan in the second semifinal of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. A mouthwatering encounter was on the cards in Mohali as the two rivals reignited an age old rivalry.

For us in Ottawa, the game would begin at five in the morning and go on past noon. My university has a whole bunch of patriotic Indians and Pakistanis, so one guy managed to book a student lounge on campus called the Raven's Roost where all of us could watch the match together on a projector.

The atmosphere at the Roost was electric. Despite the early hour, supporters of both teams were there in full force, some draped in the green of Pakistan, or the orange, white, and green of India.

Every four, six, or good bit of running between the wickets was emphatically cheered, while wickets were met with deafening roars or shocked silences. There was mutual respect on display as well, with supporters of both teams rising for eachothers' national anthems.

At 8:30, I left for an English class and returned a couple of hours later with a Canadian friend of mine. "Why are they running with their bats?" was his first question when he saw the action on the big screen. Painstakingly, I explained to him the rules of cricket. By the end of it, he was hooked.

Sachin Tendulkar proved his class once again with an eye-catching knock of 85 of 115 balls to anchor India's innings. 

But as Wahab Riaz tore through India's middle order, chants of jithaay ga bhai jithaay ga! Pakistan jithaay ga! ("We will win brothers, Pakistan will win!") were roared out by the Pakistani fans. However the Indians had the last laugh as the ever reliable Harbhajan Singh picked up a couple of key wickets towards the end to tip the scales.

With Pakistan having had too much laddu before the game (no wonder they dropped all those catches!) and Misbah seemingly batting for tea on day five of a test match, Pakistan fell short by 29 runs in pursuit of India's target of 260.

But at the end of the day, the match was a great advertisement for the game and it's fair to say that cricket was the winner.

Below: Misbah launches a six in the penultimate over of the match