'One of his scratchiest innings': Ashish Nehra recalls Sachin's 85 against Pak in WC 2011

Ashish Nehra recalled Sachin Tendulkar's knock of 85 against arch-rivals Pakistan in the second semi-final of the PCA Stadium in Mohali. That was not Sachin's best innings by any means and in fact, was nowhere near the epic match-winning knock of 98 against the same opposition in the 2003 World Cup at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. 

Tendulkar was dropped four times and also got lucky after he was plumb in front of the wicket off Saeed Ajmal, but DRS came to his rescue. Just when it looked like the Master Blaster would score his 100th international century, he was caught by skipper Shahid Afridi at extra cover off Saeed Ajmal. He had scored 85 off 115 deliveries that included 11 boundaries at a not so impressive strike rate of 73.91.

'One of his scratchiest innings': Ashish Nehra

“Needless to say, even Sachin Tendulkar himself knows how lucky he was in that game. It was one of his scratchiest innings you’ll see. Whenever you’ve seen Tendulkar scoring even 40, you will see bad decisions or catches being dropped. But not that many and luck going your way that much,” Nehra said on The Greatest Rivalry podcast.

“See when you talk about a World Cup, whether it’s India-Pakistan, India-England, or any other team, it’s all pressure. You’ve reached the semifinal, you’re a good team but in the end, it’s all down to how you handle pressure,” the former left-arm seamer added. 

When India qualified for their third World Cup final

Even though the batting maestro scored a painstaking 85, it was good enough to earn him the Man of the Match award as that knock had come in a winning cause. At one stage, it looked like India would score in excess of 300 after winning the toss and electing to bat first before the Pakistani bowlers staged a remarkable comeback in the middle and death overs of the first innings. Stellar contribution from Suresh Raina in the middle-order helped India post a competitive total of 260. 

Pakistan in reply were cruising towards an easy win riding on a 44-run opening stand between Kamran Akmal and  Mohammad Hafeez. However, once they lost three wickets before reaching the three-figure mark, they failed to catch up with the asking rate and when the wicket got slower as the innings progressed, it was a huge mountain to climb for the 1992 winners as they were bundled out for 231 in the final over as the Men In Blue won the contest by 29 runs to qualify for their third World Cup final.
Nehra on the other hand, picked up a couple of crucial wickets (Wahab Riaz and, Saeed Ajmal) to derail the Pakistan run chase. Unfortunately, he was ruled out of the final due to a broken finger. India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to win their second World Cup after a long wait of 28 years. By the virtue of this win, the Men In Blue also became the first team to win the coveted trophy on home soil.

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