‘Spirit ofMohali’ gives

new push to dialogue

Sachin Parashar &

Diptosh Majumdar | TNN

Mohali: As the Men in Blueripped out stumps to celebratea hard-fought victory overPakistan on Wednesday, theprime ministers of the twocountries cheered what diplo-mats referred to as the ‘‘spir-it of Mohali’’ which wouldrestart India-Pakistan dia-logue that was stalled by theMumbai terror attack.

Ahead of the semifinal,Manmohan Singh and YousafRaza Gilani, who had flownin from Islamabad earlier inthe day, shook hands amidhopes that cricket diplomacywould pay off. According toa source close to Singh, the In-dian prime minister said themessage from Mohali wasthat people from both coun-tries wanted peace and ami-ty and both prime ministerswould work towards it.

‘‘The meeting was heldagainst the backdrop of asporting contact which epit-omizes people-to-people ex-changes and the spirit of agood and constructive game.The meeting was truly crick-et in nature,’’ said foreign sec-retary Nirupama Rao. Ter-rorism was among the issuesdiscussed, she said.

A beaming Singh looked incomplete control as he steppedout in the company of Gilanito be introduced to the twoteams before the game. As thematch picked up pace, the twowere seen in the VVIP box,chatting and even applaudingthe odd boundary. Gilani hasinvited Singh to Pakistan, butthere’s no word whether theinvite has been accepted yet.

Although they left in the af-ternoon, the two prime minis-ters reassembled for dinner atthe stadium around 7.30pm formore of what diplomats called‘‘conversations’’ on several top-ics, including cricket. P 13

India On Song,Pak’s Riaz JustNot Enough

Now, Beat The Sanga ParivarPak Drop The Cup With Awful Catching. India Defend Sub-Par Score With Inspired Bowling & Fielding

Vikas Singh | TNN

Twenty-eight longyears after that mag-ical Indian summerin England, the Men

in Blue are one victory awayfrom proving that India is tru-ly cricket’s superpower, notjust commercially but also onthe field. One victory awayfrom being world No.1 inODIs, in addition to Tests. Onevictory away from giving theultimate thank you gift to thegreatest cricketer since Don

Bradman, and a fittingfarewell to a coach who hascontributed so much to theirrise. And one victory awayfrom giving millions of youngIndians born after 1983—in-cluding several members ofthe present team—the joy ofknowing what it actually feelslike to have your squad lift theCup that counts before yourjubilant eyes. Kumar San-gakkara—Sanga to millionsof fans—is waiting with hisformidable Lankans. But sois the opportunity of a life-time for Dhoni’s Daredevils.

India went into the semi-final against Pakistan as odds-on favourites, and for once thebookies had it right. The qual-ity of cricket didn’t really liveup to the occasion but the ebband flow of emotions—from

exuberance to unease to dis-appointment to hope to ex-citement to sheer mad exul-tation—more than compen-sated. Wednesday’s win ex-tends India’s record againstPakistan at the World Cup to5-0. Some day, the law of av-erages will catch up, but notwith history beckoning so al-luringly.

It was supposed to be In-dia’s batting vs Pakistan’sbowling but as often happensin cricket, things didn’t go ac-cording to script. The Indianinnings got off to an explosivestart, powered by Virender Se-hwag, stuttered midway andfinally lurched to a total—260—that could at best be de-scribed as fighting. Man ofthe match Sachin Tendulkarproduced one of the patchiestinnings of his stunning ca-reer, but its value becamemore and more apparent asthe Pakistani innings steadi-ly went into terminal decline.

The bowling, though, wasa revelation. Defending 260meant there was no scope foreven a single bowler to have anoff-day. No one did, with Zaheer,Munaf, Nehra, Harbhajan andYuvraj all taking two wicketseach. Incredibly, the first ex-tra, a wide, came as late as the37th over. Dhoni attackedthroughout, the Men in Bluefielded with tigerish resolveand the bowlers never easedthe pressure, even when Pak-istan appeared to be cruising.

At the end of India’s in-nings, Pakistan would havefancied their chances. After ablistering start from VirenderSehwag that briefly raised vi-sions of India crossing 350,Afridi’s men had succeededin reining in India for 260 —a total that most pundits feltwas at least 20 runs below par,given the small ground andfast outfield.

Rahul, Sonia shift to aam admi standsFor a small bunch of spectators in Mohali stadium’s

Northern Pavilion, the highlight of the day came asfirst Rahul and then Sonia Gandhi slipped into thegeneral stands, triggering a wave of mobile phonesraised and switched on camera and video mode andtentative girls seeking autographs. Girish Kopper, asoftware engineer from Bangalore, went further,pleading with Rahul to speak to his wife on his cellphone. ‘‘It’s a question of saving my marriage,’’ hejoked. Rahul smiled back but before he could consider,the SPG put its foot down. P 11

3rd time lucky: Cricketdiplomacy jinx brokenTwo jinxes were shattered on Wednesday. India had

played Pakistan twice before at Mohali, and losteach time. And cricket diplomacy had proved ratherunlucky for India — Zia ul-Haq’s visit on Rajiv Gandhi’sinvitation in 1987 saw the Test in Jaipur end in aboring draw, though the hosts eventually lost the five-Test series 0-1. In 2005, when Pervez Musharraf cameto Delhi to watch an ODI, India were routed by 159runs. Fortunately, India reversed the trend this time, orPM Manmohan Singh’s peace initiative may have beendenounced by many irate cricket fans.

Who will ‘keep’ the Cup,Dhoni or Sangakkara?P rior to this World Cup, no team led by a wicket-

keeper had ever played in a Cup final. That’schanged, and how. Saturday’s final will see two teamsled by keepers (Dhoni & Sangakkara) clash for the title.That’s not the only common factor. Both India and SriLanka will be playing their third finals. Each has wonthe first final they played (1983 and 1996, respectively)and lost the second (2003 and 2007), incidentally bothto Australia. So, for whom will it be third time lucky?Which of the co-hosts will keep the Cup at home? Thebookies are betting it will be India.

FULL COVERAGE: P 3-5,7, 11, 13, 15, 21, 23-26

Sehwag Fires | Viru Sehwag givesearly impetus by blasting 38 off 25balls, including 21 in Gul’s 2nd over

Riaz Strikes | Takes out Kohli (9) andYuvraj (0) off successive balls in 26thover to push India on to backfoot

Sachin’s Many Lives | Let off 4times—on 27, 45, 70 and 81—as hescores 85. Pak end up losing by 29 runs

Raina Chips In | Suresh Raina hits 36and India score 43/1 in batting Power-play to finish at 260/9

Hafeez Self-Destructs | With Pakcruising at 70/1, Mohd Hafeez triespaddle sweeping Munaf and is caughtbehind. The chase starts to derail

Yuvi Stings | Dismissed for 0, Yuvrajbounces back with ball. Gets rid ofAsad Shafiq and veteran Younis Khanto turn match India’s way

Bhajji Comes Good | Harbhajanbowls danger man Umar Akmal to putIndia firmly on top. Also gets rid of Pak skipper Shahid Afridi

Misbah Messes Up | Misbah-ul-Haq’s crawl (56 off 76 balls) ensuresthat asking rate kept rising, leaving toomuch to do at end. Pak all out for 231

WHAT A DAY! Suresh Raina (L), Yuvraj Singh and Munaf Patel rush to bowler Zaheer Khan who dismissed the last Pakistani batsman, Misbah-ul Haq, to seal India’svictory in the tense semifinal on Wednesday. With 19 wickets, Zaheer now holds the Indian record for most wickets in a World Cup, beating the 18 of Roger Binny(1983) and Zaheer himself (2003). Before the match, Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Gilani greeted the crowd while Sonia and Rahul Gandhi cheered the Indian team

TWISTS AND TURNS

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: IT’S BLUE VERSUS BLUE IN MUMBAI

TIMES CELEBRATIONSachin Tendulkar was the match’s highest scorer with 85. He has playedin all 5 India-Pak World Cup encounters and been declared Man of the Match in3 — 1992, 2003 and on Wednesday. Sachin, a critic of the review system,benefited from it after the TV umpire overturned an LBW decision against himwhen he was on 23. He was also dropped 4 times but battled on. He now has464 runs in this Cup, just 3 behind leading rungetter T Dilshan (467)

Ashish Nehra (L)and Harbhajan

Singh (R) took 2wickets each. So did Zaheer, Yuvraj and Munaf as the Indian bowlershunted in a pack to bowl out Pak.

THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI | THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2011

Wahab Riaz took 5 for 46,the best by a Pakistani

against India in a World Cupgame. Umar Gul’s economy rateof 8.6 worst for any Pak bowler

against India in Cup match

Govt isolated as SC agreeswith CAG’s 2G loss report

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

New Delhi: The UPA-2 gov-ernment had challenged theComptroller and AuditorGeneral’s (CAG) report thatblew the lid off the 2G scamand its estimated loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore. However, the

Supreme Court has virtual-ly endorsed the auditor’s find-ings, saying they tally withthose of the CBI.

Presenting details of theCBI’s investigation to a benchcomprising Justices G S

Singhvi and A K Ganguly onTuesday, senior advocate K KVenugopal animatedly read

out how former telecom min-ister A Raja had brushedaside concerns raised by PMManmohan Singh.

Venugopal said Raja hadpaid no heed to the PM’s let-ter on spectrum and read outfrom the CBI’s probe statusreport similar objectionsraised by other ministries.“None of the objections andconcerns was looked into,”he said. After Venugopal tookthe court through a majorportion of the CBI’s status re-port, the bench said, “This isvirtually all which was foundout by the CAG.”

Actor Shiney gets 7 yrs RI for rape Rebecca Samervel | TNN

Mumbai: Shiney Ahuja, the38-year-old award-winningHazaare Khwaishen Aisi ac-tor, was sentenced to sevenyears rigorous imprisonmenton Wednesday after beingheld guilty of raping hisyoung maid in his Oshiwaraflat on June 14, 2009.

A fast-track court in Sewrirelied on the FIR filed by Ahu-ja’s 18-year-old maid after theincident to convict him al-though she had later back-tracked and denied the rapeduring the trial. However, itacquitted Ahuja of the char-

ges of illegal confinement andcriminal intimidation whichthe victim had alleged in hercomplaint.

The actor and his wife Anu-pam walked into court togeth-er, but he left with the police es-

corting him to jail. The actor,who was out on bail since Oc-tober 2009, remained silent af-ter hearing the verdict. Hehugged his mother as his wifeAnupam maintained that hewas innocent. Shiney had de-

nied the charge against him,but forensic experts corrobo-rated the case against him.

Public prosecutor K V Dighesaid the clinching factors in thecase were a positive DNA testand strong medical evidence.

OTHER TOP STORIES

Citi to seal Rs 1,000-crBKC office space deal, P 5

MoEF accepts panel nodto 257 Lavasa bldgs, P 7

Bali bombings brain saidto be held in Pak, P 20

Japan to scrap four of sixFukushima reactors, P 20

HIV cases among thosepregnant halve, P 16

2 seniors die as carbursts into flames, P 3

No supplements, studentsfail to finish exam, P 3

TOI launches apps foriPad, iPhone, P 21

SC virtually endorses CAGfindings, saying they tallywith the CBI probe

The bench said, “This (CBIstatus report) is virtually allwhich was found out by CAG.”

Vindication of CAG findingswill undercut government’sclaim that losses were vastlyexaggerated

CAG Gets SC Pat

SC prod on lawyer, P 15FULL COVERAGE, P 2

Abhishek Kasliwal iscleared in rape case

Citing lack of evidence, a city sessions court on

Wednesday acquittedindustrialist Ambuj Kasliwal’sson Abhishek of the charges ofraping a 52-year-old woman atthe Shree Ram Mills compoundin Worli on the night of March11, 2006. P 2

Maid had alleged rape in June2009, retracted in August 2010

Court goes by circumstantialevidence—DNA tests, semen onquilt and curtains and victim’sscratch marks on Shiney's hand

Shiney convicted of rape,acquitted of criminal intimidationand wrongful confinement

FORENSIC EDGE

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