The India-Pakistan clash in the semi-final of the 2011 World Cup was a blockbuster dual between the Asian giants. The match was played in Mohali, Chandigarh and it saw swarms of fans from both sides converging in the PCA Stadium to watch these two teams go at each other.
MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first. Sehwag started as he would, but fell to Wahab Riaz for 38 runs. Gambhir (27), Kohli (9) and Yuvraj (0) fell in quick succession despite the presence of Sachin Tendulkar, who ended up making 85 off 115 balls with 11 fours.
However, it was an innings far from what we had seen from Sachin. He was dropped four times during his 85-run knock in the aforementioned match on 27, 45, 70, and 81 by Misbah ul Haq, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, and Umar Akmal, respectively.
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He then had a confident LBW appeal by Saeed Ajmal, which was upheld by on-field umpire Ian Gould, was overturned by using the DRS. However, his innings, along with contributions from Dhoni and Raina, took India to 260/9 in 50 overs.
Ashish Nehra, who played in that match, called this innings of the little master, one of his scratchiest ones.
"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," Nehra said.
"The way Virender Sehwag started against Umar Gul (taking him for four fours in an over), at one point in time, we might score 340-350. We ended up 257-58 if I'm not wrong. When we were bowling, Pakistan had a very good start, and defending 257 was a great effort by the Indian team. There’s no doubt about it,” he said.
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Despite a late surge by Misbah and a 43 by Hafeez, Pakistan was never in the chase after losing wickets at regular intervals. Nehra, along with Munaf, Zaheer, Harbhajan, and Yuvraj picked two wickets to keep Pakistan to 231 and won the match by 29 runs, booking a place in the finals against Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, Nehra got injured in this match and missed the finals and this proved to be his final ODI match in India colors.
India defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 World Cup in Mumbai on April 2, lifting its second world title.
