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Summary Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali is ready for the Pakistan-India cricket war.
The match started at 2pm Pakistan Standard Time. Both the team are under pressure by the fans to win the match and qualify for the final of the World Cup.In the World Cup 2011, India and Pakistan have won four of their last five games but this will be the first time Pakistan is going to face India is semi finals. Collectively, both the teams have faced each other four times in the World Cups, with India winning all four matches. In the cricket ground in Mohali, Pakistan has played twice against India and won both the matches. Pakistan also has a better record in the One-Day-International matches as they have won 69 out of a total of 119 games while India only managed to win 46 matches. If Pakistan loses the match, this will be the last outing for the world’s fastest bowler, Shoaib Akhtar, who earlier announced his retirement from international cricket.Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi is regarded as a danger man as he is the leading wicket taker in the tournament with 21 wickets. He is also the first bowler in World Cup history to take four wickets in a match on four different occasions in a tournament which include two five wickets and two four wickets hauls. Umar Gul is also among the top 10 wicket taking bowlers in the tournament. On the other hand, India has a strong batting line up with Sachin Tendulkar, the leading Indian run scorer with 379 runs which includes two centuries and a half century. Tendulkar is yet to score a century against Pakistan and if he does so he will have a record 100 centuries.Apart from that, there are three Indian batsmen in the top 10 of most runs scored in the World Cup. Umar Akmal is the only Pakistani batsmen to score beyond 200 runs and the best placed Pakistani batman is ranked at number 28 for most number of runs scored in the tournament. Any team that wins today’s match will face Sri Lanka in the final of the World Cup on April 2. This will be the first World Cup final in which two Asian teams will be fighting for the top prize. Regardless of who wins the match, the World Cup trophy will return to Asia after 12 years.
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