The matches between India and Pakistan are always watched with great interest in cricket, and when it is a World Cup knockout game, it is always expected to break viewership records. It is well known that the rivalry between both these nations goes well beyond cricket.
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The 2011 World Cup was a special one for the Indian team as they became the first-ever team to win the World Cup in home conditions. India and Pakistan met each other in the semi-final of the tournament in Mohali, and it was certainly a high-octane match where big politicians from both countries attended the event.
Pakistan cricket team decided against playing Shoaib Akhtar in the playing 11, and it certainly created a lot of stir. Akhtar was quite disappointed about the same, and he was very vocal about it in many shows years after 2011 as well. He felt that he could have made a big difference in that match.
Shoaib Akhtar blamed team management for not playing him in IND vs PAK 2011 World Cup Semi-Final
Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar said that the team management said to him that he was unfit to play the game, but he went to the nets and bowled eight straight overs. Akhtar said that he could have made a big impact on the game. He insists that the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were the most important for the Indian team, and he could have dismissed both of them.
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Akhtar revealed that he was so disappointed that he broke a few things in the dressing room. He said that the Mohali match still haunts him, and the management should have played him as this was Pakistan’s best chance to win a World Cup. Akhtar insists that the Indian team was under so much pressure as they were playing at their home under so much media pressure.
“They told me I was unfit. But I went inside, I bowled eight straight overs during the warm-up. If I played that match, no matter what the consequence would have been, I would have dismissed Sachin and Sehwag,” Shoaib Akhtar said.
Sehwag played an excellent knock of 85 runs in the semi-final, and India managed to score 260/9 in the first innings. Pakistan got all out for just 231 runs, and India won the match by 29 runs in the end to reach the final.
