Sachin Tendulkar himself knows how lucky he was in 2011 WC Semi-Final: Ashish Nehra

Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra opened up on Sachin Tendulkar’s fortunate 85 against Pakistan during the semi-final of the 2011 World Cup and called it as batsman’s ‘scratchiest’ innings. Carrying the bag of luck and fortune, Tendulkar remained the top scorer for men in Blue even after being dropped four times during his innings.

He was dropped constantly on 27, 45, 70 and 81, and was relieved twice by the third umpire on 23. Fans remain etched to their edge of the seats when he was dropped thrice off the bowling by Shahid Afridi and once by Mohammad Hafeez which was an LBW but was revered due to DRS. Having brought back to life for so many times, it was one chancy innings, but formed the very basis of India’s 260 on board.

On Greatest Rivalry Podcast, Nehra stated, “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.”

Score of 340-50 was on mind: Ashish Nehra

The semi-final turned out to be Nehra’s farewell ODI where he picked two wickets conceding 33 runs. India outclassed Pakistan by defeating them by 29 runs to secure a position in the 2011 WC finals. Back then, it was 5th head-to-head between India and Pakistan in World Cup where India held the record of 5-0 which stands at 7-0 currently.

The way Sehwag started his innings in that particular game, Nehra believed that a score of around 350 was expected but that wasn’t the case as India posted 260 runs and with the great bowling efforts, defended the total to reach the grand finale.

“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 added.

“The way Virender Sehwag started against Umar Gul (taking him for four fours in an over), at one point of 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.”