History may be against them but Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has said the time is perfect to rewrite it given that the Indian team is under pressure after losing its opening match of the ICC World T20.
"For me, I did not find anything controversial in it. This is something he felt. It's his emotions."
It has traditionally been a battle between India's batting and Pakistan's bowling whenever the arch-rivals have met on a cricket field and Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi reckons the trend will continue in their World Twenty20 contest on Saturday. The Pakistan captain is looking to bank on his team's winning record against India the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Pakistan have defeated India in all four matches that have played at the Eden Gardens. "We have good memories of the ground," Afridi said. "We have played well at this ground, we know the conditions and the pitch suits us as well." Pakistan were the last team to land in India, putting aside safety concerns that led to the switching of their match against India from Dharamsala to Kolkata's Eden Gardens.
'We are taking a lot of positives from the tournament as we have a played the final which is a huge achievement' 'It was a huge scope for us (Asia Cup) but then a lot of people did not expect us to reach the finals but we did reach the finals'
Team India's cricket director Ravi Shastri has played a massive role in getting Shikhar Dhawan back on track after a prolonged lean patch during the tour of Australia that preceded the ongoing World Cup.
India, came into the tournament after a disastrous bilateral series, is onfident of winning.
Holders India marched into the quarter-finals of the World Cup with their fourth consecutive win but all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja's form with the bat has left captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni a worried man.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has taken a serious view of Virat Kohli's foul-mouthed tirade against an Indian journalist at the ongoing World Cup and asked him to refrain from "any such behaviour in the future".
Former paceman Shoaib Akhtar labelled captain Misbah-ul-Haq "a coward" and "a selfish player" after Pakistan were crushed by 150 runs by West Indies in the World Cup on Saturday.
West Indies captain Jason Holder blamed his team's poor batting for the defeat against India at the WACA in Perth on Friday.
Karim Benzema netted a second-half hat-trick as Real Madrid got back to winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Sunday.
'Rather than focussing on the strategy of other teams, we should rather focus on ourselves'
Test captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are likely to be rested for India's tour of Zimbabwe, but there is no confirmation on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's availability for the short series, starting June 11. India will play three ODIs and two T20 Internationals during the series which marks the end of the season.
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'I was merely trying to give a positive message to the rest of the world that we enjoy a lot when we play in India.'
Floored by the warm reception in India after their arrival for the World Twenty20 Championship, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and senior all-rounder Shoaib Malik on Sunday said they have never felt any security threat in the country. The Pakistani team touched down here last night after getting government clearance to travel, a decision that was delayed by several days over security concerns. In fact, Pakistan's marquee World T20 clash against India on March 19 had be moved from Dharamsala to Kolkata after Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh expressed his inability to provide adequate security cover in the wake of protests by the state's ex-servicemen. However, both Afridi and Malik played down the intense media focus on Pakistan's security. "I've not enjoyed playing anywhere as much as I have in India. I am in the last stage of my career and I can say that the love I have got in India is something that I will always remember. We have not got this much love even from Pakistan," Afridi said.
Most of the cricketing world might swear by the finishing skills of Indian limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni but former opener Gautam Gambhir feels it is Virat Kohli who deserves the tag of being the side's finisher.
PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan has slammed the team's performance at the Asia Cup but admitted it was too late to make sweeping changes ahead of the World Twenty20 this month.
Be it the jam-packed stadiums at the UEFA Champions League, the intense trans-Tasman rivalry in cricket, there are certain events that enthralls fans. Brendon McCullum blasting into history with the fastest Test hundred in his farewell Test; but that wasn't enough as Australia completed a 2-0 clean sweep of the Kiwis. Rohit Sharma, yet again showing why is considered to be a special talent in limited-overs cricket as India thrashed host Bangladesh in the Asia Cup opener. In Champions League football, Lionel Messi's Barcelona proving too hot for old-rivals Arsenal. Be ready to be amazed as Rediff.com encapsulates all the sporting action from the past week in this super photo feature.
The threat of West Indies being forced to field a second string side at the World Twenty20 was averted on Sunday when 12 of 13 players in the original squad signed the contracts which had caused a standoff with the board.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
'A lot of people had problems in adjusting with the change of time and it affected their sleeping pattern'
Amid the furore generated by Virat Kohli's abusive behaviour with an Indian journalist, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin tried to defuse the tension.
The 2015 ICC World Cup has thrown up a lot of exciting moments since it began last week on February 14. Rediff.com gives you a quick flashback of all the action-packed, intense moments that had us watch in awe.
Pleased by Indian bowler's performance during the game against Pakistan Team India director Ravi Shastri said that it will serve them well if bowlers were to replicate their performance in the rest of the tournament.
"The bench strength will warm the bench," is what the captain MS Dhoni had declared after India had beaten West Indies in Perth.
Afridi has said that previous defeats in the cricket World Cup against India will not matter.
India will look to plug the chinks in its armoury and provide finishing touches to its preparation for the four-Test series when it takes on the West Indies Cricket Board Presidents' XI in the final warm-up match, starting in Basseterre, St Kitts, on Thursday.
From Eden Gardens to Centurion, Shoaib Akhtar has had many memorable on-field battles with India's batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and he feels that Mohammed Aamir and Virat Kohli's face-offs will also go down the cricket history as one of the epic duels.
Ashwin said after consistently playing the Test series against many teams, adjusting to the short format is a bit of a challenge.
Pakistan's flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi has ruled out any chance of making a comeback to ODIs.
Senior Board of Control for Cricket in India functionary Rajeev Shukla says the decision to give Team Director Ravi Shastri an extension till the 2016 World Cup was based on his good performance and rapport with the players.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that the trio of Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma should not be forced to play domestic games.
The national selection committee, under Sandeep Patil, is likely to leave it to limited-overs' captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to decide on his availability for the short tour of Zimbabwe, from June 11-20.
Outraged by the quality of umpiring in Bangladesh's World Cup quarter-final loss to India in Melbourne, the country's Cricket Board is all set to lodge a protest in the ICC and has got the backing of the governing body's President AHM Mustafa Kamal, who said the on-field officiating was "very poor".
The vagaries of the World Cup draw may have helped Pakistan rediscover their swagger at just the right time to push them to the brink of a quarter-final, according to captain Misbah ul-Haq.
Another twist in the tale was that there were some undercover Pakistan intelligence officials who were sent to keep an eye on the players as the side has suffered badly because of spot-fixing and match-fixing in the past few years.
Senior Pakistan batsman Younis Khan, toast of the nation three months ago after reeling off four Test hundreds, has become the target of criticism after the team's humiliating World Cup losses with senior players calling on him to retire.
Opening the bowling for Pakistan in a World Cup match with India is enough to get any paceman excited. For Sohail Khan, playing his first international since September 2011, that excitement briefly got the better of him on Sunday.
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