Cricket World Cup: Pakistan PM accepts cricket invite

Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, to attend the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the countries on Wednesday.

India defeated Australia to make their way into the semi-final

The match, in the northern Indian city of Mohali, has created huge interest on both sides of the border.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been badly strained since the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

Then, more than 170 people were killed by Pakistan-based militants.

The nuclear-armed rivals have met a number of times over the past year and Pakistan's foreign minister is scheduled to visit India by July to discuss the resumption of peace talks.

Heavy security is already in place for the match but this was stepped up after police said on Thursday they had arrested a man they believed was planning an attack during the World Cup.

Across India and Pakistan there is a scramble for tickets for next week's match, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says.

India has issued 5,000 visas to Pakistanis with confirmed tickets and the government is under pressure to ease restrictions and allow more people in from across the border.

The main disputes between the two sides centre on counter-terrorism and the Himalayan territory of Kashmir - which both countries claim. There are also a number of economic issues and smaller territorial disagreements which divide the sides.Before the Mumbai attacks, the two sides held formal peace talks known as a "composite dialogue" for several years but made little headway, apart from a number of confidence-building measures.

Talks ended in acrimony last July with the two sides in a public spat over Kashmir.

Batting track expected in Mohali

There are no match tickets available. There are no hotel rooms vacant for the thousands flocking to Chandigarh from all over the world. The premiers of both India and Pakistan will be there to watch their men contest the second semi-finals of the World Cup. Add to those certainties one other: the Mohali pitch is bound to be batsmen-friendly. If sources are to be believed, then the fast bowlers will be more effective than spinners. "It is a good batting wicket. I don't think it will turn much," a Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) official said.
Daljit Singh, the PCA Stadium curator, talks to MS Dhoni about the pitch

History suggests that captains prefer to bat first on calling the coin right and both MS Dhoni and Shahid Afridi will do well to follow convention. It is better to bat first because the wicket tends to lose pace as the match goes on. But if there is heavy dew things could change. "A 280-plus total would be really difficult to chase," the source said. Over the last five years, in the nine matches played at the ground the 300-run mark has been breached only twice. Incidentally, on the first occasion, Pakistan successfully chased India's 321 in a day-night game, with Younis Khan's 117 overshadowing Sachin Tendulkar's 99.

In the past five years, seven out of the nine matches have been won by the side batting first. Also, there were seven day-night matches with five won by the side batting first and only two by the chasing side. Wednesday's semi-final would be the first match to be played under lights since November 2009 in Mohali.

Of the 137 wickets taken in those nine matches, fast bowlers accounted for 105, while the spinners claimed just 29. Even though the seamers have predominantly controlled affairs here, slow bowlers like Harbhajan Singh, who relies on bounce, have always got good purchase from the Mohali pitch. At the same time the hard clay in the pitch tends to make the ball skid rather than spin, so a spinner like Afridi would do well to push the ball rather than spin it.

Another talking point in the build-up to the match has been the dew. Over the last few days there has been heavy dew with the outfield being really wet till 10 pm. The curator will be taking measures like not watering the ground two days before the match and cutting the outfield really low but it would be difficult to eliminate the dew entirely. An essential factor for the dew to not spoil the evening would be the presence of the wind during the first half of the day. If it is windy during the day the dew will not be heavy, otherwise it will play affect team strategies.

Pakistan vs India Detailed Cricket Statistics Before Semi Final ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

The cricket matches between Pakistan and India entail a long history. The cricket matches between both the Nations are more emotional symbol than only a game. There had been a lot of matches between both countries but the Semi Final on 30 March 2011 is declared as the match of century.

So much of hype has been created for the upcoming game and the main reason for this is that both countries have not played any one day or test series since 2007 and the last one day international match between both teams was due to a compulsion of Champions Trophy in 2009. After the incident of Mumbai attacks on 26/11/2008, both the Nations have a silent boycott as far the matches are concerned.  Another reason for the hype is that it is not only a World Cup match rather a knock out match.

Some of the interesting facts and figures of both the teams are:

Matches played	119		Matches in India	26		Matches in Pak	27
Won by Pakistan	69		Won by Pak	17		Won by Pakistan	14
Won by India	46		Won by India	9		Won by India	11
Draw/Tie/No result	4					No result	2

Matches in neutral countries	66
Won by India	26
Won by Pak	38
No Result	2

Highest Total Chased
Team	Runs	City	Date
Pakistan	322	Mohali	Nov,8 2007
India	316	Dhaka	Jan 18,1998

Hat-Tricks
Pakistan	Aaqib Javed	37/7	Sharjah	1991
India	Nil

WCC Batting comparison of top five players
Pakistan	Runs	India	Runs
Umar Akmal	211	Sachin Tendulkar	379
Misbah	192	Sehwag	342
Kamran Akmal	188	Yuvraj	341
Muhammad Hafeez	172	Gambhir	269
Younis Khan	172	Virat Kholi	238

WCC Top 10 Bowlers of Both teams
Pakistan	Wickets	India	Wickets
Shahid Afridi	21	Z Khan	17
Umar Gul	14

Victory Margins (Highest)					Victory Margin (Smallest)
Team	runs	City	Year		Team	runs	City	Year
Pakistan	150	Delhi	2005		Pakisatan	4	Sharjah	1993
India	140	Dhaka	2008		India	4	Quetta	1978

Highlights of last series last match 2007 played at Mohali b/w Pak vs India