WC semi-final googly: Mumbai to Chandigarh air fares triple

MUMBAI: Air fares between Mumbai and Chandigarh shot through the roof since Thursday, following India's entry into the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan. A day after the Indian team beat the Aussies, fares to Chandigarh—the venue of the semi-final match—quickly tripled. India will take on Pakistan next Wednesday at Mohali, Chandigarh.

City-based tour operators have seen a sudden surge in demand for bookings to Chandigarh, an otherwise low-key sector. The usual one-way fare between Mumbai and Chandigarh is between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000. However, on the day of the match, the highest fare available is anywhere between Rs 18,000 and Rs 22,000. Mumbai has only three direct flights to Chandigarh and they are left with very few seats for the coming Wednesday. "Just after India's victory, I booked at least eight people to Chandigarh on a one-way fare of more than Rs 20,000," said Rajesh Rateria, managing director, Cirrus Travels. "The fares are high for Wednesday as most people want to fly out, watch the match and return on Thursday." Tour operators said the fact that there are few flights to Chandigarh from the city aided the fare rise.

"Compared to Delhi, Mumbai has only three direct flights to Chandigarh," said a Fort-based travel agent. "The fare between Delhi and Chandigarh is much lower because nine flights operate daily between these destinations. Also, people can drive down to Chandigarh in four hours."

Tour operators said there were still some reasonably priced flights to Chandigarh. However, they halt at two places before reaching the destination; their flight duration is more than 10 hours. "There are flights available via Indore and Delhi for Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000," said another tour operator.

Due to the high fares, tour operator Jay Bhatia has been asking his clients to book for Tuesday to Delhi instead, and then cab it up to Chandigarh. "There are more than 15 flights between Mumbai and Delhi at a reasonable Rs 3,000-5,000." Travel agents said fares have been high for places where India has been playing. "Just before the India-South Africa match in Nagpur, fare to Nagpur was around Rs 14,000 instead of Rs 5,000-7,000," Rateria said.

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Ind vs Pak: World Cup record in India's favour

MIRPUR: Team India is fancying its chances quite strongly against Pakistan in the semifinal to be played at Mohali on March 30, and their confidence obviously stems from their awe-inspiring track record against the arch-rivals. Since the 1992 Cup, India faced Pakistan four times and emerged winners on all occasions.

"We are happy that Pakistan are our opponents in the semifinals and we are ready for them. We have a good track record against them in the World Cup and we will draw a lot of inspiration from that. Even the last time we played them in the Asia Cup, we were able to beat them," an Indian player, who didn't wish to be named, said.

Notwithstanding this piece of record, India are not taking Pakistan lightly and respect the fact that they also played consistent cricket to reach the semis, like India. "We are not going to take any match lightly. The Australia win was very satisfying, but we have to move on and get ready for the Pakistan game," the cricketer said.

With the biggest game of the World Cup coming up, the celebration of annihilating Australia has been muted. "Pressure will be huge, but we are ready for it," a team source said.

Along with the batting, which is India's forte, the team is relieved that the bowlers have finally joined the party. "With Ashwin coming into the playing XI, the bowling unit now looks very good. Hope we can continue to do like this in the next two matches," a team source said.

Team India is likely to reach Mohali by Saturday and hit the nets right on Sunday to sharpen their game for the big battle. "The couple of days rest should do a lot of good before they begin their preparation for the big game," said the sources.

With five days remaining for the high-octane clash, India would like to cover up all the bases.

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SL vs Eng: Sri Lanka meet gritty England on home turf

COLOMBO: Without an iota of doubt, Sri Lanka will go into their quarterfinal match of the World Cup against England as out and out favourites.

They don't quite have a very superior pace attack as compared to England but Lasith Malinga adds a bit of edge. Not that England don't have quality spinners but Sri Lanka have Muttiah Muralitharan.

Without doubt England have a batting line-up that has shown some amount of resilience but Sri Lanka have Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who are kings in their own backyard.

England are a good team to have made it to the last eight but at the R Premadasa Stadium, on Saturday evening, they will be up against a side who know very well what it takes to win here and certainly have the right ingredients to make that happen.

If England can defy this odd and come out trumps, it is fair to say that they will go on to create a major upset in the subcontinent. The math is as simple as it can get for Andrew Strauss' men. Handle three bowlers - Malinga, Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis - well and get rid of two batsmen - Sangakkara and Jayawardene - as soon as possible. How well England manage this will eventually tell whether they're moving any further in this tournament or not.

No prizes at all for guessing what the wicket is likely to have in store for the two teams. A clean shave, less water, more roll. The ball is most likely to turn as soon as the match starts and slow while coming on to the bat - that is how the captains see it. However, unlike most similar subcontinent wickets, Premadasa's still a bit different. Chasing under lights is as tough as it can get and while Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss says that it has eased out considerably in the last two to three years, those even slightly foreign to the conditions here have a lot to worry about.

Afternoon onwards, the weather can get very sticky and sweaty here in Colombo and under lights, when the ball happens to be slow off the wicket and doesn't come on to the bat, things can get messy for those chasing.

A good example of the same was Sri Lanka's own defeat at the hands of Pakistan batting second. Bayliss, in fact, says Sri Lanka actually did well in reaching almost 260 runs under lights. Strauss certainly would've made note of that.

The one thing that will not trouble the batsmen and bowlers under lights is dew. It is the weather again that assists this factor and therefore, players with soft hands will make a huge difference when the going gets tough.

Expecting such situations, Strauss & Co are wary about Murali no doubt. "His record speaks for itself. He is still bowling well. In these conditions in particular, he will be a big challenge for us.

Quite a few guys have played him a fair amount now and we have got our own individual plans on how we are going to counter him," he says. How well England manage to live up to these words will decide their fate.

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Bookies make India hot favourite to beat Pakistan

MUMBAI: Indian cricket fans who are praying day and night for MSD's men to trump Pakistan in the 'mother of all battles' at Mohali on March 30, can take heart. Most global betting websites predict that India will put it across Afridi's resurgent boys.

Ladbrokes has tipped India at 4/7 (win 57 paise on every rupee bet), while giving Pakistan an 11/8 chance. On Betfair, India is favoured at 1.58, Pakistan is at 2.68. Bet365.com too backs the hosts, giving them odds of 8/15 against Pakistan's 6/4. Sri Lanka (4/9), meanwhile, is expected to beat England (7/4) easily in the last quarterfinal on Saturday.

The only glitch here that the game seldom follows the form-book.

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SA vs NZ: Oram, Ryder help Kiwis book berth in World Cup semis

MIRPUR: There is certainly no team in world cricket who can beat South Africa's consistency in traveling till the wire before giving up the ghost.

At the Sher-e-Bangla stadium on Friday, they proved that this characteristic is purely their preserve when Graeme Smith and his men, who were running to seal their place in the semifinals, got knocked out by New Zealand by 49 runs.

It was hard to believe that this was the same team that had won five matches in the group stage and lost only five matches in last 24 ODI outings. Batting first, New Zealand made 221 for eight and then bowled out the opposition with surprising ease at 172 in 43.2 overs. This was South Africa's sixth loss in the knock-out stages of the World Cup since 1992.

The road to New Zealand's victory was first laid by Jesse Ryder who made a fighting 83 off 121 deliveries and then Jacob Oram (4 wickets) and Nathan McCullum (3 wickets) put the skids under South African batting to hand them a humiliating loss.

In a pathetic batting display, all the top South African batsmen got off to good starts but except Jacques Kallis (47) and AB de Villiers (35) none of the others could translate the good starts into knocks of substance. On a low and slow wicket, Oram was rewarded for stump-to-stump bowling. He also moved the ball well and cleverly used the slower ball. He took the wickets of Faf du Plessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson and Smith.

Jacques Kallis' effort failed to lend much value to the total as he departed just as the South African innings began to rely more on the all-rounder's effort. de Villiers too departed in similar conditions, getting run out precisely at a time when his side needed him to stay at the crease. Plessis did try to swing the match South Africa's way, but in the end it wasn't enough.

In contrast, New Zealand did quite commendably on a pitch that had something for the spinners even with the new ball. However, Vettori's decision to bat first appeared to backfire when they lost both the openers early - Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill quite cheaply.

McCullum fell to his own greed while Guptill found the going tough and simply couldn't wriggle himself out. At 16/2 New Zealand looked in deep trouble, but a 114-run stand between Ryder and Taylor resurrected their innings.

Ryder, who has not been among runs, was a little shaky to start with, but as he grew in confidence with the time he spent at the crease. His first half-century comes as a boost to himself as well as the team ahead of the semifinal.

As runs were not easy to come by, the duo ran their singles and twos quite well and rotated the strike. Kane Williamson's smart 38 enabled the team to put a respectable total on the board.

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Ad rates up 350% for dream semis

MUMBAI: Team India lives another day to play the dream semifinal against Pakistan and that means advertisers, who banked on the 50- over World Cup, feel they have got a bigger bang for their buck than expected.

It's not only the advertisers, the ICC World Cup is turning out to be a jackpot for the broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) as well. Media planners told TOI that ESS has hiked its advertising rates-the amount a brand pays to be seen on air-to as much as Rs 17-18 lakh for a ten second spot for the India-Pakistan semifinal scheduled to be played in Mohali on March 30. This is a huge jump from Rs 3.5- 4 lakh for a ten second spot the broadcaster charged before the start of the tournament.

ESS got on board brands like Britannia and Nike, which paid about Rs 8-9 lakh for a ten second spot during Thursday's quarterfinal encounter between India-Australia. "There are very few spots left. We are definitely looking at substantially higher rates as compared to what we were selling before the tournament started," said Sanjay Kailash, executive VP-ad sales & new media, ESPN Software India. Sports broadcasters usually keep about 10% unsold inventory to bag so that they can charm a premium for it at the last leg of the tournament.

"The World Cup has delivered impressive ratings and has proved to be an instant reach builder for all our clients. We are exploring some buys for the semifinal as well considering the kind of huge platform it will offer to advertisers," said Madison Media CEO Basab Datta Chowdhury. Most media planners said they will either look to buy more inventory for existing clients or get new advertisers on board, especially brands which are planning to launch new campaigns. Media agency Maxus, which bought spots for its clients Vodafone, Nokia, Hero Honda, Fiat, besides others, said the increased rates make sense. "If you paid Rs 3 lakh for a rating of 2 or 3, its OK to pay in the range of Rs 15 lakh for a 20 rating for an India-Pak match," said Ajit Varghese, MD, Maxus India.

American sports goods marketer Nike, which premiered its Bleed Blue campaign during the India-Australia game on Thursday, said it was a strategic move to come on during the knock-out stage. "With the build-up in place for the Bleed Blue campaign, we wanted to get onto the World Cup at this crucial stage. We were clear that we wanted to create the most impact and, therefore, chose to enter when the momentum is at its peak," said Sanjay Gangopadhyay, marketing director, Nike India.

Cola major PepsiCo India, a brand traditionally associated with cricket, launched "change the game" campaign aimed at building up the passion around the World Cup. Having learnt lessons from India's early exit in the 2007 tournament, the brand kept its campaign away from India's fortunes this time and instead focused on the changes that have been brought about in the game. "We believed that the World Cup is the premier cricketing event in the world. The results are very encouraging with very high top-of-the-mind association translating into consumption and share increase," said Sandeep Singh Arora, executive VP, marketing, PepsiCo India.

But things would have been different for Nike had India not progressed to the semifinal. where it now meets arch-rival Pakistan, "If India did not win, it would have been different. But its part of the risk which we took. But yes, although, the campaign would have been canned if we did not progress," added Gangopadhyay. According to Map, an overnight audience mapping agency, the India-Australia quarterfinal clocked a peak rating of 10 with as many as 53 million people watching it.

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