Prashant wrote: I was kind of shocked that Nehra even got close to that, he has improved his fielding.
Fielding and bowling fast are functions of effort. The whole team was trying their level best. No wides until past the 30th over. Munaf bowled close to 135kph. I think what this shows is that these guys do not put in 100% for some gulli-danda series against Sri Lanka but when the stakes are high, they put in their best efforts.
On another note, Pakistan over-achieved. They had only three good ODI batsmen Misbah and the Akmal brothers. Younis Khan has never really succeeded in ODIs. They left out Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, and Mohammad Yousuf. And, Mohammed Hafeez is a mercurial ODI bat. Nasir Jamshed has batted better than him in the chances he got as an opener. It would have been tighter if the better Pakistani bats were in the team.
Ashwin for Nehra would be my substitution irrespective of whether Ashwin is fit. Otherwise, the tail is too long and Nehra may not have two good days in succession. If Gambhir is fit, Yusuf comes in. Raina is a superb fielder and a dogged trier on Indian pitches. He should be a certainty in the XI for games in India. For overseas matches on fast bouncy pitches, may be the opposite is true.
