Pakistan, by their win on Friday, delivered the final blow on their arch-rivals and also made sure they didn't have to face them again in the competition. It was a revenge of sorts for Wasim Akram and his boys after their defeat at the hands of India at Old Trafford.

Stephen Fleming will look to shake hands with Akram gratefully for if it was not for Pakistan, the New Zealand captain would have faced a much different opposition yesterday.

Most people might feel the narrow defeat against Zimbabwe was responsible for their ultimate exit. It is true that the match had cost India dear but why are weremembering only this loss and not the defeats to South Africa and Australia?

Is it because nobody expected us to do well against these sides? If we were not expected to beat sides like these, how could we be expected to be the world champions? A point for thought. For if we had won our games against these two teams we may have qualified for the knock-out round.

If people did not think we were good enough to beat South Africa and Australia, they might as well realise we perhaps were not expected to be the world champions. Just to pick on Zimbabwe is lop-sided.

I don't think the Indians made too many mistakes in this tournament. But I have two list of performers -- of the highest run-getter and the highest wicket-taker -- in front of me.

Though three Indians figure in the highest run-getters'list, none finds a place in the highest wicket-takers' list. It is ample reflection of what went wrong with the team. The bowlers simply were not good enough to finish off the work done by the batsmen.

To mymind, it is a strong enough reason if one is looking for reasons behind India's exit. It was again a case of bowlers not complementing the batsmen. Another lesson to be learnt from this competition is that it does not always pay to put the opposition in to bat. At least in the last two World Cups, it has cost us dear.

It is not a bad policy to play to our strength and not to our opposition's strength. Whenever we have ignored this principle, more often that not we have come to grief.

Our strength is batting and we should concentrate on getting the best out of it. Even in the last World Cup semi-final at Calcutta, the decision to field first had boomeranged on us. Twice in this tournament we came to grief because of such a policy.

Against Australia, it stemmed from a lack of belief in our own ability. After winning the toss, the opposition was put in to bat and they ran away with a huge total. Having been a member of the Indian team in the recent past and being a part of the team on overseas tours, I cansay the World Cup squad has performed to my expectations.

But I wonder why I am carrying a heavy heart? Well that's World Cup for you.