Sri Lanka India

Yet another final, yet another defeat. The surprise victory in the Asia Cup final notwithstanding, the Indians continue to struggle at the final hurdle. As if this perennial problem wasn’t enough, the woes of Team India were compounded in the series courtesy yet another below par performance by the youngsters. With just over five months to go for international cricket’s most prized competition, India have plenty on their plate to ponder upon. Crucially, the decisions taken in the aftermath of the Dambulla loss should not be in haste, and must adhere to sound cricketing logic.

I am saying this because the easiest scapegoat could be, and perhaps will be, Dinesh Karthik. When Gautam Gambhir returns to the team, he might not be needed. However, it will be unfair to discard him solely on the basis of his disappointing scores in the recently concluded tri-series. It must be taken into consideration that he is primarily a middle-order player and was opening only to fill in for his more illustrious team-mate. He even recorded a match-winning score in the Asia Cup final. However, when it conditions got tougher for batting, his technique was found out.

A utility player like Karthik, and a complete team man, deserves a fair chance to prove that he is good enough to represent India consistently at the international level. And for that, he needs to be played in the lower-middle order. The question then arises is can be afford seven batsmen. Well, the problem should all but solve itself owing to Ravindra Jadeja’s uninspiring efforts with the bat. It isn’t great news for India that they can’t find an all-rounder a la Angelo Mathews. However, that’s the truth and they need to make do with it. And unless they want to give Yusuf Pathan another go – which would be worth a try — it wouldn’t be illogical to slot Karthik in at number seven. He could even keep wickets and relieve some pressure off captain MS Dhoni’s back.

Even as the Karthik dilemma needs to be solved in right earnest, India need to look beyond Rohit Sharma and possibly even Virat Kohli for occupancy in the middle-order slots. Both started off in international cricket in highly promising fashion, but haven’t shown the consistency to be trusted upon, unlike Suresh Raina, who too took his time to blossom, and is now one of the backbones of this Indian side. Also, some of the shots the two played in the tournaments were shocking, and they could be axed for that purpose itself. Of course, Raina too had an unsatisfactory. But, it has to be taken into account that his debut Test series must have taken a toll on him.

Considering the uncertainty in the middle-order, it would be logical to give the veteran Rahul Dravid one final go. He did pretty well when recalled for the Champions Trophy in the absence of Virender Sehwag, only to be dropped for reasons best known to selectors. The argument here could be that the great man had a torrid time in Lanka. However, knowing Dravid the cricketer, it shouldn’t be long before he has sorted out his batting flaws, unless his powers are on the wage.

The brightest spot for India from the ODI series in Lanka was performance of Virender Sehwag. Had he not been tragically run-out in the finals, who knows what might have transpired, considering the murderous form he was in. Anyways, let bygones be bygones. What Sehwag needs now is some stern support from the other end. The return of Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar should help, but having their names on the scorecard alone won’t transform into runs. Everyone needs to battle it out in the middle.

Call it a surprise or what you might, the bowling that was expected to be India’s Achilles Heel turned out to be rather reasonable, although they would have liked to do better in the finals. Praveen Kumar, especially, was below par in the summit clash. He is one of those curious cases for India. When the ball moves around, he is lethal even at his pace. But when he delivers the same stuff on an unresponsive, he is easy meat for the opposition batsmen. As such, while it will be a good idea for India to have him around, he shouldn’t be a certainly for all games, considering the flaw in his game. The other three pace bowlers were impressive at various phases in the tournament. However, they have far from achieved their desired consistency.

All of this means Dhoni faces his toughest test as captain in the months building up to the World Cup.

Ms Dhoni

Okay, for a change we aren’t discussing about an India-Sri Lanka game in the Emerald nation. Still, the India-New Zealand clash on Wednesday will be a highly significant affair in the context of the ongoing tri-series. As aptly pointed out by Indian skipper MS Dhoni, the game will be a virtual semi-final, with the winner joining the home team in the finals. Interestingly, both teams have had similar fortunes thus far, with a win one day and a disappointing loss on the next occasion. This is what makes the tussle between the two sides intriguing and very well-matched. Whichever team can leave their worst form back in the pavilion will benefit the most from the clash.

Starting with India, they entered the tournament with massive bowling worries. However, scores of 88 and 104 have meant that their batting deficiencies have also been seriously exposed. The problem begins right at the top, with Dinesh Karthik being unable to fit into the shoes of Gautam Gambhir. As a result, Virender Sehwag’s task has become doubly difficult. And while he has succeeded in helping India clinch one win, it is crucial from India’s point of view for him to find some support.

The non-performing youngsters are proving to be another bane in India’s build up to the World Cup. While Rohit Sharma has been a little unlucky with some close lbw shouts, the reality is that he still hasn’t ironed out the flaws in his game. And when you consider that he has been around the international circuit for a good four years now, it is a danger signal. His dismissals in the last two games have been as good as carbon copies.

For a while Virat Kohli looked settled at the number three slot. However, with Sachin Tendulkar shuttling in and out of the ODI team at his own will, Kohli has had to move up and down the order. And if his recent string of scores is taken into consideration, it hasn’t helped his cause at all. He might get one more chance to prove his worth again in place of, maybe, either Karthik or Sharma. It remains to be seen how he reacts if such an opportunity comes his way on Wednesday. A note on Ravindra Jadeja is essential too. While his bowling has been decent for a while, except the T20 World Cup, his batting skills haven’t come to the fore. And so, India need to decide very quickly whether they want him in the scheme of things for the 2011 World Cup.

Bizarre as it may sound, India’s bowling looks stronger in comparison. That, however, epitomizes the team’s batting debacles more than anything else. Still, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra have done reasonably well in the series. And when the ball moves around, as it has been doing in Lanka, they aren’t the worst trio. Thankfully for the Indians, Pragyan Ojha has stepped up his game, as a result of which India haven’t missed Harbhajan Singh much. And anyways, the Punjab off-spinner wasn’t having a great time with the ball himself.

Shifting focus to the Kiwis, they have their own concerns. The inexperienced batting line-up was found out against Sri Lanka. Also, it hasn’t helped that their last game against the home team was washed out. Considering the leisurely schedule of the tournament, (the players wouldn’t be complaining) the wash out means the Kiwis haven’t batted out in the middle for well over a week. India would be hoping to take advantage of the rustiness, if any has crept in. Further, their batting looks brittle if ones takes away Scott Styris and Ross Taylor. Things seem worse when you add the fact that Jacom Oram is back on the ‘I am injured’ list, even though Martin Guptill’s expected comeback should cheer up the Kiwi camp.

Like India, their bowling too wears a stronger look in the presence of Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills, with the experienced Styris for support. India will need to be wary of the opening bowlers as the new ball has been doing plenty in the initial stages, and the batsmen have been guilty of not applying themselves. The pitch, once again, will play a crucial role. With the rain around, some movement has to be expected both at the start of the game as well as under lights.

Dhoni’s luck at the toss may have changed in the previous game, but he wouldn’t mind retaining the losing streak if the team continues to win. On a more serious note, winning or losing the toss notwithstanding, application should be the keyword for both sides.

A collapse from 58 for no loss to 95 for 5 is often associated with weak, inexperienced sides like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya. But, this was what India’s score read at different stages of the innings during their second consecutive defeat to Zimbabwe in the series.

Even more unfathomable was the approach of the openers. Against an attack that was far from threatening and a pitch that wasn’t crumbing by any means, Dinesh Karthik and M Vijay were happy to play ‘Test’ match style cricket, and bore the select few who were interested in watching the game. And, not surprisingly, they ended up being battered and bruised by an upbeat Zimbabwean outfit.

Consider this… Zimbabwe did not even have a regular new-ball bowler in their side. Instead, they had four spinners and one slow-medium pacer. What then made the Indian openers play the brand of cricket they did? This facet needs to be explained in no uncertain terms.

It is understood that a young, inexperienced team is here for gaining experience. But, that doesn’t give the players the opportunity to use the matches as ‘practice’ games.

Karthik, in particular, has enough international experience and should have shown the way to the youngsters instead of misguiding them.

With their shabby performance, the Indians made an ordinary attack look extraordinary. Off-spinner Greg Lamb was the pick of the bowlers on the scoresheet. But, he should never have been. Don’t Karthik and Vijay face better spin bowlers day in and day out in domestic cricket?

How then can one explain their inability to stand up to a relatively unknown name? With their negative outlook, the openers not only put pressure on themselves, but on the entire batting to follow; rather strange considering they were in such fine batting form against Sri Lanka only a couple of days ago.

Following the number of deliveries they consumed, the Indian openers should have gone one to register big scores. Instead, both threw their wickets away. What transpired after that wasn’t all that surprising. After all, the precedent had been set all too early.

India could still have fought back courtesy the in-form middle-order. However, the Suresh Raina-led brigade showed a total lack of application. Rohit Sharma, the centurion of the last two matches, and the captain himself, both lost their wickets to run-outs, which was the last thing India needed under the circumstances.

To be fair to Zimbabwe, they bowled a tight line and kept the Indians quite. Even then, the batsmen could have done a lot better. The visiting side can only be thankful to the umpires for letting off Ravindra Jadeja twice, when he was quite clearly trapped in front of the stumps.

Probably, even the umpires were having pity on India. Following the reprieves though, the left-hander proved that there were no demons in the pitch as was being made out, playing some big shots comfortably.

The principal lesson for the Indians though was provided the Zimbabwean openers. In stark contrast to Karthik and Vijay, Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza batted with all the ease in the world.

It helped that the Indian bowling was mediocre, but then Zimbabwe’s wasn’t any better. It was just that the Indian batsmen made them look a lot better. It wasn’t as if Taylor and Masakadza tore the bowling apart.

But, unlike the Indians, they batted with a positive approach, putting away the bad balls on offer, plenty of them there were. So confident did the Zimbabweans become during the course of the chase, they went on to achieve the bonus point as well.

If Zimbabwe’s win over India in the opening encounter was impressive, this triumph was even more imposing. The victory margin notwithstanding, the Indians lost the game in the mind much before play ended.

However, they did learn important lessons after beating Australia and Pakistan in the warm-up matches of the tournament, under a new captain, Elton Chigumbura. India, also didn’t do well in the same tournament, having being knocked out in the Super 8s stage.

They are under pressure back home and as a result most of the seniors have been rested in order to give youngsters a chance to perform. So all this makes it an interesting match as India have a new-look team and a new captain in Suresh Raina and Zimbabwe also are looking to start afresh in order to prepare for the World Cup next year.

At the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo the conditions favoured the batsmen to a certain extent. As a result, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Dinesh Karthik, and Murali Vijay, both Tamil Nadu players too, were out in the middle to open the batting.

India tried to take control of the game thanks to horrendous bowling from the Zimbabwean skipper himself, which resulted in 36 runs coming in 2 overs. And the sundries read 24.

However, Zimbabwe fought back in no time. Vijay’s running between the wickets could be described as if he was walking in a park. As a result, a run-out sometime or the other was evident, and it did happen. Three balls later, the usually athletic Virat Kohli, batting one down, got run out without scoring and facing a ball!

And much sooner, the settled Karthik also edged a flighted delivery from the former captain Prosper Utseya and Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwean wicketkeeper held on to the catch.

It was 61/3 in just 12.3 overs when the two biggies in this second-string Indian team, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma were at the crease. Raina, tried to play a captain’s knock by nudging the ball here and there responsibly, thereby curbing his aggressive shots.

In the end, it proved to be slightly slower innings than expected as he scored 37 runs off 53 balls, with just two boundaries. However, Sharma batted extremely well, considering the flak that he had been facing over the pub incident in the Caribbean and the issue of him being overweight.

He certainly proved his critics wrong by scoring 114 runs off 119 balls at an impressive strike rate of 95.79, which included 6 boundaries and 4 sixes. Ravindra Jadeja, was also a bright spark of the Indian batting scoring a run-a-ball unbeaten 61 and with some help from Yusuf Pathan’s lustrous hitting, India managed to reach a competitive total of 285/5 in 50 overs.

For Zimbabwe, it was Chris Mpofu who was the best bowler as he finished with figures of 2/63 in 10 overs. Utseya bowled well to keep India below 300. Yet, it was a tough task for Zimbabwe to chase 286, against an Indian attack which is young and has proved its ability in tournaments like the IPL and Ranji Trophy.

However, the Indian bowlers didn’t bowl to their potential as Zimbabwe started off in blazing fashion. It had to take a slider from Amit Mishra, by far India’s most experienced bowler in this match, to remove Hamilton Masakadza who in the end scored 46 runs off 43 balls. Despite the loss of this wicket, Zimbabwe was in a dominant position at 88/1 in 13 overs.

The pace trio of Ashok Dinda, R Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav struggled to stop Zimbabwe from putting up good partnerships and allowed Zimbabwe to bat freely as Brendan Taylor, a very underestimated batsman scored as many as 81 runs off 103 balls, as the required rate never went out of reach. Although at one stage, Zimbabwe required 50 runs off 36 balls, they deserved to win.

Charles Coventry, whose ferocious hitting is known courtesy the innings of 194 against Bangladesh last year, also went at a strike rate of 128. Chigumbura is a clean hitter of the ball and the captain couldn’t have felt more delighted than seeing the youngster on debut, Craig Ervine, scoring a half-century and winning the match in his debut one-day game as captain with him himself being at the other end! Ervine played a calm, controlled knock which made Zimbabwe overhaul India’s score with 10 balls to spare.

Raina’s captaincy and team selection came into question. Using Jadeja in the last few overs was not the best of tactics and so he paid the price for it. Yusuf Pathan wasn’t given more overs and instead Raina banked on inexperience to deliver. This caused a major upset and opens up the triseries in dramatic fashion.

Brendan Taylor was named man-of-the-match and he could lead Zimbabwe to more wins in the future against top nations, if he continues to perform in this vain. On the other hand, Raina and India has a lot of thinking to do as they would face Sri Lanka (yet again!), next up. And the Tigers would be looking to pounce on the prey which has already been wounded so severely.

Instead, they fumbled yet again, this time against familiar opponents Sri Lanka to lose by a comprehensive five-wicket margin and get knocked out of the T20 World Cup in a rather embarrassing manner – ending up as the only team in the Super Eights not to win a single game.

The script looked a lot different for India at the start of the game, when upon winning the toss, India elected to bat. Ninety runs were smashed in the initial 10 overs despite the early loss of Dinesh Karthik thanks in main to Suresh Raina, who looked more at home on the slowish track at St. Lucia.

However, the Lankans fought back excellent in the slog overs to restrict India to a disappointing 163 for 5, only 73 runs coming in the second half of the innings.

Sri Lanka’s reply did not begin emphatically, but they won the crucial moments and stayed in the hunt till the very end to pip India at the post.

The reply was built on three significant contributions, none more crucial than the skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who led the Lankan fightback.

The other equally important knocks came from Angelo Mathews (46) and Chamara Kapugedera (37), who hit a last-ball six to seal the semi-final birth for his side.
At the closing stages, Sri Lanka needed 25 runs from an over and two deliveries left. But Kapugedera slammed a nervous debutant Vinay Kumar for two massive sixes, both over long on – the first of which knocked India out of the tournament – to bring the game back on a even keen.

The experienced Ashish Nehra was entrusted with the responsibility of bowling the final over, but had a rare off day and could not prevent the Lankans from getting the requisite 13 runs.

Mathews slashed a six off the first ball, and despite Nehra hitting back by running him out hit, Lanka managed to loft themselves to victory thanks to a smashing six over cover by Kapugedera.

While Mathews and Kapugedera did all the big hitting, it was Sangakkara who began the turnaround for Sri Lanka by lofting Harbhajan Singh over the top in the 12th over.

This was after Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya fell early and Tillakaratne Dilshan perished after a breezy cameo. Sangakkara went on register a crucial 44, which included two sixes off Yusuf Pathan to help Lanka stay afloat.

Earlier, Dilshan stroked five fours in two overs to lead Lanka’s mini-recovery after they were 6-2 after the first two overs. It wasn’t a match-changing effort, but certainly gave Lanka the momentum they were so desperately seeking.

For India, their best phase was when Gautam Gambhir and Raina were at the crease as India looked desperate to set a stiff target.

Raina, in particular, was ultra-aggressive taking on all the bowlers, lofting and driving them with the IPL-gained confidence. It helped that the ball did not rear up near the head.

Gambhir, who was clearly out of sorts, also began to find his touch, as India reigned supreme in the first 10 overs. Everything though changed with the fall of Gambhir for a well-compiled 41.

He tried to run Lasith Malinga down to thirdman, but only ended up guiding one straight to Sangakkara.

Malinga then combined with surprise package Thissara Perera to choke India in the final five overs. It did not help that Raina and Yuvraj Singh fell to low full-tosses and that Dhoni’s massive bat swing could not translate into boundaries.
If India still had a faint hope, it disappeared as soon as Kapugedera walloped that massive six of Kumar to take the score past 143. As far as India was concerned, the tournament had ended.

This wasn’t the case against Rajasthan Royals though, as he clobbered 69 from 38 balls to lead Delhi to a memorable 67-run win against Shane Warne’s army. Of course, the numbers don’t tell the true story. The significance of the knock has to be gauged from the circumstances under which it was scored.

Delhi were batting first and needed to set a decent score. Karthik was demoted down the order and four batsmen before him came and went, leaving the side reeling at 67 for 4 in the ninth over.

This is when he joined forces with skipper Gautam Gambhir, and the duo went about the rebuilding task with great gusto. Gambhir (43) was not in his elements, yet he ensured that he rotated the strike regulating and gave Karthik the opportunity to excel. At the start, even Karthik took some time to settle down, but once he opened up, there was no stopping him.

The beauty of his innings was the slog-free manner in which went about his task. Hardly, a single ball was cross-batted, proving the youngster had certainly learnt a lesson or two about the art of batsmanship. If anything, there were drives straight down the ground, and impressive cuts and pulls.

He was devastating towards the death, using the bottom hand lofting Siddharth Trivedi as well as Sumit Narval for sixes and set up Delhi’s highly challenging total of 188.

Without doubt Karthik played a match-winning knock. But, there were a couple of other extremely crucial contributions as well — none bigger that Farveez Maharoof’s, who claimed Rajasthan’s in-form men, Micheal Lumb and Faiz Fazal, in his very first over.

The Sri Lankan all-rounder was making a comeback into the team and had to fill the big shoes of Dirk Nannes. And boy, did he do his job well. Lumb was inexplicably deceived by a length delivery that did nothing extraordinary and held out, while Fazal was trapped by a slower one which came in and clearly beat him for lack of pace.

Interestingly, the other major contribution came from David Warner, not with the bat, but in the field. He plucked out four catches in the deep and also affected the run-out of Abhishek Jhunjhunwala.

For Rajasthan, things only looked somewhat brighter when Naman Ojha, at the top of the innings, and Yusuf Pathan, towards the middle, struck some hefty blows. Neither lasted long enough to make any kind of impact on the game though.

Things were far from gloomy for Rajasthan at the start of the match though. Warner was cleaned up by a perfect yorker from Sumit Narval, Virender Sehwag became the latest addition to fall victim to a short ball.

Soon, Paul Collingwood was stranded in the middle of the pitch, while Kedar Jadhav fell to Shane Warne’s guile. Rajasthan had everything going their way till Karthik showed his true colours.

Chasing a decent target of 248, Indian batters eased to the target with Virat Kohli’s contribution being supported by cameos all around. Earlier, batting first, Bangladesh recovered from a precarious 95 for 5 to post a reasonable score of 247 for the loss of six wickets.

Shakib Al Hasan’s was the star of the show with the bat for the hosts, striking an impregnable 85. He was ably supported by Mahmudullah, who carried on his good form against the Indians and remained unbeaten on 64. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, the Indians proved to be too good for them once again and raced home to an easy win.

Kohli, who was deservedly named Man of the Match, batted in a commanding manner, proving that he has learnt very quickly from his past mistakes. His cuts, drives and pulls were equally impressive and the beleaguered bowlers had no answer to Kohli’s prowess.

He slammed Shafiul Islam for a number of boundaries with great authority and similar punishment was meted out to Naeem Islam as well. Kohli went on to complete a well-compiled hundred with a leg side whip off Shakib’s bowling and end the game.

The new India number three was lucky to be offered a couple of lives. Mohammad Ashraful dropped him off Syed Rasel’s bowling at deep midwicket. Kohli was then on 83. Very soon, wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim missed a stumping chance created by Shakib.

A couple of balls later Suresh Raina was reprieved as well, but it hardly could have had any impact on the game.

What could have helped Bangladesh was early wickets, but that was far from the case. Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir were offered plenty of width to play their favourite shots.

While Dinesh cut with ease, Gambhir flicked away a number of deliveries directed at his pads. The openers though would be disappointed for failing to capitalize on their starts. Karthik edged one to the keeper when on 34 and Gambhir’s wild swing led to his downfall while on 41. India lost Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni in pursuit of the chase, but Kohli and Raina saw India through without much difficulty in dewy conditions.

Despite the loss, Bangladesh can take heart from their batting performance, their recovery being nothing short of sensational. The fightback began courtesy a century partnership between Shakib and Mahmudullah. Shakib, who was given a life when in the 30s, went on to punish the Indian bowlers severely.

He was especially severe on the spinners, slamming Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra for sixes over midwicket. It needed Ashish Nehra’s skill, a slower ball, to see the back of Shakib. At the other end, Mahmudullah continued with his merry ways.

He was severe on all the bowlers, be it the seamers or spinners. Naeem contributed a whirlwind 22 towards the end as Bangladesh took 95 from the final 10 overs. But, it still wasn’t good enough to overpower the Indians.

The way the Lankans began, they looked well on course to score over 350. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga slammed nearly each and every delivery out of sight as the partnership raised 65 in less than seven overs. Once again, the left-arm pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were at the receiving. Ishant Sharma, who took the place of Praveen Kumar in the playing XI, wasn’t spared either. If anything, he was singled out for special treatment by the dynamic opening pair. The Indians once again were let down by their fielding. MS Dhoni’s keeping replacement Dinesh Karthik missed one of the easiest run out chances amidst the run carnage, Dilshan being the beneficiary. Luckily for India and Karthik, the slip-up did not prove too costly as Nehra snapped him up a few runs later, caught by none other than Karthik himself of a short, rising delivery which Dilshan (41) top-edged.

The troubles though were far from over for the Indians. Tharanga continued the good work in the company of skipper Kumar Sangakkara. Mixing caution and aggression perfectly, the two laid a solid foundation for Lanka. The pair had added exactly a hundred when Sangakkara’s charge down the track to his opposite number Virender Sehwag proved fatal. Sangakkara missed the ball and a fumbling Karthik somehow managed to get rid of the bails, giving India some much-needed respite. There was no looking back for India from thereon as they took firm control.

The left-arm spinner Jadeja began his demolition job by cleaning up the well-set Tharanga (73) from one which came back in sharply and breached his defence. Soon, he had Chamara Kapugedera bowled off an inside edge. At the other end, Harbhajan Singh was doing a wonderful job, strangling the runs. He was rewarded for his efforts with the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene. The former skipper fell to a tame dismissal when he lofted a long hop straight into the hands of a floating short mid-on. Sharma, who had a woeful first spell, then came back to dent the Lankans further with a double blow. He had the dangerous Thilina Kandamby bowled and Suraj Randiv caught behind off successive deliveries. Jadeja then continued his good work trapping Nuwan Kulasekara lbw and cleaning bowling Ajantha Mendis as the Lankan innings drew to a close. From 165/1, the visitors miraculously collapsed to 239 all out.

For the Lankans to stay in the game, early wickets were essential. However, a whirlwind start by stand-in skipper Sehwag (44) ensured the nerves were settled in the Indian dressing room. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh also made useful contributions, but it was Tendulkar who saw India through till the end in the company of Karthik (36*). On most days, such a performance would have been enough to earn Tendulkar the man of the match, but on this day it was undeniably Jadeja whose performance stood out.

Indian batting lineup has always been most powerful; each Indian batsman has on and off made bowlers sweat and frown over their own ability. On 26 June, at Jamaica again we saw Indian batsmen joshing and bashing Indies bowlers. Gautam Gambhir (13), Rohit Sharma (4) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) left the ground scoring inexpensively. Beside that Dinesh Karthik (67), Yuvraj Singh (131), MS Dhoni (41), not out Yusuf Pathan (40) and not out Harbhajan Singh (21) rampaged the pitch and not a single corner left where ball didn’t transgressed the boundary. Indian batsmen were unstoppable and Indies bowlers each trick seemed nothing but desperate plea. Yuvraj was everywhere in the scream of crowd and commentators, simply marvelous innings we saw coming from Yuvraj charismatic batting leading India to mammoth score of 339 runs off 6 wickets in 50 overs.

West Indies bowling was at its worst, each player economy reaching above 6 runs per over. Jerome Taylor, Lionel Baker and David Bernard took 1-1 wicket and Dwayne Bravo took 2 wickets. West Indies Bowlers gave batsmen ample space take shoots and every trick of in swing or off-spin was worthless in front of Yuvraj and Dinesh.

Indies got huge pressuring 340 runs target, yet it was difficult to achieve but it was never impossible for Indies. Indies got good start by Chris Gayle (37) and Runako Morton (42) and middle order played above average; Sarwan (45) and Chanderpaul (63) snatched the chance for Indies but the wickets kept falling not single batsmen after them sustained on pitch to lead Indies. Eventually when victory seemed near they all got out at 319 in 48th over by Indian bowlers.

Return of Nehra in team gave the boost to the Indian bowling. Indian bowlers fared well, RP Singh, Ishant and Harbhajan took 1-1 wickets; and Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan took 3-3 wickets. Though bowlers were not able to confine Indies batsmen but still Nehra, Pathan and other bowlers didn’t let batmen sustain on pitch.

Match concluded with the close win of India and man of the match to Yuvraj Singh. Contrarily Yuvraj poked sting like a bee, as Gayle predicted for Indies.