The World Cup
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League Game, Group A, India v South Africa
By our guest critic and writer Dheeraj Mulchandani
Toss: India Venue: Hove Umpires: S.Bucknor (W.I.), D.Shepherd (Eng)
TEAMS:
India: M.Azharuddin (C), S.Tendulkar, A.Jadeja, S.Ganguly, R.Dravid, R.Singh, N.Mongia, A.Agarkar, J.Srinath, A.Kumble, V.Prasad
South Africa: H.Cronje (C), G.Kirsten, H.Gibbs, M.Boucher, J.Kallis, D.Cullinan, J.Rhodes, L.Klusener, S.Pollock, A.Donald, N.Boje
TOSS: Mohammed Azharuddin (Ind)
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jacques Kallis (96 runs)
A cold day at Hooooooove (as Apple Singh would say it) with the min temp. expected as 7*C. For many Indians the World cup would actually start today as India take on the favourites S.A. The pitch seems to be a batting track with the ball not expected to move that much. Azhar’s luck seemed to be with him and his moustache as he won the toss and quite thankfully for you Indians decided to bat first, because we all know how terrible they are chasing. The captains seemed quite relaxed although with Azhar you never know, he always talks so fast, and you have to really pay attention to his speech instead of his appearance.
The Indians got off to a nice start with Saurav Ganguly blasting a boundary of the 2nd ball of the 1st over through the off side. Sachin Tendulkar looked to be in fine touch as he was middling the ball. The first burst of excitement came when Kallis struck Ganguly right on the button( I mean literally), in the groin off the 1st ball of the 7th over, which had Ganguly falling on the ground and the Indian physio had to come and look after him.
The 50 was up in 12 overs and I was sure this happiness would be short lived (cause we all know the Indians have to mess up somewhere). There went Sachin Tendulkar, as usual giving a simple catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher of the bowling of Klusener, not to mention how wide the ball was!!! He was out for 28(46). On came Rahul Dravid, who I must say has been in excellent form of late, to partner Ganguly for a huge 130 run partnership. In between this, there was a dropped catch which gave Ganguly a second life just after he made his 50. The first six of the innings was hit by him in the 33 over (that late, wow). Dravid played splendidly for his 54 before he was bowled by Klusener in the 42nd over, while trying to hit him out of the ground. The score was now 197-2 and didn’t increase that much before Ganguly had to go for 97 when he was run out by the man, Jhonty Rhodes while trying to reach his 100 in a hurry. Jadeja and Azhar came and went scoring really fast to get the score up to a respectable 253 for 5.
The South Africans didn’t have a dream start as they lost Gibbs to some faaaaastt bowling by Srinath. He was trapped lbw for 7 in the 3rd over.
Kirsten soon followed after he caught an inside edge to Srinath’s pace in the 7th over, the score now 22-2. From there though Jacques Kallis went on as if he had never seen the ball before. He continuously got bat on ball and never looked back through his class innings of 94 before he was run out by a thinking throw from Prasad to the bowlers end from way down third man.
Towards the end Jhonty Rhodes showed why he is labelled the most dangerous batsmen evolving today as he hit a stupendous 39 of 31 balls to seal the South African victory in the 48th over. He hit Agarkar for 18 runs in the 47th over.
The man of the match and rightly so was awarded to Jacques Kallis for his brilliant display of all round skills with his opening the bowling and his wonderful match winning knock of 94. At the end of the day, I think the better side won and won comfortably. India would be just a little disappointed and I don’t blame them. They have a lot of work to do if they have to win the rest of their matches. Till then…………
The Honest Critic,
CoolDJ
India
BATSMAN R B 4 6
S Ganguly run out
97 143 11 1
S Tendulkar c Boucher b Klusener
28 46 5 0
R Dravid b
Klusener
54
74 6 0
M Azharaddin c Boje b
Klusener
24 24
2 0
A Jadeja c Rhodes b
Donald
16
14 2 0
R Singh not
out
5
3 0 0
N Mongia not
out
5
2 1 0
Extras (lb2, b 6, w 11, nb 6)
25
Total (for 5 wickets, 50 overs) 253
FoW: 1-67 (Tendulkar), 2-197 (Dravid),
3-205 (JGanguly), 4-235 (Jadeja),
5-247 (Azharuddin)
Did Not Bat: Agarkar, Srinath, Kumble, Prasad
Bowling O M R W
Pollock 10-0-47-0
Kallis 10-1-43-0
Donald 10-0-34-1
Klusener 10-0-66-3
Boje 5-0-31-0
Cronje 5-0-24-0
South Africa
BATSMAN R B 4 6
G Kirsten b
Srinath
3
22 0 0
H Gibbs LBW b
Srinath
7 8 1
0
M Boucher b
Kumble
34 36
4 1
J Kallis run
out
96
128 7 0
D Cullinan c Singh b Ganguly 19 35 3 0
H Cronje c Jadeja b Agarkar 27 30 3 0
J Rhodes not out 39 31 5 0
L Klusener not out 12 4 3 0
Extras (w 3, nb 10, lb 4) 17
Total (for 6 wickets, 47.2 overs) 254
Did Not Bat: Pollock, Donald, Boje
FoW: 1-13 (Gibbs), 2-22 (Kirsten), 3-68 (Boucher), 4-116 (Cullinan), 5-180 (Cronje), 6-227 (Kallis)
Bowling: O M R W
Srinath 10-0-69-2
Prasad 8.2-0-32-0
Kumble 10-0-44-1
Agarkar 9-0-57-1
Singh 2-0-10-0
Ganguly 4-0-16-1
Tendulkar 4-0-22-0
deSilva 1-0-7-0