I was right, wasn’t I?
I had said before that if India continues bowling this way they won’t be able to sustain against a major side. And they didn’t. After posing a mammoth 338 total, we yet couldn’t defend it.
Sachin was the shining star for India, again. The Indian batting looked strong and menacing. The Indian bowling lacked discipline from ball 1. First ball of Zaheer was played away for four. The 1st over landed up going for 8 runs.
Kudos to England though. Awesome chase!!!! A well deserved man of the match for Strauss and I really think they deserved victory.
Anyway, India won the toss and elected to bat. A decent start but Sehwag threw his wicket. In came Gambhir and took off releasing the extra pressure off of Sachin. Sachin on the other hand looked calm, composed and set to make things exciting, To prove that he is the grand daddy batsman of World Cups. A brilliant century!!!! 120 off 115 balls. Amassing a thrilling 5 sixes and 10 fours, with a strike rate of 104.34, Sachin was back.
Gambhir`s(51 off 61), Yuvraj`s(58 off 50) and Dhoni`s(31 off 25) efforts are not to be ignored though. Gambhir looked fiery and Yuvraj struck form at just the right time for India. Dhoni did well for his 31 too. Things were really looking up and good for India, until the last 5 overs.
Something went weirdly wrong in the last 30 balls. Indias batting order collapsed just like the old days. 30 balls, 33 runs and 6 wickets. Sounds good for the world no2 team, doesn't it?(all sarcasm intended). Not the way to support your top order`s efforts guys. Appalling!!!
To make things worse, a comedy of errors on the 2nd last ball of the innings. Its rare to see a team trying for 2 runs and getting none when none of the 2 batsmen were even caught out. The 1st run was a short run, didnt count. In the efforts of a second run, the batsman was run out, again didn't count. At the end of it, if you think about it, even if we had managed 1 run, it would have made all the difference. Don`t you think?
India ended their innings bowled out for a good 338/10 in 49.5 overs. Sachin was the top scorer with 120 runs and a brilliant performance by Bresnan taking 5 for 48 in his 10 overs. Seemed a good enough score at the time.
India ended their innings bowled out for a good 338/10 in 49.5 overs. Sachin was the top scorer with 120 runs and a brilliant performance by Bresnan taking 5 for 48 in his 10 overs. Seemed a good enough score at the time.
About the England batting, all praises for Andrew Strauss. Him and Peterson got England off to a grand start. 8 off the first over and England were on their way.
Peterson was dismissed for a fantastic catch by Munaf off his own bowling. He got out for a well played 31 off 22 balls and the score read 68/1 in 9.3 overs.
In came Trott. He didn't last long. Chawla trapped him plum in front for a measly 16 off 19 balls. The score now read 111/2. No wonder the English don`t like the Nelson.
This paved the way for Ian Bell and one of the best partnerships Ive seen from the English batsmen in a long time. The simplicity with which they hit their boundaries, the easy singles they took by just knocking the ball into the offside. What was Dhoni doing? Why was there no pressure applied?
Strauss completed a fantastic century and went on to score a brilliant 158 off 145 balls. A true captains innings. He was supported very well by Ian Bell who made a steady 69 off 71 balls. By now, the match seemed over. It looked like England were going to walk home easily. Bell was even dropped by Kohli at slip of a Chawla ball. India looked down and out. The shoulders started drooping and you could see that they had almost given up. But in came Zaheer at the start of the batting power-play in the 42nd over. 2 wickets in 2 balls and the silent Indian support came alive. Every ball of Zaheer`s was cheered as he charged in to bowl. And the best part of the 2 wickets was that it was Strauss and Bell.
From here on, India were suddenly in charge of the game. Strauss, Bell, Collingwood and Prior fell for 8 runs. It seemed that India had crept their way back in after being down and out for most of the 2nd innings.
It all boiled down to the last 2 overs. 30 needed off 12 balls. Zaheer had completed his spell after taking another wicket, that of Paul Collingwood. The ball was thrown to Chawla to bowl the 49th over of the innings. And boy did that ruin it for India. For some reason, he decided to bowl around the wicket and thats where India lost the win. He got plonked for 2 sixes off Bresnan. For the last ball of his over, he came over the wicket and took the wicket off Bresnan. A lesson learned just a little too late. Bresnan was bowled for 14 which included 2 sixes he hit off Chawla. The game was balanced again.
So 99 overs bowled, over 600 runs scored and it all came down to the last 6 balls. England needed 14 runs to win an epic match. Munaf was the given the ball. India yet seemed the favorites. On the pitch were Shahzad and Swann. 3 runs off the first 2 balls and Shahzad came on strike. The next ball was belted by Shahzad for a 6 and this was the turning point of the game. The next ball was a single where Dhoni missed a run out. Swann back on strike. 4 needed now off 2 balls. 5th ball off the over. 2 runs added. now 2 runs needed off the last ball. Munaf bowls, a full pitched delivery driven by Swann. A good stop by mid off and clinched victory from England. A TIE.
The top scorer for England was Andrew Strauss(158) with good support from Bell(69) and India`s top bowler was Zaheer khan with figures of 3 for 64 in 10 overs and Harbhajan being the most economical with figures of 10 overs 1 for 58.
Whew!!! What a game. A well deserved man of the match for Strauss in "the best innings Ive played". I guess India and England did prove as to why they are the favorites for the World Cup. A hard fought day of cricket and there was no single winner. This is what makes great matches.
Well to sum it up, India`s batting seems strong. The top order have the right form. The problem is with the lower middle order and the tail enders. The fielding was poor with mis fields quite a few times and a couple of drop catches that went hugely against us. The bowling was as usual the weakness in India's armory. No bowler really put any kind of pressure on the batsmen and never really seemed menacing or likely to take 10 wickets; or at least contain the English batsmen.
It was a day when even luck didn `t favor India. They missed an edge off Strauss`s bat that was caught by Dhoni. No one even appealed. Also the LBW decision going in favor of Bell.
Anyway, a great end to a great match. When required, players from both teams delivered the goods. And at the right time too. The death bowlers from India and the tail enders from England. I, personally, hope to see both teams go as far as possible in this World Cup. Hopefully, we see these 2 against each other in the final.
I AM INDIAN!!!! I BLEED BLUE
Peterson was dismissed for a fantastic catch by Munaf off his own bowling. He got out for a well played 31 off 22 balls and the score read 68/1 in 9.3 overs.
In came Trott. He didn't last long. Chawla trapped him plum in front for a measly 16 off 19 balls. The score now read 111/2. No wonder the English don`t like the Nelson.
This paved the way for Ian Bell and one of the best partnerships Ive seen from the English batsmen in a long time. The simplicity with which they hit their boundaries, the easy singles they took by just knocking the ball into the offside. What was Dhoni doing? Why was there no pressure applied?
Strauss completed a fantastic century and went on to score a brilliant 158 off 145 balls. A true captains innings. He was supported very well by Ian Bell who made a steady 69 off 71 balls. By now, the match seemed over. It looked like England were going to walk home easily. Bell was even dropped by Kohli at slip of a Chawla ball. India looked down and out. The shoulders started drooping and you could see that they had almost given up. But in came Zaheer at the start of the batting power-play in the 42nd over. 2 wickets in 2 balls and the silent Indian support came alive. Every ball of Zaheer`s was cheered as he charged in to bowl. And the best part of the 2 wickets was that it was Strauss and Bell.
From here on, India were suddenly in charge of the game. Strauss, Bell, Collingwood and Prior fell for 8 runs. It seemed that India had crept their way back in after being down and out for most of the 2nd innings.
It all boiled down to the last 2 overs. 30 needed off 12 balls. Zaheer had completed his spell after taking another wicket, that of Paul Collingwood. The ball was thrown to Chawla to bowl the 49th over of the innings. And boy did that ruin it for India. For some reason, he decided to bowl around the wicket and thats where India lost the win. He got plonked for 2 sixes off Bresnan. For the last ball of his over, he came over the wicket and took the wicket off Bresnan. A lesson learned just a little too late. Bresnan was bowled for 14 which included 2 sixes he hit off Chawla. The game was balanced again.
So 99 overs bowled, over 600 runs scored and it all came down to the last 6 balls. England needed 14 runs to win an epic match. Munaf was the given the ball. India yet seemed the favorites. On the pitch were Shahzad and Swann. 3 runs off the first 2 balls and Shahzad came on strike. The next ball was belted by Shahzad for a 6 and this was the turning point of the game. The next ball was a single where Dhoni missed a run out. Swann back on strike. 4 needed now off 2 balls. 5th ball off the over. 2 runs added. now 2 runs needed off the last ball. Munaf bowls, a full pitched delivery driven by Swann. A good stop by mid off and clinched victory from England. A TIE.
The top scorer for England was Andrew Strauss(158) with good support from Bell(69) and India`s top bowler was Zaheer khan with figures of 3 for 64 in 10 overs and Harbhajan being the most economical with figures of 10 overs 1 for 58.
Whew!!! What a game. A well deserved man of the match for Strauss in "the best innings Ive played". I guess India and England did prove as to why they are the favorites for the World Cup. A hard fought day of cricket and there was no single winner. This is what makes great matches.
Well to sum it up, India`s batting seems strong. The top order have the right form. The problem is with the lower middle order and the tail enders. The fielding was poor with mis fields quite a few times and a couple of drop catches that went hugely against us. The bowling was as usual the weakness in India's armory. No bowler really put any kind of pressure on the batsmen and never really seemed menacing or likely to take 10 wickets; or at least contain the English batsmen.
It was a day when even luck didn `t favor India. They missed an edge off Strauss`s bat that was caught by Dhoni. No one even appealed. Also the LBW decision going in favor of Bell.
Anyway, a great end to a great match. When required, players from both teams delivered the goods. And at the right time too. The death bowlers from India and the tail enders from England. I, personally, hope to see both teams go as far as possible in this World Cup. Hopefully, we see these 2 against each other in the final.
I AM INDIAN!!!! I BLEED BLUE
