Press Trust of India
Auckland, March 14: India couldn’t have hoped for a better ending to their group engagements. It was expected that they would comfortably win their last Pool B game against Zimbabwe. In fact during the break between the two innings former India captain Sourav Ganguly was heard predicting ‘India would get to the target in 40 overs’ only.
But that did not happen. Chasing a victory target of 288, India found themselves suddenly in an embarrassing position at 92 for four. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli were back in the hut and the 35,000-odd Tri-colour waving Indian fans had suddenly gone quite. They were worried, they had to be as the two at the crease – Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were not really in the best of nick.
But then, when it mattered the most both came good. Raina (110 n o, 104b, 9×4, 4×6) and Dhoni (85 n o, 76b, 8×4, 2×6) put on an unbeaten partnership of 196 runs for the fifth wicket (an Indian record) to make it 10 out of 10 for India in the World Cup. Zimbabwe who till then had been controlling the flow of the game suddenly found them at the receiving end.
Steve Waugh had told Herschelle Gibbs during the 1999 World Cup: “Son you have just dropped the Cup” after the latter dropped him. Well it is not known whether Raina told the same thing to Hamilton Masakadza when the latter dropped a sitter running behind from short-square as the batsman attempted a sweep. The bowler to suffer was Sikandar Raza. Raina was on 47 then and his departure could have well spelt doom for India. That did not happen and India reached home high and dry.
With both Raina and Dhoni being superb between the wickets, they first took ones and then converted the ones into twos to unsettle the Zimbabwe attack.
Raina’s charge in Sean Williams’ third over was probably a sign of things to come. He first hit the left-arm spinner over mid-wicket for a maximum and followed it up with another one, this time over straight mid-wicket. There was no stopping the southpaw then. Raina’s first 50 had taken 67 balls but his next took only 27 deliveries as India upped the ante.
Dhoni, circumspect to begin with started slowly. His first four came after he had faced 17 deliveries. But he never looked like getting out. He played the sheet anchor role to perfection and in the process construed his 57th ODI half century. Their success bodes well for India as both returned to form just before the business end of the tournament.
Earlier, Brendan Taylor (138, 110b, 15×4, 5×6) played the innings of his life in his final ODI for Zimbabwe and took his team to a respectable total of 287 all out in 48.5 overs. The total was highest by any country against India in the current edition surpassing Ireland’s 259 in the previous game.
This was also one of the matches where Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (1/75 in 10 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (0/71 in 10 overs) bore the brunt of the mayhem created by Taylor.
The pace trio held their own once again, as young Mohit Sharma (3/48), Mohammed Shami (3/48) and Umesh Yadav (3/43) did well as the final five wickets went for 47 runs after Zimbabwe were 241 for five at one stage.
