T20 ICC
World Cup
Twenty20
WEST INDIES
SA RAINA - ED OUT
Left - Hander's 101 Helps India
Ease into Super-Eight Stage
St Lucia: For Suresh Raina, it might all be feeling like a pleasant deja vu.Just a week back, back home on an electric Sunday evening, he rode on mishits, dropped catches and more than an element of chance to help Chennai Super Kings to their first IPL trophy.
Today,on an equally stimulating though hot Sunday morning, he invoked the same script to give India a commanding 14-run victory. He smashed an exhilarating 101, including a jaw dropping 82 off his last 38 deliveries, to take his side all the way to an impregnable 186 for five.
With two back-to-back wins, India have scaled to the top of Group C and will be counted as the overwhelming favorites too from here on. Thankfully, they have a clean four-day break before they return to action: They will face Australia next, unless Bangladesh mange to pull off an upset win.
South Africa won the toss and expectedly inserted India in: with a string of pacers at their disposal and a cool breeze flowing across the ground,they would have eyed the early morning juice in the wicket thirstily. M Vijay, Saturday's fireworks not with standing, was edged out for a first-ball duck.
He was probably disoriented by the mix-up on the previous delivery with his city-mate Dinesh Karthik. As the ball darted around and jumped disconcertingly, India struggled to stay abreast with the ideal run-rate. By the eighth over, they were just 43 for two.
But Raina was already looking to get6 into damage inducting mode: he started slashing at anything short and flashing at everything within his range. He had already earned a second life.holding out to mid-off when he was barely 5. It was of course,a no-ball, and probably an augury that it was going to be his day.
His big hits uncannily fell short of fielders in the deep: the bigger ones sailed over them for sixes. The assault really began in the ninth over itself, When Graeme Smith turned to his spinner: vander Merwe. He went for barely 13 runs but the floodgates had opened.
Yuvraj Singh, in the meantime, was slowly getting into his groove: a pull and a typical flick for six announced his return to form. He made just 37 runs, including three 4s and two 6s, but India had already picked up steam. At 120 for three, with four overs still to go, the stage was set for the final onslaught.
Raina, 55, picked up the cue perfectly: a sequence of 4,4,4,6 in the 18th over all but broke SA's spirits. It fetched 25 runs and India were on their way to a winning total, and eventually victory too.
India opened the attack with Harbhajan Singh: it was a mixed over, with a dropped catch followed by 4. But soon, it became pretty clear that South Africa would have to exert themselves for every run, for every boundary.
Dhoni rotated his bowlers rapidly, giving not more that two overs at a stretch to any one; he also relied more on spin, inviting South Africa to go over the field. They tried but couldn't go faster than 25 for 1 after five overs and 57 in 10. but as long as Kallis was in the middle, and they had wickets in the pavilion, India couldn't afford to relax.
As expected, the fours and sixes started flowing after the halfway mark.Kallis kept galloping on but he just couldn't keep pace with the run-rate: the heat was also a visible factor and he had to resign to his team's fate in the 17th over, after making 73.
AB de Villers and Albie Morkel continued the fight though, conjuring the big hits. Nihra, however, bowled a sharp 8-run over to keep the match in control. In the end. South Africa needed 24 runs off the last over: it was beyond them.
Read more...
