What a match for India! The defending world champions had lost four wickets before the 23rd over and Virat Kohli was the man who got out while playing a cross-batted shot. At this juncture, India were reeling on 92 for four and the match was almost lost. Indian captain MS Dhoni came to the crease and joined Suresh Raina. The rest they say is history.
Spearheaded by Raina’s outstanding match-saving century (110 off 104 balls) and Dhoni’s cool approach (85 off 76 balls), India rounded up the last Pool B match against Zimbabwe by six wickets at the Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
Batting first, Zimbabwe made full use of their captain Brendon Taylor’s fine century and posted a commanding 287. They could have scored more had it not been for Indian pacers, who took nine wickets in the match.
This is the sixth time in a row that the Indian bowlers have dismissed their opposition. By winning this match, India remained unbeaten in the World Cup group round. Incidentally, this was the second time in the World Cup that the Indian batting was tested.
The first time, of course, was when India were chasing against the West Indies in Perth before playing their last two matches in New Zealand. And in both the occasions, it was Dhoni who was the last man standing at the crease. Like he finished the 2011 World Cup by hitting a six, Dhoni finished the match by hitting an over-boundary with eight balls to spare.
The match winning partnership between Raina and Dhoni was primarily possible because they ran hard between the wickets and never missed the opportunity to hit those fours and sixes. It was complete performance and no one could have done the way these two Indians did.
On the contrary, India were quite on the back foot when they lost their openers early. Both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan got out and there was immense pressure on Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane to repair the Indian innings.
When Rahane got run-out, Kohli’s manufactured a few shots but it wasn’t enough to revive India till the Dhoni-Raina partnership happened. They both used all their experiences to crush the Zimbabwe, who dropped a few chances that allowed India to get away with the match.
Zimbabwe captain Taylor played a cracker of knock. He celebrated his last ODI appearance with a century, which makes him the first Zimbabwean to score consecutive centuries in a World Cup.
India also had their moments during the Zimbabwean innings. The pace bowler applied pressure on Zimbabwe top-order till Taylor took charge of things. He treated the Indian spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with disdain. But the overall performance of the Indian bowling was good and in the end, it was their middle-order batting that changed the complexion of the game completely.
