MSD once again got lucky with toss and elected to bowl first. He made couple of changes in team for bringing in likes of Jadeja, Ojha. Sehwag and Yuvraj is dropped out because of injury. You can play with 13 members in warm up matches but it seems that India don’t have 13 members available for selection. On other hand Kiwis also made couple of changes but more or less kept unchanged unit.
India has to get 171 runs target with 8.55 RPO, and, their new opening pair Gambhir and Rohit Sharma has a responsibility of giving flying start. Sharma stood up occasion and continue his tremendous IPL2 batting form, scoring 36 runs with just 20 balls which include 3x4, 3x6, played some amazing cricketing shots to give India much needed momentum. Gambhir on other hand continued his lack luster form.
Raina used his opportunity very well and scored 45 runs in 24 balls with 3x4, 3x6. He is equally supported by Ravindra Jadeja, with his nearly equal to ball 41 runs from 40 balls. In the end India could not able to finish chase and lost by 9 runs. Vettori proved best blower from kiwis with excellent figures of 3-0-24-3.
Before that, when Kiwis started inning with their successful opening pair Ryder and McCullum. Ishant Sharma bowled Ryder out in early spell to provide break through. McCullum continued his attack on other side with scoring 31 runs in 19 balls with 4x4. In middle over Ojha and Harbhajan bowled exceptionally well to restrict Kiwis 150 runs till 19th over. But in last over PR conceded 20 runs to help reach opposition 170 runs target.
From India’s point of view blowing form of Ishant Sharma, Ojha is good news. Ojha bowled really well and did not afraid to spin and toss the ball while kiwis are going after him. From batting point of view, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina’s form is good news. But they should be more worried about their last year’s top scoring batsman Gautam Gambier’s form and Injuries of Zaheer, Sehwag and Yuvraj, as their performance will decide India’s chances, creating history once again.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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