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New Zealand Drops Cup Chance

Friday, March 14 2003

New Zealand's semi final spot is now under intense scrutiny, after India secured victory over the Black Caps in an extremely professional and efficient fashion. The venue for today's game was the ever brilliant batting track of Centurion, with a capacity crowd of near 20,000.

India's team was unchanged from the one that beat Sri Lanka, and New Zealand bought back out of form Craig McMillan, and paceman Darryl Tuffey. Sourav Ganguly won the toss and surprisingly elected to bowl, on what seemed to be a excellent batting track.

Zaheer Khan opened the bowling for India, and got off to an absolutely sensational start. Zaheer pitching on middle and leg to Craig McMillan tempted him for the flick of his pads, only to be caught by Harbhajan Singh. McMillan once more gone for a cheap score, this time a duck.

The very next ball, Zaheer caught dangerman Nathan Astle, plumb in front, and immediately Darryl Harper raised the finger to leave Zaheer Khan on a hattrick, and Sourav Ganguly's decision to bowl first justified. Scott Styris was the new man to come out and face the Zaheer Khan hattrick ball. Styris avioded the hattrick by driving on the off side to get off the mark.

Fleming and Styris tried to re-build an already torn innings, the two drove anything which was overpitched by Zaheer Khan. At one stage Zaheer was going for 9 runs an over, after such a wonderful start. The partnership between Fleming and Styris reached 38, before newly introduced Ashish Nehra bowled a beauty of a ball which defeated Styris and was caught behind by Rahul Dravid.

Fleming continued to show determination and resolve, but at the other end, there was no support, as Zaheer came back strongly and cleaned up Brendon McCullum's off stump. McCullum going for just 4 runs, and New Zealand were in dire straits at 4/47. Ultimate dangerman Chris Cairns strode out to the middle with a purpose.

Cairns and Fleming were on a recovery mission. But Fleming trying to pull Srinath, got the top edge, straight to Tendulkar, Fleming gone for 30. With the introduction of off spinner Harbhajan Singh, Chris Cairns was dismissed for just 20. Harbhajan extracting bounce, and Cairns cutting the ball straight down the throat of Zaheer Khan. New Zealand were reeling at 6/88.

Harris fell soon after, plumb in front of the stumps to a straight Zaheer Khan delivery, Harris going for 17. Oram and Vettori once more tried to re-build and basically get any sort of runs on the board for Shane Bond to bowl at. They ran singles, punished the bad balls and were very cautious about their approach.

Vettori fell for 13 off Harbhajan Singh as the score slumped to 8/129. Oram was cleaned up by part timer Virender Sehwag for 23, and Tuffey was dismissed for 11 by Dinesh Mongia who only needed to bowl one delivery to dismiss Tuffey. New Zealand falling for a paltry 146, and their World Cup Campain looked to be over.

India began poorly with opener Virender Sehwag slashing at a fast wide delivery from Shane Bond only to be caught behind for just 1. Out came Ganguly, only to be cleaned up by a super fast Shane Bond yorker. India now were in some sort of trouble at 2/9.

Tendulkar played three smashing shots of Darryl Tuffey, two wonderful drives straight down the ground and one ferocious pull shot. It looked like classical, aggressive Tendulkar, but Tuffey had the last laugh when Jacob Oram held on to a blinder to dismiss the little master. India 3/21 and really looking down the tunnel.

Rock solid Rahul Dravid, and young Mohammad Kaif were the next pair. Dravid slashed at a super fast Shane Bond delivery wide outside off stump, only for Brendon McCullum to drop one of the simplest looking catches ever seen. Dravid dropped on 1, and quite possibly New Zealand's Semi Final berth was also dropped at that moment.

Kaif and Dravid ran the singles very well, and exposed weaknesses in a fielding unit minus livewire Lou Vincent. Both playing a Michael Bevan type innings, solidly went about chasing their target without calm. Kaif unleashing his wonderful cover drives and cuts, while Dravid was more than content pushing the balls in the gaps.

The partnership went past 50, and New Zealand were just about down and out. Kaif then brought up a solid half century, and with Kaif in form, India's batting line-up looks even stronger. Kaif bringing up his 50 in 98 balls.
The two brought up their 100 partnership, and this solid play left the Black Cap bowlers answerless.

Dravid also brought up his 50 in 83 balls, as India got closer and closer to that target. Kaif hitting two consecutive boundaries to bring India up to 150, and win the match quite comfortably by 7 wickets. New Zealand now need Zimbabwe to defeat Sri Lanka to qualify for the Semi-Finals. India on the other hand go from strength to strength, and will be hoping to put up a professional display against Kenya.


Brief Score Summary:

New Zealand: 146 All Out (Fleming 30, Oram 23, Zaheer 4/42, Harbhajan 2/28)

India: 150/3 (Kaif 68*, Dravid 53*, Bond 2/23, Tuffey 1/41)

India Won By 7 Wickets

Cricket Web Player Of The Match: Zaheer Khan (IND)






Posted by Sangrah