Dhoni and his merry bunch of warriors have done it gain,the massive 117 run victory over the hapless Kiwis has only served to whet the appetite and led to our dils saying "yeh dil maange more",Dhoni and his team were clearly the better side on the day and their sterling display on the hallowed turf of Cennai's Chepauk stadium has only reinforced the first amongst equals tag accorded to this Indian team by both cricketing pundits as well as their legions of adoring fans.
DHONI HIMSELF LED THE WAY WITH A SWASHBUCKLING INNINGS of 108 not out off just 64 balls with his final fifty runs coming off a mere 17 balls, the innings in question had it all, the customary swagger,bludgeoned hits that took your breath away,deft touches,brute force,twinkling toes,twitches and quaint mannerisms and most importantly signalled Dhoni's return to his usual run scoring ways just before the commencement of this king of all one day international tournaments.
The Indians ended up amassing a massive total of 360/5 at the end of their allotted quota of fifty overs primarily due to the consistent efforts of their top six batsmen while Dhoni was the king of the roost,Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were equally impressive in their innings of 89 and 59 respectively and their efforts went a long way towards establishing the platform from which Dhoni and Suresh Raina who ended up with a 26 ball fifty could launch their brutal assault against the insipid Kiwi that conceded a gargantuan 143 runs of the final 14 overs and 62 off the last five.
So much for the sparkling efforts of the Indian top and middle order, the Indian effort though was not without it's eyesores, Sachin and Sehwag were both dismissed with next to nothing against both their individual accounts and team score sheet by this toothless and rudderless Kiwi attack while the three Indian pacers on display namely Ashish Nehra,Munaf patel and Shantakumaran Sreesanth wer mercilessly spanked by the Kiwi opening partnership comprising of Brendon Mccullum and martin Guptill and ended up conceding a gigantic 94 runs of the first 13 overs of the Kiwi innings, the fielding was also not upto scratch and the Indians were guilty of flooring atleast three sitters with Messrs Gambhir and Munaf Patel being the culprits.
The spinners once again came to the party as has become the norm in the warm up matches AND THE TRIUMVIRATE OF SPINNERS Ravichandran Ashwin,Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were equally effective and potent on a pitch that accorded them generous turn and bounce,but the mind boggles as to how the Indian attack would fare on a pitch that does not accord them the amounts of turn and bounce that the Bengaluru and Chennai pitches did, Bhajji will have to assume the role of the lynchpin and bring to the fore his considerable guile and burgeoning bag of tricks with Piyush Chawla on current form proving to be the ideal foil.
The Indian pace attack markedly resembles a rudderless ship in the enforced absence of Zaheer Khan due to what is being termed as a minor groin strain,while Dhoni has gone on record saying that Zaheer's injury was not a cause for concern and that he will be fit and raring to go against the Bangladeshis come Saturday one wonders whether Zaheer's lack of match fitness and ill preparedness would only serve to undermine the Indian bowling effort and end up proving to be their achilles heel against the not to be written of Bangla tigers who beat them rather handily in the 2007 edition of this very same tournament.
Well, that's it for the match report of the second warm up game or practice match between the marauding Indians and sitting ducks Kiwis,here's wishing Dhoni and his men the very best of luck and godspeed for their first outing in the 2011 edition of cricket's equivalent of the Oscars, the World Cup.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
DHONI HIMSELF LED THE WAY WITH A SWASHBUCKLING INNINGS of 108 not out off just 64 balls with his final fifty runs coming off a mere 17 balls, the innings in question had it all, the customary swagger,bludgeoned hits that took your breath away,deft touches,brute force,twinkling toes,twitches and quaint mannerisms and most importantly signalled Dhoni's return to his usual run scoring ways just before the commencement of this king of all one day international tournaments.
The Indians ended up amassing a massive total of 360/5 at the end of their allotted quota of fifty overs primarily due to the consistent efforts of their top six batsmen while Dhoni was the king of the roost,Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were equally impressive in their innings of 89 and 59 respectively and their efforts went a long way towards establishing the platform from which Dhoni and Suresh Raina who ended up with a 26 ball fifty could launch their brutal assault against the insipid Kiwi that conceded a gargantuan 143 runs of the final 14 overs and 62 off the last five.
So much for the sparkling efforts of the Indian top and middle order, the Indian effort though was not without it's eyesores, Sachin and Sehwag were both dismissed with next to nothing against both their individual accounts and team score sheet by this toothless and rudderless Kiwi attack while the three Indian pacers on display namely Ashish Nehra,Munaf patel and Shantakumaran Sreesanth wer mercilessly spanked by the Kiwi opening partnership comprising of Brendon Mccullum and martin Guptill and ended up conceding a gigantic 94 runs of the first 13 overs of the Kiwi innings, the fielding was also not upto scratch and the Indians were guilty of flooring atleast three sitters with Messrs Gambhir and Munaf Patel being the culprits.
The spinners once again came to the party as has become the norm in the warm up matches AND THE TRIUMVIRATE OF SPINNERS Ravichandran Ashwin,Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were equally effective and potent on a pitch that accorded them generous turn and bounce,but the mind boggles as to how the Indian attack would fare on a pitch that does not accord them the amounts of turn and bounce that the Bengaluru and Chennai pitches did, Bhajji will have to assume the role of the lynchpin and bring to the fore his considerable guile and burgeoning bag of tricks with Piyush Chawla on current form proving to be the ideal foil.
The Indian pace attack markedly resembles a rudderless ship in the enforced absence of Zaheer Khan due to what is being termed as a minor groin strain,while Dhoni has gone on record saying that Zaheer's injury was not a cause for concern and that he will be fit and raring to go against the Bangladeshis come Saturday one wonders whether Zaheer's lack of match fitness and ill preparedness would only serve to undermine the Indian bowling effort and end up proving to be their achilles heel against the not to be written of Bangla tigers who beat them rather handily in the 2007 edition of this very same tournament.
Well, that's it for the match report of the second warm up game or practice match between the marauding Indians and sitting ducks Kiwis,here's wishing Dhoni and his men the very best of luck and godspeed for their first outing in the 2011 edition of cricket's equivalent of the Oscars, the World Cup.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
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