Forty thousand fans had packed into the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai to watch Sachin Tendulkar score his 100th international century. If any of them came in 5 minutes late, they would have missed watching him bat entirely. That's how long the little master lasted in his first real failure in the 2011 World Cup.
What they did get to see was a Yuvraj Singh special, authored in a style that only Yuvraj can author.
Both teams made two changes, with India's expected and West Indies' surprising. Sehwag was rested, after picking up a knee infection and Nehra was axed. In their places came Raina and R Ashwin. West Indies were without Chris Gayle and Kemar Roach, with Kirk Edwards and Ravi Rampaul replacing the two. Rampaul proved to be a splendid replacement and was successful in the first over, getting Sachin Tendulkar to nick one to the keeper. In a good moment for the game, Sachin walked when the umpire didn't give him out. Virat Kohli finally returned to the top order - where he rightfully belongs - and showed the value of having him there rather than shuffling with the batting order. The pitch was a strange one, with the Windies quick generating a lot of bounce, and Gambhir and Kohli did well to weather the initial spells of the West Indian quicks which contained plenty of chin music. It eased out eventually, though the odd delivery was still apt to kick off a length. However, Gambhir got too adventurous for his own good, and Rampaul picked up his second wicket when Gambhir upper cut straight to third man.
That heralded India's best phase of the match with Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh combining for what turned out to be a match-winning partnership. It realised 122 runs at a fair clip of 5.11 runs per over and established a solid base India to take advantage of. The most remarkable thing about the partnership was how Kohli and Yuvraj kept the run flow steady. Their stand was not about a trickle of runs after the loss of the openers and big boundaries later - it was more balanced, and only the first full over in which they came together was a maiden. After that, runs flowed. Both batsmen reached fine half-centuries and both looked set for bigger things. However, a rush of blood caused Kohli's downfall and gave Rampaul his third wicket.
Yuvraj meanwhile, was in physical trouble and had to call for assistance numerous times during his stay at the crease. He revealed later that he had picked up a stomach bug and that his nausea was not due to the Chennai heat. Whether it was the external factors or internal, Yuvraj battled gamely on.
In sight was an ODI hundred - which he had last scored on 26 Jun 2009, coincidentally against the same opposition. Yuvraj admitted that he did feel nervous about getting to the hundred and that he had wanted it badly. In the event, he did get to the landmark, and as the subsequent Indian innings proved, it was to be be a very valuable knock from Yuvraj.
From 218/3 in 41.3 overs, India did their by-now-famous collapsing act and failed to capitalize on a good start for yet another time. They even contrived to be all out yet again. Fifty more runs were added for the 7 remaining wickets for India to be all out for 268. Yuvraj's hundred had looked valuable even when India were cruising - in the context of their collapse, it became crucial.
Ravi Rampaul, who was in the side only because Roach wasn't fully fit, made full use of the opportunity grabbing 5/51 - his best ODI figures. Although India collapsed, he fully deserved his wickets having been the stand-out West Indian bowler.
When the West Indies came out, they had a clear-cut plan of attacking the bowling in the initial overs, perhaps in an effort to maximize scoring options before the ball became soft. Kirk Edwards was the initial aggressor, but he fell to Ashwin after which Darren Bravo took up the mantle.
Dhoni used Ashwin from the first over and bowled him for a long spell of 8 overs during which he troubled the batsmen and got the wicket of Edwards. Bravo was looking good and Smith seemed to have got his eye in, but West Indies lost Bravo at an inopportune moment when he fell to a rank bad ball from Raina, which he ended up hitting down Harbhajan's throat. Just like it had been for India though, for the second wicket, Bravo and Smith got together for the West Indies' best stand of the match. At 154/2 in the 31st over, West Indies seemed very much on course to end their run of defeats against top nations.
However, just as they had outdone India in their initial innings, they out-did India's collapse also. 154/2 underwent so many changes in both the runs column and the wickets column that it almost became impossible to tell when a wicket was falling or had just fallen. West Indies lost 8 wickets for the addition of 34 runs to implode spectacularly.
The rot was started - as it has always been - by a Zaheer Khan special. Smith had quietly got to his half-century and effortlessly changed gears that he crossed 50 a long while ago and seemed set for a century. However, Zaheer got one to pitch outside off and then jag back in through Smith's defences to rattle the stumps. Smith was leaving for 81 superb runs off 97 balls, and he would have had a right to expect that he had done the bulk of the work and that the rest of the batsmen of the Windies would put their hands up (rather than their feet up) and guide the team home.
It was to be a vain hope. In a match where the team that played the less incompetent cricket won - as opposed to a match in which the team playing better cricket wins - India's feat of 50/7 was trumped by West Indies 34/8.
After Smith, Pollard went. Pollard tried to hit Harbhajan out of Chennai when there was no need for a shot of that kind and ended up holing out. Darren Thomas was the victim of a good ball and good reflexes, being stumped by Dhoni off Yuvraj and when Sammy had gone so far for a non-existent single that even Munaf Patel had time to run him out, the writing was on the wall for West Indies. They lost wickets almost like clock-work and were bowled out for 188.
The eventual 80-run margin was flattering to India and possible only because of the West Indian collapse. Both teams have plenty to work on ahead of their knock-out matches. West Indies have got themselves into good positions against each of South Africa, England and India and then blown it away. They must expect more from themselves. In Darren Bravo, they have one of the finest young batting talents. In Gayle and Pollard - amongst the game's most brutal hitters and in Roach - amongst the fastest bowlers. Add to that the abilities of the support cast such as Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russel, Ramnaresh Sarwan et al, and it must seem criminal that they win so little. With the talent at their disposal the men from the Caribbean can legitimately feel extremely unhappy if all they have to show for their efforts in the 2011 World Cup are victories against Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.
As for India, the most feared batting line-up pre-tournament seems to have developed a strange disease. Their batting for about 40 overs lives up to its 'best in the tournament' tag. And then it seems to want to apologize for itself and cram in 10 overs of bad batting that rivals the 40 overs of great skill that preceded it. It hurt India badly against England and South Africa, and it almost did so against West Indies.
Perhaps India should explore taking the batting power-play much earlier, before the 30th over when it has always had set batsmen at the crease. They should probably re-evaluate what a good score during a batting power-play is, and know that 30/0 is far better than 35/4. The failure of the lower middle-order - Dhoni, Yusuf, Raina (in the one match) - has hurt India's chances. In going for 50 runs in the batting power-play they have lost a bunch of wickets. It hasn't helped that Harbhajan seems to have forgotten that he has Test centuries and hasn't contributed the runs expected of him. Zaheer has always been a hit-or-miss kind of batsman, while Nehra and Munaf sometimes seemed to exist purely for comic relief. THe whole world and its uncle was clamouring for R Ashwin's inclusion in the side. After a successful World Cup debut, he's sure to be in the starting eleven. One of the unforeseen benefits of having him could well be his providing some batting resistance in the lower order. The undeniably greatest gain for India is that Yuvraj Singh is hitting the ball at back to near his most fluent best and Yuvraj in such form is always amongst the most dangerous ODI batsmen in the world. His bowling has also been on the mark more often than not and as three Man-of-the-Match awards show, he's been India's most valuable player in the league stages.
The quarter-finals await for both teams. On recent evidence, both need to be more consistent in various aspects of their game to look like teams capable of winning three tough matches on the trot. But then, the same could be said of almost any team in the knock-outs!
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