India win by 16 runs, keep afloat

KUALA LUMPUR: Bowlers brought life back into India’s quest to reach the final as they humbled a unique West Indian line-up that boasted of nine batsmen walking out in an unexpected order. At the Kinrara Oval, it was a tale of two collapses as India folded up for 162 and the West Indies did even worse to fall 16 runs short.

Batting stars Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara were called on to play back-against-the wall innings as the bowlers had a field day here. Their knocks were from two extreme ends - Tendulkar at his customary opening slot, while Lara pushing himself down to No.9.

The win put the bonus point out of India’s equation to reach the final. They will now have to beat Australia and take four points from what will masquerade as the semifinal of the DLF Cup to be played on Friday.

Lara’s disappointment will stem from the fact that players like Runako Morton, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels — all playing up the order — didn’t make the best use of the opportunity to gain some vital ‘batting practice’ before the final.

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid will be worried. His batting line-up, including himself, failed to tackle the moving white ball in spite of winning the toss and electing to bat. All-rounder Dwayne Smith opened the bowling as West Indies opted to leave out pacemen Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards and Ian Bradshaw. Smith snapped up Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, and castled Virender Sehwag as the cream of the Indian top-order didn’t show the skill or the application to counter an attack that had a half-fit Corey Collymore as the strike bowler.

Dhoni, who smashed four boundaries in his 18, perished as he missed the line in an attempt to hit Collymore out of the ground after smashing the same bowler to the cover boundary from the previous ball.

Tendulkar, all the while, held up one end and in off-spinner Harbhajan Singh found his partner. Joining Tendulkar with India staring down the barrel at 78 for six, the duo added another 78 to the team total.

Held to ransom by India’s predicament, Tendulkar crafted his 50 from 91 balls, his slowest ODI half-century, before an unlucky dismissal — bowler Samuels got a touch to RP Singh’s shot that ricocheted onto the stumps to find Tendulkar short.

The chase didn’t seem like it was going to stress the West Indians much, but the drama was really just about to unfold. Munaf Patel and S Sreesanth dismissed openers  Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Morton as well as the No.3 Ramnaresh Sarwan. Ajit Agarkar bowled at a healthy pace to pick up two wickets as Harbhajan weaved magic at the other end.

At one point, Hinds had eked out just 8 from 49 balls. He left without adding to his score and it was left to Lara to take his team home after Chris Gayle who played at No.6 didn’t do much. But he ran out of partners after quickly running away to 40.

Scorecard
India: Dravid c Baugh b Smith 0,  Tendulkar run out (Samuels) 65, Sehwag b Smith 1, Raina c Gayle b Smith 11, Yuvraj c Baugh b Smith 0, Dhoni b Collymore 18, Agarkar b Bravo 4, Harbhajan c Baugh b Gayle 37, RP Singh b Gayle 2, Sreesanth run out (Samuels/Baugh) 0, Patel not out 2. Extras (lb3, w16, nb3) 22. Total (all out; 39.3 overs) 162
FoW: 1-1 2-6 3-38 4-38 5-69 6-78 7-156 8-157 9-160 10-162
Bowling: Smith 10-2-31-4, Collymore 8-1-41-1, Bravo 6-0-16-1, Hinds 6-0-41-0, Gayle 5.3-0-13-2, Samuels 4-0-17-0

West Indies: Chanderpaul c Sehwag b Patel 21, Morton c Dhoni b Sreesanth 27, Sarwan c Dhoni b Patel 2, Hinds c&b Harbhajan 8,  Samuels lbw b Agarkar 5, Gayle lbw b Singh 1, Smith lbw b Agarkar 12,  Bravo st Dhoni b Harbhajan 10,  Lara not out 40, Baugh c Dravid b Harbhajan 6, Collymore lbw b Sreesanth 0. Extras (lb 6, w 6, nb 2) 14.
Total (all out; 41 overs) 146
FoW: 1-44 2-52 3-58 4-63 5-70 6-83 7-96 8-118 9-145 10-146
Bowling: Agarkar 10-1-22-2, Patel 10-1-31-2, Sreesanth 8-0-25-2, RP Singh 5-0-27-1, Harbhajan Singh 8-0-35-3