“Clinical”, it’s the only phrase that can be used to
describe India’s reply to the Irish challenge. Team India, travelling out of
the drop-in Western Australia to the New Zealand leg of their world cup
schedule, only had one concern surrounding their performance – complacency and
a possible jet lag. Other than this , the men in blue had ticked all boxes set forward as questionable aspect
of their game and had awe-stricken the bests of cricketing experts and talisman
with their astonishing turn around , especially after the tough times they had
in the Australian tour leading to the mega event.
Ireland, on the other hand, were surrounded by a lot of
positive vibe, right since the outset of their campaign and had even upset the
mighty Windies in lead up to this encounter. With some really talented and professional
cricketers up in their ranks, Ireland appeared as a force to reckon with.
Fascination was even high for this game following what transpired through the
cricketing world last evening, with the minnows Bangladesh eliminating the
English knights from the world cup in a shocking upset. Could Ireland cause a
mega upset here? The game was on.
Toss favoured the Irish skipper, who decided to bat, never
minded by MSD who was looking to have a go with his bowlers first. Ireland
sacrificed a tweak for pace, whilst India fielded an unchanged squad.
New ball bowlers were taken to cleaners by the Irish openers,
as Ireland started running away with the score board, the pitch was found to be
a belter and a run-feast was indeed on.
MSD quickly moved towards his slow
bowlers with Jaddu and Ashwin bowling in tandem. Ashwin tied the run score,
while Raina was introduced as Jadeja looked out of sorts. Both Ashwin and Raina
webbed around the Irish batsmen’s uncertain feet movement against spin and
their vulnerability against spin was clearly exposed. Encouraged by the spinner’s
success, Dhoni kept throwing the ball at all possible spinning options
including Rohit Sharma, as Ireland lost the way losing wickets at regular
intervals and as the run drought continued. Indian Speeding trio of Umesh, Shami
and Mohit were finally re-introduced in the death, but they remained largely
untested of their death bowling skills thanks to the devastating affect spin
had on Ireland’s innings. At the end, Team India finally brought the Ireland
innings to a halt with the 10th wicket, achieving a never before
record of “blowing away” the opposition clean before 50 overs, 5 times in a
row.
India’s chase for the 260 runs target began with a handsome
opening stand of 150+ between Rohit and Shikhar , an innings in which the
elegant maestro and the hard hitting bully seemed to set a display of batting
skills on exhibition. At the fall of the openers, which happened at the fag end
of the chase, they were replaced by the run machine Virat and the ever-dependable
Rahane, who ensured a 8-wicket win for India. During the chase, team India also
brought down several records as in the highest opening stand registered in a
world cup encounter and skipper MS Dhoni achieving a personal mile stone of
being India’s most successful campaigner in the World Cup , also Team India ‘s charismatic
skipper joined the elite club of greats Clive Lyod and Ricky Ponting having the
most consecutive wins in World Cup matches.
In the end India’s effort and performance seemed to teach
the Irish “The difference between Men and Boys”.
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