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INDIA BEAT NEW ZEALAND

M.S.Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first on a newly laid pitch at the Dambulla Stadium on Wednesday.  New Zealand tried their best to reach the final of the tri-Series, but India were in a victory mode and never relented all through the game, and India beat New Zealand by 108 runs. Batting first they amassed 223 runs, almost half of which were scored by Virendra Sehwag, and then the Indian pacers wrecked havoc on their batsman and budled them out in a meager score of 118 runs. 

Virendra Sehwag

Virendra Sehwag

After the loss of four quick wickets, M.S.Dhoni gave Sehwag  the required support by rotating the strike and played the sheet anchor role at the other end, while Sehwag plundered his century. Dhoni and Sehwag put on a 107 runs partnership. Once Sehwag was out, the Indian tail was wiped out quickly by the New Zealand bowlers.

 Sehwag  also managed to hit his 1000th ‘four’ in ODI cricket. New Zealand bowlers bowled very well and took the wicket of Dinesh Kartik with India at no score and Virat Kohli also gave the faintest of nick to the wicket-keeper. Both these batsmen were caught fishing outside the off stump. 

Even though the New Zealand bowlers had managed to capture 4 quick wickets by sheer bounce and quick bowling, it was Sehwag alone duly supported by Dhoni, who gave India a fighting score. 

Out of form Yuvraj skied a shot off Andy Mckay and was back in the pavilion after scoring 6 runs. Raina was the next to be caught and the Indian ship was in deep waters. 

Dhoni played a vey cautious knock and gave ample opportunity to Sehwag to plunder boundaries at the other end, while he himself remained satisfied with ones and twos. In the end tthe score-card  revealed that Sehwag scored more runs than the entire New Zealand team and this match could aptly be described as Sehwag versus New Zealand. 

After Sehwag’s departure Dhoni tried to hold the reigns of the team but he too was caught off McCullum and then the Indian tail was easy pick for the Kiwis. 

For the New Zealanders Southee took 4 wickets for 49 runs and  McCullum got 3 for 35. 

For India, Praveen Kumar bowled extremely well picking up 3  for 34  runs. He has the ability to move the ball both ways with the same arm action and that’s where he is very deceptive. Praveen Kumar made best use of the pitch and trapped Martin Guptill leg before in first over. Ashish Nehra too bowled extremely well and sent down a few in-swingers which troubled the batsmen and got   wickets. Then Ross Taylor gave an outside edge to Dhoni who did the rest and that was Praveen’s second wicket. 

Thereafter it appeared that the New Zealanders went into a shell and forgot about the run chase as Scott Syrus edged one in-swinger on to his stumps. Elliot was also content with stopping the ball with the bat and kept on blocking rather than hitting for scoring runs.

Ishant Sharma clean bowled Williamson and later Munaf Patel got two wickets. The only noteworthy batting display  was of Kyle Mills, who slammed a half-century playing in a T20 style, hitting boundaries at will. 

India won the match by 105 runs and meet Sri Lanka in the finals.

Ravi Matah.