- BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog - https://bedtea.in -

INDIA WIN 4th ODI

Yusaf Pathan steered India to an improbable victory at Bangalore in their fourth ODI against New Zealand on Tuesday. Gautam Gambhir won the toss and put New Zealand in to bat bat who laid down a huge score of 315 runs. Chasing this mammoth score, India, at one stage were 188 for 5 having lost the top five batsmen. But Yusuf Pathan was was on a different pedestal altogether. He struck with confidence and stamped authority with his each shot. His 97 ball 123 runs were ample proof that Pathan has given a notice to the selection committee for the forthcoming World Cup.Yusuf Pathan  

His century overshadowed a superbly-crafted 98 from James Franklin that had allowed New Zealand to reach a daunting total.

It rained for about an hour and when play resumed again, India needed 113 runs from 14 overs a difficult task which was made easy by Yusuf Pathan.  Yusuf launched a Daniel Vettori delivery into the stands beyond long-on and shot a delivery from Kyle Mills over the roof. 

In the  43rd over Pathan smashed Mills for three fours and slammed a six over midwicket. And when he brought up his maiden hundred with a pulled six, off Andy McKay in the next over, the game was almost over. 

Saurabh Tiwary intelligently rotated the strike and gave ample support to Yusuf Pathan to finish off the task and take India to a 4 – 0 lead in the ODI series.

In the initial overs, India had lost wickets at regular intervals as McKays had scalped the wickets of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. Nathan McCullum had accounted for Yuvraj Singh and Parthiv Patel. At that stage the match was totally in favour of New Zealand but Yusuf had his own game plan.

Parthiv Patel had added added 67 runs for the first wicket before Gambhir, 27 runs, was out trying to cut a widish delivery from left-arm seamer Andy McKay.

Virat Kohli (0) who has been in splendid form was out when he mistimed a hook shot after McKay dug in one short and was holed out at long leg where Kyle Mills took a simple catch.

Yusuf had two fruitful partnerships – first with Rohit Sharma  when they added 80 runs in 13.5 overs and then 133 runs with Saurabh Tiwary (37 not out 3×4, 1×6) for the sixth wicket.

Earlier, put into bat New Zealand openers Martin Guptill 30,  and Brendon McCullum 42, punished the Indian opening attack as they went after both Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar who made a comeback in this match.

McCullum  was sent back by Ashwin when his mistimed aerial shot was smartly taken by Rohit Sharma standing at mid-wicket.

James Franklin played a smashing innings of an unbeaten 98 from only 69 deliveries helped New Zealand reach a commanding 315 for seven in 50 overs.

Franklin’s knock provided the perfect climax to New Zealand’s spirited approach; the openers attacked to take them to 91 for 2 in the 14th over and the middle-order adapted to the fall of wickets – rebuilding at a slower pace before Franklin’s final flourish.

Franklin looted 22 runs in the final over, bowled by Nehra, with some wickedly entertaining big hits: he smashed the second delivery to the straight boundary, the third over long-off, the fourth to midwicket, and the fifth to the wide long-off boundary.

Pathan took 3 for 49 and turned out to be the most successful bowler as he made good use of the bowling Powerplay as he was able to breach through the defences of rival skipper Daniel Vettori (17) and Kyle Mills (1).

This was incidentally the highest run-chase in an ODI at this ground. Incidentally, it was young Saurabh who finished the proceedings with a six off Nathan McCullum.

In the presentation ceremony the Man of the match was awarded to Yusuf Pathan and he was also given the cheque for  the most popular player