INDIA BEAT IRELAND- WC-2011

March 6th, 2011 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on INDIA BEAT IRELAND- WC-2011
Email this Email  |  Print This Post Print This Post   |  

M.S.Dhoni won the toss and asked Ireland to bat first at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium,  Bangalore on Sunday in their encounter in the World Cup 2011.  Dhoni was proved right by Zahir Khan who took two early wickets, clean bowling Paul Sterling for a duck and got the edge of Ed Joyce for Dhoni to do the rest. The score card read a dismal 9 for 2 after 4 overs.

Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh

Earlier  Ireland  has successfully  chased  327 against England and this could also have prompted Dhoni’s decision to bowl first instead of setting a target.

Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan were bowling in tandem and Dhoni’s decision of  removing Munaf Patel at that moment and asking Yusaf Pathan to bowl with the almost new ball was very surprising.

Part-time spinner Yuvraj Singh grabbed a five-wicket haul as India restricted Ireland to 207 in their Group B encounter when he rattled the Irish batting with his slow left arm bowling.

Ireland skipper William Porterfield contributed with 75 runs while Niall O’Brien, who played second fiddle to his captain in the 113-run stand, also scored 46.

And though, the pitch offered enough assistance to the Indian spinners, none except Yuvraj proved effective.

Porterfield showed his positive intent from the beginning as he punished the Indian bowlers if they strayed even slightly in their line and length.

Niall O’Brien, too, punished the Indian bowlers with any given opportunity.

Virat Kohli threw the ball brilliantly to Dhoni who brought the bails down in a flash of a second which gave India their third wicket as the 22-year-old sent O’Brien back with a run out.

Another strike, Andrew White’s wicket, by Yuvraj brought Ireland’s man of the moment Kevin O’Brien on the crease.

But the big-hitting player couldn’t replicate his last innings heroics and gave a simple catch to Yuvraj off his own bowling.  And the tall all-rounder completed his five-wicket haul with the wickets of Alex Cusack and John Mooney.

Chasing a target of 208 runs India Lost Sehwag very early when he edged a Jhonson’s ball back to him and that caught and bowled brought the entire stadium to a dumb silence. Gautam Gambhir was out meddling with a wide-ball outside the leg stump and was caught in the leg slip area. The score read 51 for 2 wickets.

Sachin was out adjudged lbw for 38 runs and soon Virat Kohli was run out trying to steal a non – existant single and a bit of misunderstanding with Yuvraj. His contribution was a valuable 34 runs. At this stage the  match was evenly poised.

However good piece of luck was going India’s way as a bat-pad-edge from Dhoni flew high upwards but fell in no-man’s land between 3 Ireland’s fielders. Later India lost their 5th wicket as skipper MS Dhoni fell to Dockrell on a individual score of 34 runs.

Dhoni and Yuvraj had done a splended rebuilding job for India with their fifty-run partnership. Uptil then, runs were coming in one’s and two’s only and boundrys had totally dried out.

With the departure of M.S.Dhoni Yusuf Pathan arrived at the crease and that changed the complexion of the game. He struck a lofted boundary which crossed the rope one-bounce and followed it up with two towering sixes in the same over sending the crowd into raptures.

Yusuf Pathan’s these two sixes and a four off George Dockrell tilted the match in India’s favour.

This is the first time in World Cup history that a player has taken a five wicket haul and also slammed a half-century and Yuvraj Singh was aptly adjudged the Man of the Match.

Ravi Matah.

Tags: , , , , ,

Comments are closed