Wednesday, June 27, 2007

SOUTH AFRICA WIN

India lost to South Africa by four wickets. The match ended with only a few balls of the 50th over of the South African innings. Some good slow bowling on part of Piyush Chawla and typical South African style ensured a tight finish.

Kallis played a captain’s innings and stayed till the end. There were small but valuable contributions from the others. Since the target was not big, things did not appear to be complicated. Kallis got the Man of the Match for he also got two wickets.

The Indians did well to post a total of 242 with both the openers returning without making much contribution to the team total. Gambhir is not someone who can be trusted to face the new ball on helpful pitches. Ganguly is past his best like many of his teammates.

After a long time Sachin made a good score against a good bowling attack. The pace of the innings was slow. Some of the typical Sachin shots-the off drive was there. But at no time, Sachin looked to collar the bowling. At the other hand, Rahul made a score at a good rate. At the end, it was Dinesh Karthik who played some unorthodox shots to swell the total.

The bowling did not trouble the South Africans since many of the regulars were out on the sick list. Sometimes, the fielding appeared ragged to say the least.

The Indians have to improve on all the fronts to make the most of the rest of the matches.

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