Monday, November 05, 2007

INDIA TAKES THE FIRST MATCH

The first one-dayer of the Indian Oil Cup went India’s way. There were no big scores and batsmen had difficulty hitting the ball over the boundaries. It was not a match expected on the wickets of the subcontinent.

A score of 240 was never expected to trouble the Indians. With the bowling of Pakistan unable to exert any pressure, things became a lot easier for the Indians, despite the failure of Sachin. It was Shoaib Akhtar who took the wicket of Sachin.

Gambhir and Ganguly put a decent partnership where good shots were interspersed with streaky shots. Ganguly is simply not the batsman he used to be in the limited overs variety. Gambhir is simply playing in the way he is known to be.

Dhoni and Yuvraj strung a match winning partnership. There were few big shots from the bat of Yuvraj. Dhoni also played in a sensible manner. There was a mild excitement in the dying stages with the dismissals of these two.

Salman Butt started off nicely and his run out seemed to take the fizz out of Pakistan innings. Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf batted in the test match style and the total could not become a challenging one. Misbah and Afridi hit some lusty blows but by then the Indians began to feel comfortable about the chase.

The toss was the only thing that ought to have made Shoaib Malik happy after this match.

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