The Hindu : Sport : India wins despite Chanderpaul's effort

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 22, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

India wins despite Chanderpaul's effort

G. Viswanath

Sourav Ganguly makes a grand comeback to the ODI side with a 98

COMEBACK MAN SIZZLES: Sourav Ganguly forces one square off the wicket during his match-winning 98 in Nagpur on Sunday. India defeated the West Indies by 14 runs in the first ODI of the four-match Pepsi Cup Series. Ganguly, returning to the ODI arena after 16 months, added 144 for the first wicket with Gautam Gambhir.

Nagpur: It was a day when bat dominated the ball. The Pepsi Cup opener played on a flat deck at the VCA ground here saw runs in the excess of 600 being scored with batsmen from either side keeping the 32,000 spectators spellbound for seven hours.

At the end of the day, in which 66 fours and 16 sixes were blasted, India having posted 338 for three sneaked through with a 14-run win following a great run chase by the West Indians led by `Man of the Match' Shivnaraine Chanderpaul's unbeaten 149.

The fate of the thrilling chase hinged on Chanderpaul's capacity to take his team to the finishing line. The spirited left-hander's magnificent solo effort (136b, 15 fours, 3 sixes) in the end still wasn't enough.

Featherbed

It was not difficult to collar the bowlers on a featherbed. In search of form and runs after the setbacks in South Africa, the Indian batsmen revelled in familiar conditions after being invited to bat by Brian Lara.

Chris Gayle and Chanderpaul followed suit in their innings under the blazing sun and the Indians knew they had a fight on their hands. Harbhajan Singh grabbed a couple of wickets, but Brian Lara threatened with a dazzling cameo before the aggressive left-hander was stumped off Sachin Tendulkar's leg-spin.

It all began when the new opening combination of Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir put on a splendid 144. Undoubtedly the attention was on Ganguly, returning to India's one-day side after a gap of 15 months, without a century against his name in 51 matches after the 111 not out against Kenya in the World Cup semifinals at Kingsmead in March 2003.

Vintage Ganguly

Ganguly got into the flow of things once Jerome Taylor went for 14 in his first over. Taylor quickly switched to round the wicket and created three opportunities in a single over, but Ganguly and Gambhir's feeble responses fell wide of the fielders inside the circle.

His international career resurrected in the Test series against South Africa, Ganguly slammed the ball to the fence 11 times and on three occasions sent it soaring over the ropes. The game makes one pay for not being alert and a small lapse in concentration saw Ganguly being run out and miss a richly deserved 23rd century by two runs.

Umpire Billy Bowden sought assistance from the third umpire and Ganguly, who had almost taken a brisk walk to the pavilion, halted half way and left the ground once confirmation was received that Dwayne Smith's direct throw had beaten him.

Final assault

Gambhir began to look convincing after a glorious cover drive off Taylor. The Delhi left-hander struck 10 fours and the range of his hits ought to have pleased the selectors. And in the last hour when the Indian innings demanded a speeding up of the run-rate, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and skipper Rahul Dravid indulged in some intelligent hitting to post an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 119 off 71 balls.

On easily one of the most placid pitches ever rolled out, none of the five West Indies seamers or the two spinners made an impression. Ganguly and Gambhir batted with great freedom and even stepped down to indicate that the pitch was a bowlers' graveyard.

Moreover the medium-pacers could neither swing the ball, nor seam it off the pitch or extract extra bounce. The century plus stand between Dhoni (62 not out, 42b, 3 fours, 4 sixes) and Dravid (54 not out, 35b, 4 fours, 3 sixes) enabled India to post its highest total against the West Indies.

Speaking after the match, Lara said scoring 300 plus after a long journey was in itself an achievement and that his team had to take risks right from the start.

"The match was evenly contested. It's all about batsmen since the time one-day game was invented. There's nothing wrong with the pitch. The curator said that more than 300 runs can be scored and that's how it turned out to be. At the end of the day we are entertainers. Hope the pitches in the Caribbean are like this so that everyone there can enjoy the World Cup.''

India's captain Rahul Dravid said he enjoyed the game, and felt he was in control of the match. "It's one of the better innings (Chanderpaul's 149 not out) I have seen in India chasing.''

Dravid doesn't expect similar pitches in Cuttack, Chennai and Baroda. "Cuttack and Chennai are day/night matches. There will be the dew factor at Chennai. Baroda will initially help the seamers."

SCOREBOARD

India: G. Gambhir c Samuels b Gayle 69, S. Ganguly (run out) 98, S. Tendulkar lbw b Gayle 31, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 62, R. Dravid (not out) 54; Extras: (b-5, lb-8, w-11) 24; Total: (for three wkts in 50 overs) 338.
Fall of wickets: 1-144, 2-214, 3-219
West Indies bowling: Bradshaw 6-0-43-0, Taylor 10-0-71-0, Samuels 10-0-53-0, Powell 5-0- 32-0, Gayle 9-1-51-2, Bravo 4-0- 41-0, Smith 6-0-34-0.
West Indies: C. Gayle c Dravid b Harbhajan 52, S. Chanderpaul (not out) 149, R. Morton b Harbhajan 8, M. Samuels b Zaheer 40, B. Lara st. Dhoni b Tendulkar 31, D. Bravo c Dhoni b Zaheer 17, D. Smith b Agarkar 1, D. Ramdin c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 7, I. Bradshaw (run out) 0, D. Powell (not out) 1; Extras (b-1, lb-7, nb-5, w-5) 18; Total (for eight wkts in 50 overs) 324.
Fall of wickets: 1-80, 2-102, 3-175, 4-241, 5-264, 6-269, 7- 304, 8-319
India bowling: Zaheer 10-2-48-2, Sreesanth 10-0-79-1, Agarkar 10-1-75-1, Harbhajan 10-0-60-2, Tendulkar 10-0-54-1.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport