ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - Warm Up Match 12
INDIA vs NEW ZEALAND
Though India had won the opening match of their 2 warm up matches, captain MS was still worried about the performance of their highly rated batsmen. They could not build a partnership and only the tail enders took India to what vaguely can be considered a respectable score. Thanks to the spinners, India were able to pull of a victory especially considering the type of start Australia had.
This game albeit was against a side which can in no way be considered confident as they lost to Bangladesh, India and Pakistan just before the world cup, BUT IT HAD TO BE STILL WON. The game was played in Chennai. India's favorite hunting ground. People came out in large numbers to see their heroes playing especially Sachin who missed the first warm up match.
PART 1
Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first on a 'TURN LATER' pitch. Openers Sehwag and crowd's favorite Sachin Tendulkar came on to bat and how Chennai went berserk!!.
PART 2
Kyle Mills started the first over for New Zealand. Sachin and Sehwag started off well as both looked in great touch, Tendulkar entertaining the Chennai crowd with 3 boundaries. India reached 35 in 7.2 overs and lost Tendulkar on 17 runs. Gambhir made way to the ground but lost his partner in the 10th over. Jacob Oram clean bowled Sehwag for 23 runs.
The next batsman to follow was Virat Kohli. Both Kohli and Gambhir played positive cricket by being cautious with good balls and hitting the balls meant to be hit. Taking occasional risks and converting ones into twos.100 came for India in the 22nd over. Gambhir especially looked to return in form and was more aggressive. His shot against Southee over mid off was something to watch again and again. Virat completed his 50 in 55 balls. Before Virat got out of the bowling of Oram and was caught behind by McCullum, he along with Gambhir added 106 runs for the 3rd wicket in 20 overs.
Another partnership followed for India between Gambhir and Dhoni of 68 runs in 57 balls. Gambhir got out in the 39th over.
PART 3
Then followed some ruthless slogging from the Chennai Super Kings star batsmen. The way both batsmen batted, the kiwis must have thanked God that it weren't an official match. Their aggression can be understood by this - 124 runs in just 56 balls, 100 run partnership in 45 balls. The onslaught on new Zealanders continued till the 48th over. Raina hit 3 sixes and 4 boundaries to score 50 of only 26 balls before he was caught by Taylor at mid off. Dhoni went on to complete his century in 62 balls.
India made a mammoth total of 360 runs which as per New Zealand's current form seemed an above par score.
PART 4
Although a bleak one, but New Zealand hoped to give it a shot. But for that, their top order had to fire, especially B McCullum. New Zealand had a fab start with their first wicket stand of 94 runs in 15 overs. The run rate could not match the RR, but atleast they could go on to play some big shots as both their batsmen were set and New Zealand hadn't lost a wicket.
Once again, spinners did the job for India and Guptill was caught bu Dhoni on a bouncing ball from Ashwin. New Zealand hoped to build a second partnership but they lost their second opening batsman McCullum for a total of 118 runs on the board.
Wicket fell in regular intervals for New Zealand, and after the loss of Guptill's wicket, they never seemed in the match. Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ashwin and Nehra; all took 2 wickets each and all New Zealand could manage was 243 runs in 43.1 overs.
Only Guptill, McCullum brothers, Ryder contributed a little from the bat.
PART 5
INDIA WON BY 117 RUNS.