Pacers make short work of Kiwis

Published>Fri, Aug 27 10 01:17 AM

Munaf Patel rode pillion as Praveen Kumar did wheelies on one of the bikes given away at the presentation ceremony. A short while earlier Munaf had piggy-backed on the opening spells of Kumar and Nehra to pick up his three wickets in the match.

Right through the Test series when India struggled in the bowling department, Munaf was warming the benches. On Wednesday, he formed part of a red-hot Indian medium-pace bowling line-up that skittled out New Zealand for just 118. This was after Virender Sehwag scored his 13th ODI hundred and shared a 107-run partnership with MS Dhoni to help India to 223. The 105-run saw India qualify for the final against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Dhoni's gamble to go with four pacers ? Munaf came in for left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha ? proved to be the masterstroke. With every wicket that Munaf took, the smile on Dhoni's face became broader. He had first struck in the 17th over of the innings, when he got ball to move in rather sharply from outside the off-stump and trap wicket-keeper batsman Gareth Hopkins in front of the wicket. By then Kumar, Nehra and Ishant Sharma had picked up five New Zealand wickets to turn the match decisively in India's favour.

The medium-pacers picked up nine wickets with Kumar and Munaf picking up three each and Ashish Nehra taking two and giving away just 10 runs. Praveen was most impressive in his first spell, which read three for 15 in six overs. He moved the new ball both ways, while Nehra, the left-arm paceman, used his in-swinger with telling effect. These two opening bowlers have been spot on in this tournament with Sharma doing when coming in as first change.

There have been genuine fears, expressed by coach Gary Kirsten, about the lack of teeth and consistency from the medium-pacers in one-dayers with less than six months to go for the World Cup. When India decided to go for an all-out pace attack, it gave Munaf the opportunity to show why he shouldn't be clubbed in that category of medium-pacers who have lost their way due to lack of form and fitness issues.

When the likes of Rudra Pratap Singh, Irfan Pathan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, to name a few, have failed to show the kind of consistency required to succeed at the highest level, the selectors have had to look desperately for options. Munaf has often blown hot and cold, and on Wednesday he started off poorly by bowling two wides in his first over and was taken out of the attack briefly. He came back from the other end and bagged three wickets for just 17.

New Zealand never looked like they would chase down the 224-run target as they lost two early wickets, that of BJ Watling and Martin Guptill. Ross Taylor had smashed two consecutive fours off Kumar, but the bowler used the outswinger to dismiss the New Zealand skipper in the third over. Kyle Mills with 52 off 35 provided some entertainment towards the end after the top-order had failed to turn up for the fight.

The wickets here have enabled swing to a large extent, unlike traditional ones in the sub-continent, but still it required the Indian medium-pacers to bowl well in breezy conditions. It was another day out for the medium-pacers at Dambulla. This time it was the Indians who looked menacing.

Powerplay confusion

Confusion over powerplay saw the game stop for about 10 minutes during the New Zealand innings. While the players presumed the powerplay was on, the umpires didn't think so. What transpired was that New Zealand batsman Kyle Mills had told Indian skipper MS Dhoni at the end of the 24th over that he was taking the batting powerplays but forget to convey the same to umpire. Mills went on to explain after the match that the matter was sorted out without much fuss.

"A little bit of confusion is what happened. When (Ravindra) Jadeja came on to bowl, I told Dhoni, and I also believed I told umpire Raufy, (Asad Rauf) that we were going to take the powerplay. MS nodded his yes, Raufy obviously didn't hear. In the end, when Ashish Nehra came on to bowl the last over of the powerplay, Raufy still didn't realise that we were in powerplay. It was just a communication thing, really. Maybe I will just put my hand up and make sure the umpire can hear my signal in future. I was just glad to resolve it out in the middle with MS and Raufy. I was tempted to say that I didn't (take powerplay), but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the game," Mills said.

On Thursday, Mills wasn't allowed to bowl for half an hour, according to rules, when by mistake he sent the ball on to the popping crease in his warm-up stride during the rain-affected game against Sri Lanka. "I have learnt a couple of things on this tour," Mills said in a lighter vein.

Source: Web Search