AB de Villiers
The group B match at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi in India was not as interesting as one would have hoped. Where we will always have our fingers crossed for the underdog, the group matches till now have had no such upset.
South Africa won the toss and elected to field first for this day/night match. Their find for this tournament has on his debut match taken 4 wickets for 41 runs, the man himself being Imran Tahir a Pakistan born leg spinner.
His break through’s were the most important and they eventually lead to South Africa’s victory. He took the wickets of Devon Smith who made 36 runs of 57 balls, Ramnaresh Sarwan who made just 2 runs of 10 balls, Shivnarine Chanderpaul who made 31 runs of 51 balls, he looked to be supporting Dwayne Bravo but stood no chance against Imran Tahir today and Devon Thomas made 15 runs of 26 balls. Incidentally Tahir also dropped a catch on his own bowling, it was a long shot but had his reaction time been better he might have got himself a five wicket haul on his debut match.
Dale Steyn was responsible for 3 of the wickets being taken, one watches him bowl on television but to truly get the impact you have to be sitting in the stands, his run up is almost close to the boundary line and his bowling is like a bullet. He claimed the wickets of Keiron Pollard who was greeted with cheers from the Delhites, he got out on a duck and his exit was greeted with dead silence. Darren Sammy also got out on a duck and Sulieman Benn was dismissed making only 6runs, so essentially the tail-enders were cleaned out by Dale Steyn.
Johan Botha was bludgeoned quite a bit by the Bravo’s but even he took two wickets that of opener Chris Gayle who made just 2 runs of 3 balls, his dismissal was a big blow for the West Indies side. Johan Botha also took the wicket of Darren Bravo who was the best run scorer of the day for the West Indies making 73 runs of 82 balls.
Dwayne Bravo’s exit was the most unfortunate as he was involved in a run out that was done by Morne Morkel and AB de Villiers, there was too much hesitancy between Bravo and Chanderpaul as a result of which Bravo had to walk off the field with another wicket down and an injury to take back.
West Indies put up a total of 222 runs which was not nearly enough to beat a team like South Africa.
The South African innings was dominated by AB de Villiers who made 107 runs of 105 balls, his century was a little delayed due to rain, talks about using the duckworth-lewis method were on going, finally the rain stopped and both sides were called to continue play.
Opener Hashim Amla made just 14 runs of 15 balls; his wicket was taken by Kemar Roach. Captain and opener Graeme Smith made a healthy contribution of 45 runs of 78 balls before his dismissal to Kieron Pollard.
Jacques Kallis would be kicking himself for the way he got out, making only 4 runs of 7 balls his wicket taker was Sulieman Benn.
AB de Villiers and JP Duminy who made 42 runs of 53 balls, lead their side to a 7 wicket win with 43 balls remaining.
The man of the match award went to AB de Villiers for his 107* of 105 balls.
On a different note, Irrespective of which teams are playing, the grounds in Delhi have full stands.
It was truly fascinating to see how many cricket fans there are, who are there for the game and not just the players. The atmosphere was electric and the stadium was buzzing, before all the West Indians fell like nine pins one could see Kieron Pollard dancing in front of caged fans (the barbed wires at Feroz Shah Kotla Shadium near the seating give the impression of a cage) situated near the dressing room, they themselves were probably over whelmed at the response this match had in India.
Hopefully West Indies will bounce back in this World Cup and not have too much trouble with injuries.
Tags: AB de Villiers, Cricket, Delhi, Feroz Shah Kotla, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Imran Tahir, South Africa, West Indies, World Cup
