Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium
I arrived at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium the venue for India’s 4th encounter in the group proceedings early in the afternoon. India won the toss and elected to field first. A bit disappointment could be felt in the jam packed stadium when Dhoni Choose to field. As the stadium was pretty small, Delhites came to see the 4’s and 6’s from their Indian heroes bat. The game yesterday was never going to be competitive; the question always was not whether India would win, but what the Indians would take away from the game in the form of learnings.
The match started with Netherlands playing safely and not offering any loose shot to through away their wicket. They capitalized on their good start with 64/2 in first 15 overs. They were going nearly fine till the middle order collapse occurred. Nothing special in bowling performance but, yes poor shot selection and trying to accelerate the run rate cost them wickets. Every time a player hits a boundary the very next delivery he will get out, this trend continued in the next 3 wickets to fall of Netherlands. From 99/3 they were reduced to 108/6. The first three batsmen all got starts but were not able to capitalize on it. Borren came to the crease and hit the bowl to various parts including the bowl sailing over the rope twice. Crowd was amazing and supportive cheering each and every run scored by Netherlands. The Dutch were able to manage a decent performance and scoring 189 giving a decent target for the Indians.
The Indian camp looked match is in their since even their first run was scored. India got off to flying start with Sachin and Sehwag firing at both the ends. Sachin hit 3 boundaries in one over to complete 2000 runs in world Cup. The moment it was looking that Indians will sail through easily Viru threw away his wicket to the left arm off spinner Seelar and Sachin as well to the same bowler. The Indians looked in a bit of jiffy as Dhoni sent Pathan to go and hammer some sixes and finish of the match. But he also fell cheaply and Kohli also seemed casual in his approach towards the match. The rest settled down to huff and puff their way to the target, creating artificial excitement with the loss of more wickets. Gambhir, who survived a run out opportunity, giving it away by moving too far across to a Bukhari delivery to be bowled leg stump off his thigh pad. Thanks to Yuvraj and Dhoni who put their head down and batted till the target was reached.
Although India Won! India was able to get the better of Netherlands but still it did not look a convincing victory like that of World Cup favourites.
Tags: Cricket, Dutch, Feroz Shah Kotla, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, Indian Curry, Netherlands, World Cup
