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India romps home in style

CRICKET / Man-of the-match Gambhir and Ganguly come good

BELFAST: Gautam Gambhir and Sourav Ganguly’s unbroken stand of 162 saw India to a nine-wicket win under the Duckworth-Lewis method in the one-off One-day International against Ireland at Stormont here on Saturday.

India, set a revised target of 171 in 39 overs after rain delayed the start of its reply by nearly three hours, finished on 171 for one with 25 balls to spare.

Man-of-the-match Gambhir was 80 not out and fellow left-hander Ganguly 73 not out after Sachin Tendulkar was bowled off the last ball of the first over by 26-year-old ODI debutant Roger Whelan.

Earlier, India’s teenage leg-spinner Piyush Chawla took a career-best three wickets for 29 runs as Ireland was bowled out for 193 in 50 overs.

The 18-year-old Chawla’s figures, in his second match at this level, topped the three for 37 he took on debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in May.

Great start

“It will be a long tour so it’s important to start off well,” Gambhir, 25, told reporters. For any cricketer, not just me, it’s nice to start well and I’m pleased I got the runs.

“It’s not like in India where you can just go out there and play through the line of the ball,” said Gambhir.

“I toured England with India ‘A’ so I know something about batting on these types of tracks. You want to start off a season on a high note and I’m happy about the way it’s begun.”

Ireland captain Trent Johnston, who made a valuable 34, said: “I thought we did pretty well to post 190 off 50 overs and the rain gave us 171 to defend which I thought was okay.

“Getting Tendulkar out first over, I thought something might happen here. I really did believe we had enough runs to do that but we just didn’t ask enough questions and that was the disappointing thing.”

Early exit

Gambhir was not overawed by Tendulkar’s early exit, clipping Whelan off his legs for four. He completed a 72-ball fifty featuring six fours before Ganguly reached the landmark, for the 68th time, in 79 deliveries.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid, while talking to reporters, said there are areas for the team to improve.

Dravid said the visitors were found wanting a bit in bowling at the ‘death’ as Ireland, reduced to 111 for six, went on to post 193 with Niall O’Brien and captain Trent Johnston adding 48 runs for the seventh wicket.

“We got wickets upfront and backed it up with good batting. But bowling at the ‘death’, we lacked a bit of experience there. Hopefully we can improve in that department as the season progresses,” Dravid said.

Praise for Chawla

“Small totals can be tricky. And we did not have enough practice in the conditions going into the match. The two of them really batted well, showed good common sense,” Dravid said.

He was all praise for Piyush Chawla. “For a young leg-spinner, he gripped the ball very well in these conditions. He is only going to grow as he plays more matches,” the skipper said. — Agencies

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