The Hindu : Sport : Sensational win for India

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Sensational win for India

Sports Reporter

Durban: India won the Super Eight match against South Africa with canny swing bowling and superlative catching and entered the semifinals of the World Twenty20 on Thursday.

R.P. Singh swung one in perfectly to Herschelle Gibbs. The ball beat the bat, found the pads, and Gibbs was trapped in front. Three balls later, Smith slashed at one outside off and managed only an edge. In a flash, Dinesh Karthik flung himself to his left, took a brilliant catch.

Under lights, in Durban, with a left-armer swinging the ball, India couldn’t go wrong. Once the openers departed in the second over, South Africa’s chase collapsed. R.P. Singh’s superb left-arm swing bowling spurred Sreesanth on to produce a perfect right-armer’s lbw ball-fast and straight. A.B. de Villiers missed it completely. Justin Kemp and Mark Boucher scratched around for a while, before Rohit Sharma brilliantly ran out Kemp.

Pollock was the next to go as he had no clue to a beauty from R.P. Singh which came back to knock down the stumps.

On the backfoot

South Africa was put on the defensive. Boucher and Albie Morkel turned down most of the scoring opportunities. The host looked like it had given up the hope of winning.

The duo woke up when Harbhajan Singh was brought on. Boucher smashed three boundaries off the spin bowler. Morkel smacked Joginder Sharma for a six, but the barren period continued thereafter.

Boucher edged a Sreesanth-delivery to the stumps. With even the target of 126 for qualifying slipping out of reach, Phillander took Harbhajan on, but Karthik (who took over as the wicket-keeper after Dhoni’s back problems) effected an easy stumping.

Morkel was castled while trying to despatch an R.P. Singh delivery to the on-side, and van der Wath, stumped by Karthik off Harbhajan.

South Africa, after winning all its matches before this one, was out of the tournament. India had topped Group E.

Smith disappointed

“We seem to find ways to lose such matches,” said a distraught Smith. “Teams that have lost two matches have qualified. We lost just one, and are out. It’s a weird feeling,” he said.

Earlier India won the toss and elected to bat. The openers took a couple of overs to get going. Shaun Pollock stung the top-order with his accurate bowling and set things up for other bowlers.

Gautam Gambhir miscued a heave off Pollock to find Graeme Smith at mid-off.

Dinesh Karthik, who had come in place of Yuvraj Singh (tendonitis in his left elbow), put his wrists through a great deal to find Albie Morkel at square-leg, making it two for Pollock.

Virender Sehwag showed promise, but was glued to the crease while caressing one outside off, with Boucher taking the catch.

It was Makhaya Ntini’s first and only wicket.

SCOREBOARD

India: G. Gambhir c Smith b Pollock 19, V. Sehwag c Boucher b Ntini 11, D. Karthik c A. Morkel b Pollock 0, R. Uthappa c Smith b M. Morkel 15, Rohit Sharma (not out) 50, M.S. Dhoni (run out) 45, I. Pathan (not out) 0; Extras (b-2, lb-2, w-8, nb-1): 13; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 153.

Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Gambhir), 2-33 (Karthik), 3-33 (Sehwag), 4-61 (Uthappa), 5-146 (Dhoni).

South Africa bowling: Pollock 4-0-17-2, Ntini 4-0-30-1, van der Wath 4-0-43-0, M. Morkel 4-0-32-1, Philander 2-0-14-0, A. Morkel 2-0-13-0.

South Africa: H. Gibbs lbw b R.P. Singh 1, G. Smith c Karthik b R.P. Singh 4, de Villiers lbw b Sreesanth 1, J. Kemp (run out) 5, M. Boucher b Sreesanth 36, S. Pollock b R.P. Singh 0, A. Morkel b R.P. Singh 36, V. Philander st. Karthik b Harbhajan 2, van der Wath st. Karthik b Harbhajan 2, M. Morkel (not out) 1, M. Ntini (not out) 4; Extras (lb-9, w-15): 24; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 116.

Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Gibbs), 2-12 (Smith), 3-12 (de Villiers), 4-30 (Kemp), 5-31 (Pollock), 6-100 (Boucher), 7-103 (Philander), 8-109 (A. Morkel), 9-111 (van der Wath).

India bowling: Sreesanth 4-0-23-2, R.P. Singh 4-0-13-4, Joginder 4-0-24-0, Pathan 4-0-16-0, Harbhajan 4-0-31-2.

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