India beat RSA by 95 runs, move into finals

In retrospect, the draw for this ICC tournament appears to have worked superbly for India. In recent months, the shine had gone out of Indian cricket, and what a fresh, young team needed was a reason to believe in itself again.

A win against Kenya wasn't it. But then came the 20-run win over Australia, and then a 95 run crushing of South Africa today, and suddenly, a lot of sins are being forgiven, and forgotten.

What is most important, from an Indian point of view, is the wins against the two strongest teams in the business today have come as a result of some outstanding team-work, and not on the back of one individual's excellence. Now, in fact, would be a very good time for all those wishing the team well to make tracks to the nearest temple, and pray to all the gods they can come across that the selectors and the administration leave the side alone, and keep their game-playing to the minimum.

To get to the game itself, the Proteas in the field remind you of a perfectly programmed machine. They play it by numbers -- two opening bowlers bowling six apiece, followed by the next two bowlers bowling six apiece, then from 24 to 34, the fifth bowling options seeing them through, then the big boys coming back on to bowl through to the end. While a brilliant fielding machine led by Jonty Rhodes applies the squeeze on the opposing batsmen.

If you play them at their game, they are unbeatable. The trick for India was to find the right monkey wrench, and fling it into the machinery at just the right time and place.

They did -- and South Africa came apart. It raises a question -- doesn't the think tank, especially coach Anshuman Gaekwad, deserve some kudos here? On the day, it was the Indians who batted like a superbly programmed machine, each player knowing his job and doing it to perfection. If we are ready to blast the coach of the day when India performs badly, maybe we need to pause a moment here to give the one now doing duty a round of applause?

The battle was joined early. And that India were playing to a plan became evident equally early, as Saurav Ganguly was seen repeatedly talking Sachin through the first couple of overs. During this period, both Indian batsmen seemed to be sizing things up, Sachin in particular defending to deliveries that, the other day against Australia, he was going after.

And then the Indians gradually eased up a gear. Sachin began playing his shots, Ganguly found the range on his drives, and the Pollock-Telemachus opening combo, which the other day had kept England to five runs off the first 8 overs, began to get taken.

There was a bit of luck, too, when in the 10th over, Sachin walked into a trap set for him. Telemachus bowled a slower ball, Sachin checked his shot on the on, and ended up putting it straight to Klusener at midwicket. Surprisingly, the simple chance went down. And India, at 50/0 in 10 overs, was doing well.

Immediately after this, the two openers put a little entry into the record books when they completed 4000 runs in tandem in ODIs. This was their 88th outing together, and thus far, not including this innings, they had 9 century partnerships and 20 others over the 50 mark.

Getting to the end of the 15 over mark, Sachin seemed to rethink his game in mid-stride, shifting his focus from attack, to defence. And that caused the dismissal, as it often does when Sachin plays a game not quite natural to him. Kallis pitched one on off that lifted and seamed a touch, Tendulkar instead of playing the length, tried to defend, the ball went off the high outer edge and Klusener at slip had a chance to remedy his earlier mistake. Sachin, who at one point was 30 off 30, went for 39 off 50, those figures clearly indicative of how he slipped down the gears again at this point, but India had done well to get to 66/1 after 15 overs.

What was needed was consolidation, and Dravid and Ganguly provided precisely that. Neither batsman panicked, they played the tip and run game to perfection, not taking much notice of a dropping run rate, focussing on staying there and ensuring that the board kept ticking over. It was a waiting game, and in the 25th and 27th overs, it became apparent what they were waiting for. Nicky Boje was introduced in the 25th, and Ganguly promptly danced down the track and swung him out on the on for a six. In the 27th, Boje's second over, Ganguly did an encore, then another -- Boje was taken for 26 in just two overs, India were 132/1 at the end of 27, and the Protean gameplan, so carefully crafted, had been taken apart.

The two played this perfectly. The partnership for the second wicket was worth 132 runs off 145 balls. Ganguly contributed 77 off 78, Dravid 55 in 67. Nothing much wrong there with the strike rotation, both batsmen sharing the load, and in their own individual ways, ensuring that South Africa never got back into the game. Ganguly, once he survives the first 15 and sets off towards the century mark, has the habit of making it a big one. What works for him is his footwork, and precision timing that permits him to hit the big ones -- six of the best, today -- with effortless ease, and against both pace and spin. Dravid, for his part, today found the range on his on drives and straight drives, and looked a completely different player from the one we've been used to seeing towards the end of the last season.

The partnership really took the game away from the Proteas. The South Africans were forced to change their bowling plan, use overs of Donald and Pollock early, and that meant they became even more vulnerable at the death. That the pressure was getting to them became evident when Telemachus, taken for runs today, deliberately shoulder-charged Dravid as the latter was completing a run (quite obviously, the match referee will do nothing about a blatant example of physical abuse, but I guess Dravid feels that winning makes up for the aggravation).

Ganguly brought up his 100 in the 38th over, but more importantly, India at that point were 202/1 -- a platform made in heaven, for a final assault. By then, judging by two occasions where Dravid, very uncharacteristically, reached a long way out on the off to cart the ball around over wide long on, it had been decided that Dravid would attack while Ganguly would look to bat through. Dravid, though, made the mistake of not allowing for the change of ball. The one taken to replace a badly scruffed original, in the 40th over, was newer and harder, Klusener got a bit more bounce with it, and that extra bounce saw Dravid mistime the pull, and put it high up for the keeper to run around and hold at almost square leg.

India promoted Yuvraj Singh, and the youngster appeared to think he had to belt the cover off the ball from ball one. It almost cost him -- a huge hit aimed in the same over saw the ball go high, Nicky Boje got under it, but then failed to judge properly at midwicket, making a complete mess of what was a simple enough chance.

Ganguly promptly raced down to have an impassioned chat with the youngster, and Yuvraj gradually settled into his role of controlled aggression. With Ganguly, every now and again, dancing down to lift over the top and Yuvraj driving and cutting with a lot of power, the innings kicked back into gear with a third wicket partnership of 78 off just 59 balls. Every bowler tried during this spell disappeared. Donald was the only ace left in the hole, but when brought back for the 48th over, Yuvraj continued to impress with his blithe disregard of reputations, slamming the premier bowler for three fours.

It took a superb catch by Jonty Rhodes to get rid of Yuvraj. Kallis pitched one up, in the 49th, Yuvraj climbed into that one and Jonty Rhodes, epitomising the South African defensiveness at this point by fielding at long off, raced around, flung himself headlong, and snatched the ball off the grass to end a knock of 41 in just 34 balls, that took the heat off Ganguly and allowed the Indian captain to play without coming under pressure.

The final over, though, was an essay in insanity. Off the first ball, Robin played it back down the track, and took off for a single that didn't exist. The bowler, Donald, fielded and threw down the stumps. Next ball, and Kambli, for some reason, went on the back foot in a defensive shot, when the ask was for him to give the strike to his captain. Rapped on the pad, out LBW. And after a couple of singles, Dahiya took a hard crack at Donald's last ball, and found cover, to give the pace bowler 3 wickets in the final over and ensure that India didn't get to the 300 that seemed eminently possible.

Ganguly's innings was outstanding. He got Boje out of the attack taking 22 runs off 8 balls faced, but more importantly, ensured that neither Kallis (43 off 35), nor Telemachus (26 off 21), were allowed to settle down. Three South African bowlers, thus, came under pressure thanks to the Indian captain's efforts, and that was his biggest contribution on the day. Those elegant sixes that flowed off his bat merely being the icing on that particular cake.

South Africa, faced with an ask of almost 6 an over, needed to get off the blocks smoothly. What they got, was a brilliant piece of bowling from Zahir Khan. Zahir tends, generally, to bowl around the 87, 88k mark, but in his second over, out of the blue he produced one at 90.2k, the perfect inswinging yorker (and when last did we see an Indian quick bowl yorkers in the initial overs?), that went right through a surprised Andrew Hall to crash into the middle stump.

Venkatesh Prasad was given the new ball alongside Zahir (from this, and from teh fact that Kumble came in at first change, you have to wonder if the management was teaching Ajit Agarkar a little lesson?), and it was in his bowling that South Africa suffered the second blow. Kallis drove on the up, and Robin Singh at cover had a bad misfield. Yuvraj, fielding at point, showed the value of young legs, running behind Robin, chasing the ball down, stopping it short of the line with a lovely slide, then rifling a return back to the keeper. Kirsten had started off for the third run and then, unaccountably, checked himself before setting off again. The flat, fast throw caught him well out of his ground, and SA had lost one of its main men.

There was to be no respite. Zahir Khan struck again, with the classic delivery from left arm quick to right hand bat. The ball angled across, hit a good length around off drawing Boeta Dippenaar forward, then seamed away a touch, to feather the edge for Dahiya to hold. 28/3, and the Proteas were staring down the barrel of a very high calibre gun by that stage.

That hole only got bigger. Kallis, whose forte is the calm, composed innings, was now under pressure to give the innings momentum. Venkatesh Prasad bowled him a leg cutter on middle stump, Kallis played the line and looked to hit over midwicket, the seam movement found the leading edge, and Ganguly had the easiest of takes at mid off, to reduce SA to 50/4.

Partnerships of 11, 7, 7 and 16 for the first four wickets meant that the Proteas had to play the rest of the innings under a huge handicap. Rhodes and Boucher produced a mini-recovery, with a partnership of 53 runs for the 5th wicket. But the bowling remained tight, the fielding was exemplary, the runs were coming at less than the required run a ball (the 53 in fact came off 84 balls) and thus, with every passing over, the pressure only kept escalating. The biggest problem for South Africa here was that unlike when they bowled, there was no single Indian bowler who they could target for a successful assault. Credit for this goes to Ganguly, who used his bowlers very well on the day, rotating them rapidly, never giving anyone a long enough spell to allow batsmen to settle down, and constantly unsettling the two by switching bowlers and bowling styles on them.

Yuvraj Singh's bowling skills won't exactly set grounds on fire, but there is something, I guess, to be said for confidence. Asked to fill in with a few overs of his gentle left arm regular spin stuff, the youngster produced a rank long hop. Rhodes, needing big hits, went for the fierce pull, but in his eagerness to go for the maximum, hit too hard and too high, and Prasad at deep midwicket had an easy take, to have SA 106/5 in the 23rd over.

At that point, SA needed 190 more -- with just five wickets in hand. All India needed to do was keep things tight, and there was no way they could lose from there. Klusener and Mark Boucher, the latter playing very impressively, produced another solid partnership of 53 (58 balls) but as the overs were counted down, the run rate kept creeping up all the time, and it was almost inevitable that pressure would produce the wickets. Boucher in fact was lucky when, off the last ball of the 32nd, he attempted to run a ball down to third man, found the ball gliding off the edge for Dahiya to hold, only for Umpire Peter Willey to turn the appeal down.

That let off lasted exactly one ball. Ganguly, true to his policy of using all his resources, brought himself on, produced the slower ball first up, Boucher tried to on drive, and Tendulkar at mid on dived headlong to pull off the take millimetres off the deck.

Shaun Pollock came, and went, in a hurry as Kumble, who on the day was the best of the bowlers on view, produced a flipper just outside off. Pollock launched into a drive, missed, and Dahiya, having a great day behind the stumps, took the bails off before the Protean skipper could sneak his toe back behind the line.

Klusener seemed to be biding his time, but before he could set himself to do any damage, Kumble took him out with another lovely delivery. Klusener was looking at home against pace but relatively uneasy to spin, Kumble angled one across, gave it a bit of air to tempt the batsman into a slog (a slip was in place for the edge), Klusener obliged with a huge swish, the floated flipper found the edge and Dahiya, staying low, took it right off the bat.

Nicky Boje, hoping to do amends with the bat, produced a moment or two of humour. Kumble gave him a googly, Boje was playing for the leg break, and managed only to edge to slip. Ganguly put it down. The very next ball, Kumble served up another googly and again, Boje, playing for the other one, saw it go off the tentative bat face, for Ganguly to put yet another one down -- the only blemishes, in fact, in a near perfect fielding display by the Indians).

At the other end, Telemachus was putting his big shoulders to some use, but Venkatesh Prasad produced a blinder to take him out. Tendulkar gave him a shortish leg break, Telemachus launched into a huge pull, and the ball was travelling flat and fast over midwicket when Prasad, fielding just inside the boundary, timed his leap to a nicety and, with hands at full stretch overhead, plucked off a beauty. One ball later, Sachin Tendulkar finished it all off, the hapless Boje this time playing for the off break and getting, instead, one going the other way, pitching off and middle and curling in through the gate to take out the leg stump.

That was it, RSA were 95 short, and India had cruised into the final with its most convincing win yet.

Ganguly, the man of the match, said something that rounded off the day quite nicely. Asked whether he had ever thought, that New Zealand would make the final, Ganguly said, "Actually, in a one day knockout, such things can happen, that is why you should never comment about results before the match."

A gentle poke in the eye, that, for some of his peers who appear to have spent this tournament talking out of turn and having to sit down to a breakfast of words? There was Glenn McGrath with his "we have a plan to take Tendulkar out in the first over". Moin Khan with his "It will be a Pakistan-South Africa final." Pollock with a "We have a plan for Tendulkar and Ganguly." And so on.

Meanwhile, the evening closed to a sound that has been missing for a long, long time -- the flash-bang-crackle of firecrackers, going off as Boje's stump went over. Indians, finally, were celebrating a victory -- and those who have agonised through the last 9, 10 months will probably reckon it has come at just the right instant in time.

Full Scoreboard, with Graphic Analysis

Mail your comments