Thursday 10 March 2011

Back to the pavilion

Well after the game between Pakistan and New Zealand got over a couple of days back, things have returned back to what they were with India beating Netherlands yesterday by 5 wickets. Though India have had to face the music in matches against England and with matches against South Africa and West Indies yet to happen, all that is left for we viewers is to wait and watch for these encounters. On the other hand, the match between Sri Lanka and Australia was washed off and South Africa spoiled all viewers' hopes against England when they failed to chase 172.

In that match against Holland, India lost 5 wickets which was not at all necessary keeping in mind the opposition they were facing. Holland are yet to win a game in this world cup and their dream can only be hoped to relish against Ireland at the fag end of the pool matches. On the other side of the tournament, even Kenya are yet to win a game with Canada already having opening their account and their hopes lie in that game against Zimbabwe. Anyways, those games are just for the sake of time pass with big games lined up in succession.

Something that the Holland team can realize is that five of their batsmen came up with decent scores with them crossing the 20 run mark. That can be the only achievement for a team like Holland who have not won a single match in the 1996 world cup-the time when they started playing cricket at the international level. Coincidentally, even Kenya started their world cup campaign in the same year 1996 and have been featuring themselves since then in all world cups. However, Holland missed out in the 1999 edition. But, that can hardly draw anybody's attention no matter what.

India could make this match theirs by having in Piyush Chawla who could not have entered the world cup at any other time. He was not a part of the game against Bangladesh and got belted against Ireland for 7 runs an over compared to the overall run-rate of 4 an over. A part time bowler in Yuvraj Singh happened to be the most successful bowler with a half century and 5 wickets to his credit. But keeping in mind Yuvraj's experience and Piyush's area of expertise, both stand at the same level. At the end, the match was just a walk over for Indians who registered another win.

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