Peterson stuns India in thrilling finish

Nagpur: In one of the show-pieces matches of the 2011 World Cup, South Africa beat India by three wickets in a thrilling last-over finish at the Jamtha Stadium. Robin Peterson was SA's hero, taking a four and a six off the first two balls of the final over from Ashish Nehra, scoring the 13 they needed from the last over.

Sachin Tendulkar's brisk 110 and his two big century stands with Virender Sehwag (73) and Gautam Gambhir (69) took India to 267-1 before an astonishing collapse led by Dale Steyn's 5-50 saw India fold for 296 when they looked good for 350-plus for much of the innings.

South Africa seemed forever behind the required rate but were placed well to chase it down with fifties from Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers. But AB fell to Harbhajan in the final over of the batting Powerplay, allowing India the slightest advantage in the see-sawing game.

Zaheer Khan (with a first spell of 7 overs 1-17) managed to keep SA to four runs in the penultimate over, leaving them 13 to get. Nehra then conceded four, six, two and four in four balls to settle the matters. MS Dhoni always goes to fast bowlers in last-over finishes but he paid with the match for his choice today.

AWE-INSPIRING BATTING

It seemed like Centurion 2003 all over again. Sehwag and Tendulkar gave India's fans the ingredient missing from their lack-lustre World Cup campaign: the intent of hammering the opposition into pulp.

For the fifth straight time, Sehwag hit the first ball of the match for four, lofting Steyn over mid-on. In the next over, Morne van Wyk did a Kamran, not going to his right for a standard caught-behind off Sehwag. A life earned, India made South Africa bleed.

It seemed Tendulkar's 22-year-old self was batting today as he went after the bowling with awe-inspiring regularity. Pace or spin, front-foot or back, in the air or along the ground, he was in the mood to dominate as he completed a fifty off 33 balls.

An overthrow for four got his innings going. Then came a full-blooded punch to Morne Morkel down the ground and a drive through the covers on the up. When Steyn returned for a new spell, a bouncer was hooked into the gutters behind fine-leg.

Such was the Indian assault, Graeme Smith had used seven bowlers by the 18th over. At the other end, Sehwag took five fours off Morkel. Kallis couldn't stop the bleeding either so Smith had to call Robin Peterson and JP Duminy to bowl spin in the Powerplay. That ploy flopped too.

Sehwag made room to crash them through the off-side. The tense left-arm spinner responded by bowling a couple of wides down the leg. When Duminy switched to around the wicket, Tendulkar walked down to hit a towering six wide of long-on.

After 15 overs into the innings, India were sitting pretty at 128-0. Five years ago on this very day, Australia had taken 434 runs off South Africa in the famous game at Johannesburg. It seemed a similar score would be achieved today. And then started India's slide.

THE MELTDOWN

Tendulkar roared into the 80s and then took a rickshaw to the hundred. This was the period when India allowed South Africa back in the game. After Sehwag played on, India were at a robust 155-1 in 20. After 30, they had reached just 197-1. Landmarks were eventually reached but at the cost of the momentum.

Johan Botha's spell brought about a slowdown. Tendulkar played out 13 dots to the spinner while Gambhir played 14. While Indian batsmen are infinitely skilled at scoring boundaries, it is turning the strike that has been a problem for them in this tournament.

In the game against England, India played a monstrous 146 dot balls. Today, they played 141. What broke India's back was the batting Powerplay. India scored just 30 runs and lost four wickets.

Still, 300 was possible had they batted sensibly. The problem was that India had their sights on 350 and were trying to hit everything out of the ground. Hence deliveries that could have fetched easy singles were being hit firmly to fielders in the ring.

The boundaries at the Jamta Stadium are large ones and twos can be scored easily as South Africa showed late in the game when they managed double-digit overs without taking risks. This fact was lost on India.

Then, the tail-enders decided to go over the top and more wickets fell in a heap. Dhoni was stranded on 12 and India had lost nine wickets in a span of 29 runs. But the blame would be put on India's bowlers. All will be forgotten and forgiven.

An aside: Tendulkar's 100th hundred would be a mind-boggling feat, perhaps comparable to Pele's 1000th goal. But for the team's sake, let's hope it doesn't arrive in one of the knock-out matches.

Yuvraj injured ahead of England clash

Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh injured his hand during nets on Thursday, raising concerns about his fitness for their World Cup Group B match against England on Sunday.


Yuvraj picked up a minor injury on his hand after being hit by a delivery from bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, a Reuters cameraman said.

The explosive middle-order batsman was seen applying ice to the injury before he aborted the training session to seek medical attention.

“It was a minor niggle and he should be fit to play on Sunday,” an Indian spokesman said.

Yuvraj is the latest Indian player to suffer injury woes as openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag picked up knee problems at the weekend.

Sehwag, who skipped practice for the last two days, was back at the nets on Thursday and showed off his batting skills at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

A billion dreams are resting on the Indian team’s shoulders as they seek to become the second Indian team, after 1983’s ’Kapil’s Devils’, to bag the 50-over World Cup.

Bryan Adams a sideshow as Bangladesh goes wild for the World Cup

Triumphant scenes took place in Dhaka on Thursday with tens of thousands of people lining the streets to celebrate the opening of the World Cup.

Crowds flocked to the Bangabandhu Stadium, hoping the success of smoothly pulling off Bangladesh's biggest international event would extend to the opening match on Saturday, in which the host nation face India.

"We have done brilliantly," said housewife Sharmin Sultana. "For our country to be able to do something like this – now I hope we make it to the finals. We have got Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal. I think we could do really well. Who knows, one day we might even get the football World Cup too."

While hopes of staging the football World Cup may be more elusive, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, has said she hopes the tournament – on which the country has spent more than £62m – will allow Bangladesh to project a newer and better vision of itself to the world.

Even the opposition, the Bangladesh National Party, in the midst of a campaign of calling for strikes to protest against the ruling Awami League, has called a temporary truce between the warring factions, promising no political unrest for the duration of the tournament.

Chris Austin, the UK's country representative of the Department for International Development, added to the excitement after describing the tournament as Bangladesh's Olympics, with high hopes of the Tigers making it to the final stages.

It was a view shared by most revellers in the capital, many of whom felt the acts featured in the opening ceremony were less important than staging the show itself. Children danced in the colours of the national flags and singers from the three host nations, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, performed in all three languages, with a laser light show beamed across the audience of 40,000.

None of the acts were more irrelevant than the headline act, the Canadian rocker Bryan Adams.

Student Shawon Ali, 17, who had queued for three days to get his ticket, said: "This is fantastic for Bangladesh – if we can do this, Bangladesh will rise up as a nation. The world will understand we are not just about poverty. They will see we also have culture. I had to come because otherwise I would never get to see something like this.

"Oh, and I want to see Adams. I heard he's the big singer from Canada."

Despite the heavy police presence, parties which had begun the night before continued into the late hours following a climactic fireworks display which drew huge roars from the crowds.

Teenage boys sporting bottle-green jerseys worn by the national cricket team danced with housewives and grandparents with "I love Bangladesh" painted on their cheeks.

Police officers surveyed the scene from the minarets of mosques, while the country's self-styled "elite" crime fighting force, the Rapid Action Battalion, dressed in their trademark black uniforms with black bandanas and wraparound sunglasses, kept cheering fans away from the convoys of coaches bringing players into the stadium.

Fans were disappointed after the promise of giant TV screens turned out to be little more than four-by-five-feet displays which fluttered in the winds and were subject to technical sound hitches. But aside from minor scuffles as hundreds pushed further and further forward to try to see what was going on, police kept things under control.

As Bangladesh prepares to celebrate 40 years since winning independence next month, the country hopes the tournament will mark a turning point in its fortunes – even for those who were largely unimpressed by the ceremony.

"I think this one was weaker than when we hosted the South Asian Football Federation," said photographer Sayedur Rahman Swapan, 48.

"The displays were not as good, apart from the laser show and the bungee cricket players coming down on ropes. But the thing is that we managed to do it and we have never seen an event as big as this in Bangladesh.

"The enjoyment and excitement among people is amazing, because an international event is being held here, and we have shown that we are ready for it. It is great for our confidence and it will be great for our cricket."

England must be on the money as subcontinent gears up for Cricket World Cup party with all the trimmings

 England’s cricketers stepped groggily off the plane at Heathrow yesterday. What to do with their three precious days back home before they fly off to Dhaka? A spot of golf? Some hoovering with the baby on their hip? Anything but reflect on World Cup campaigns past.

England’s history in the competition is, umm, chequered. It is not that they haven’t tried: they’ve roped in nice, round, jolly, fellows like Ian Austin – if only Samit Patel had been born 10 years earlier; tall thin grumpy chaps, one-day specialists, and Test-match-to-the-core men. There have been happy coaches, sports-jacketed managers and track-suited team directors.

Discipline has been lax, firm or non-existent. They’ve fallen off pedalos in the Caribbean, thrown up on the field in Peshawar and refused to play in Harare on moral grounds.

None of which has made much difference: despite hosting the competition three times, they’ve never won. Another game invented and lost, and a lack of success in the commercially important one-day game has cost power and influence.

That power and influence flew eastwards of course, to India.

It was in 1996 during the last World Cup to be held in Asia, that this new reality dawned. England had expected to host it, but arrived in India to face New Zealand in dusty Ahmedabad, only to discover that the game was passing them by. Cricket had become big, bold, brash, and full of incident — good and bad.