India vs South Africa, Group B VCA Nagpur

It is said that the game is worth the watch if the result is decided at the last moment.

True to the saying this match was undoubtedly worth the watch.

The Indians having given a brilliant start by Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambir didn’t quite finish there innings well. To be precise it was a shoddy play of the game towards the end. India lost 9 wickets in quick succession after Sachin’s exit with a span of 9 overs scoring just 29 runs. What could have been a run feast turned out to be a display of choking towards the end.

The power play 3 which has constantly been a jinx to India in the previous games continued its reign as Indians were wiped All-out in the 49^th over.

I should not forget to mention the great jinx that Sachin’s 100 in the first innings has!- we have ended up losing the game several times.

The Indian pace attack which was supposed to be a mediocre one against the Proteas turned out to be a decent one keeping the required rate high till the death overs.What went wrong against us was that we were unable to take wickets at regular intervals which would have troubled South Africans otherwise.

Dhoni and Co somehow managed to give a comeback post Powerplay 3 by winding some quick wickets and pushed the result to the last over.

Dhoni did a gamble by bringing in Nehra, who had 2 overs to bowl and had mediocre initial spells without any wickets and an economy of 6. Dhoni could have asked Harbhajan to finish it instead who had bowled his previous over very well giving away as few as 5 runs.

Nehra’s lack of experience in the highest level of the game should up and was hit for 10 runs in the first two balls which were pretty ordinary by the 9^th man who is a spinner.

That ended India’s final stand to defeat the Proteas.

What could be commended here is the way Indian’s defended the target by improving their fielding substantially and pulling the game back towards the end.

As the saying goes ‘All is well that ends well’ same goes for the South Africans who did well in their bowling in the first innings and they were rightly the overall winners.