Sehwag hits ton as India rout New Zealand
India beat New Zealand rather comprehensively in the sixth and the final league game of the Micromax Cup tri-series at Dambulla. This win takes them to the final of the tournament, where they will play Sri Lanka. The final will be played on Saturday, August 28th.
Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s luck with the toss has been abysmal on this tour, but he called it right this time and selected to bat first. India had made two changes to their playing eleven, by getting in Virat Kohli in place of the out of form Rohit Sharma, and adding an extra seam bowler – Munaf Patel – instead of spinner, Pragyan Ojha.
Batting first, it looked like there were two different pitches on display in the middle. One was the pitch on which Virender Sehwag was batting – or flowing – and the other on which the rest of the Indian batsmen struggled to find their rhythm.
Dinesh Karthik was the first man to be dismissed, and his poor run in the tournament continued, as he edged his third ball from Kyle Mills to the wicket-keeper, Gareth Hopkins. Karthik failed to open his account. India’s travails did not end here, as the Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, all fell before they could get to ten.
At the other end, Sehwag was in murderous form and the manner in which he was batting, it looked like he was going to make the Kiwi bowlers pay for anything loose. Such was the audacity of his batting, that by time the fourth Indian wicket fell, the score was 66, and the four batsmen who had got out had scored only 15 out of those runs.
It was captain Dhoni who finally supported Sehwag in his endeavour and the pair had a century run stand for the fifth wicket. Again, Sehwag was the major contributor, while Dhoni scored only 31 of those runs.
Sehwag’s dominance can be gauged from the fact that once he departed to a needless stroke of the bowling of Nathan McCullum, India lost their last five wickets for 50 runs to be bowled out for 223.
Chasing 224 for a win, the Kiwis were never in the game, as they lost too many wickets upfront. Praveen Kumar made the ball to swing around both ways, and the inexperienced New Zealand batting fell apart. None of the top eight batsmen could surpass an individual score of 13, and by the time Kyle Mills scored a half-century, the match was well and truly gone.
New Zealand were bowled out for 118, and the Indians romped home to a final against Sri Lanka. Sehwag was the obvious choice for the man of the match.