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India moved up to 2^nd spot in Group B with a comprehensive 80 run win over the West Indies as the group stages of the ICC Cricket World Cup came to a close. Yuvraj Singh starred with both bat and ball to win his 3^rd Man of the Match award of the tournament even as Ravi Rampaul had a memorable day personally with a career best 5 wicket haul. India posted a comeptitive 268 runs courtesy of Yuvraj Singh's maiden World Cup ton, but an all too familiar batting collapse that saw them lose 7 wickets for 50 runs. West Indies in their repost managed only 188 also imploding like India, dropping their last 8 wickets for just 34 runs! With the win, India have the daunting prospect of facing Australia in the quarterfinals, while West Indies stay 4^th and face the mercurial Pakistanis. The winners of those two ties will meet in the semi-finals later this month.

Despite the fact that the quarter-final draws rested on the outcome of the match, the two teams opted to test their bench ahead of the knockout games. After much furore in the Indian media and public regarding the continued omission of offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the local lad finally made the side at the expense of Ashish Nehra. Virender Sehwag’s allergic reaction to a painkiller meant Suresh Raina too got an outing. For the West Indians, the dangerous pair of Chris Gayle and Kemar Roach was deemed unfit and Kirk Edwards was handed his debut alongside a first game of the World Cup for Ravi Rampaul. Inexplicably, veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul was still denied a spot in the side, even after having collapsed against England where a cool head like Chanderpaul’s could have made the difference.

The spinning Chepauk wicket prompted MS Dhoni to make the obvious choice of batting first, and it was Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir who walked out to open the innings in the absence of Sehwag. Ravi Rampaul started off with a very high bouncer that was impossible for the keeper to reach, and, despite the fact that it wasn’t Sehwag at the crease, India’s record of sending the very first ball of the innings at this World Cup stayed intact. The joy for the Indian fans, though, was short-lived as an absolute jaffa of a delivery from Rampaul reared up out of nowhere to catch Tendulkar’s glove or handle on its way to the keeper. And in this era of professionalism, in this day and age of the DRS, despite the fact that the umpire’s finger had stayed down, the Little Master, in a most heart-warming gesture embodying the spirit of cricket, simply turned around and walked.

Virat Kohli, after a number of failures lower down the order, walked in at his preferred one-drop position. After a brief spell of rebuilding, Rampaul struck once more as Gambhir slashed hard into the hands of third man for 22, leaving India 51/2. Next man in Yuvraj Singh was lucky to benefit from a couple of reprieves early on in his innings as Darren Sammy failed to latch on to two very tough chances. The first was a full-length dive at gully when the ball popped out while the next was a caught-and-bowled chance off a leading edge that Sammy did well to even get a hand to.

With two of India’s most flamboyant batsmen out in the middle, India’s rescue act from the early wickets was not only most effective, but most elegantly so. The stylish lefthand-righthand combine put on a show that was very, very pleasing to the eye. Big strides forward, sweetly timed cover drives, whippy, wristy flicks all came in full measure, and from both ends of the pitch. Devendra Bishoo, the surprise package of the West Indies’ previous game against England, was brought on, but the Indian batsmen continued on their merry way. Yuvraj was particularly impressive with the sweep as well, playing it to perfection on a number of occasions to excellent results.

Yuvraj accelerated as the pair neared their fifties, and Kohli was happy to play second fiddle to the southpaw. This, more than anything else, emphasizes his value to the side as a long-term prospect for the No.3 slot. His fluent, pretty knock was cut short at 59 by the reintroduction of the impressive Rampaul, bowled by some inswing, while attempting a disappointing slog across the line. The third wicket partnership had been worth 122 and had come from 24 overs as India had built an excellent platform for themselves.

Skipper Dhoni joined Yuvraj and continued to rotate the strike as the latter approached his maiden World Cup hundred. He got there in the 41^st over, and the ideal platform was set for the batsmen to pile on the runs in a frenzied late charge. Dhoni (22), though, was snapped up by Bishoo in the classic legspinner’s dismissal that beat the batsman in the flight, then turned and bounced through to Devon Thomas behind the stumps who whipped off the bails in a flash.

At this stage, both Thomas and Yuvraj went down with what looked like minor injuries; Thomas bruising his thumb standing up to the medium pace of Pollard, while Yuvraj simply seemed to lose steam in the sapping Chennai heat. Immediately after, he pulled Sammy off the front foot into the stands for his second six of the game. Raina failed to impress in his first opportunity at the World Cup, lapping Sammy to short fine. Yuvraj lobbed straight back to Pollard in the next over to end a magnificent innings of 113, and memories of the recent collapses against England and South Africa loomed large in the minds of one and all.

Indeed India did suffer another collapse, and the regularity of these batting failures is alarming. Ravi Rampaul was getting reverse swing and he swung the perfect yorker to beat Yusuf Pathan’s blade and shatter the stumps. Harbhajan then holed out to Pollard running in from long-on and diving brilliantly in front, but crucially Pollard seemed to dislocate a finger in doing so. Zaheer Khan was cleaned up by Rampaul to complete a fabulous 5-wicket haul, and Munaf Patel lasted 2 balls to end India’s innings inside the 50 overs at just 268, easily 50 odd runs shy of what they should have made considering the platform.

At the top of the West Indian innings, the spotlight was on two youngsters; Kirk Edwards, on international debut, filling into the massive shoes of Chris Gayle, and Ravichandran Ashwin, under massive pressure from the demanding Indian fans, bowling, as in the IPL for the Chennai Super Kings, with the new ball. Both started off very steadily as the Windies eased into the chase. In as early as the 5^th over, it was spin at both ends as Bhajji replaced Zaheer, and was promptly lofted downtown by Edwards. Interestingly, in the previous Zaheer over, Edwards survived when he very clearly should have been ruled run out as a direct hit from Kohli was not referred to the third umpire and the Indians did not use the DRS. However, he could not make use of the chance as Ashwin got the carrom ball to go the other way and the original not out decision of umpire Steve Davis was overruled by the plumb replays that came into play via the review.

Darren Bravo walked in, and in his brief essay, batted with all the flair and panache of his Caribbean idol Brian Lara. He lofted Ashwin effortlessly over long-off for maximum before a most daft pull shot to a half tracker from Raina went down long-on’s throat.

Meanwhile, Devon Smith was batting with complete assurance, and was nearing his half-century. Ramnaresh Sarwan joined him and the duo batted with the sensibility that has been so often lacking in the West Indian sides of recent times. Dhoni was rotating his four spinners Harbhajan, Raina, Yusuf and Yuvraj in a bid to arrest the Windies’ momentum, but the duo were at ease in nudging the ball around and putting bad balls away. Smith continued to play the aggressor even as Sarwan supported him with all the maturity his decade or so at the international level has given him. Smith was not afraid to come down the track to the spinners and smashed Yuvraj over long-on for his first six. Munaf Patel was eventually handed the ball and though he kept things tidy, nothing seemed to faze the batsmen.

Even as the partnership continued to blossom and the match started to slip away from the uninspired Indians, as is often the case, it fell to Zaheer Khan to revitalize the side and bring the belief back once more. His slower one was missed by Smith who fell for a well-compiled 81.

The volatile Kieron Pollard did not last long, hitting Harbhajan down long-on’s throat, and India were once more the firm favourites. Yuvraj, in his second spell, beat Thomas for a stumping and had Andre Russell caught at point to add to his ton with the bat. In between, Darren Sammy was run out thanks to a miscommunication with Sarwan.

In desperation, Sarwan took the Batting PowerPlay, but the writing, by then, was pretty much already on the wall. Zaheer added a couple to make it 3 for the day and Ashwin polished off the chase with the wicket of last man Ravi Rampaul.

The Man-of-the-Match was a no-brainer really, for there was no one but Yuvraj deserving the prize, his 3^rd in 6 games in the tournament, and the 3^rd in the 4 Indian wins, underlining his massive contribution and absolute vitality to the Indian campaign.

So once more, both innings featured batting collapses after strong starts, and it’s become something of a formality now at this World Cup. India once more failed to bat out the 50 overs, and all sides, in general, must guard against these inexplicable failures.

Interestingly, India have beaten their first top 8 opponent in a World Cup since their win over New Zealand in the Super Sixes of the 2003 edition. Their semifinal that year was against Kenya and the final was lost to Australia, followed by a lone win against Bermuda in 2007. This time, their wins had come against Bangladesh, Netherlands and Ireland so a win against the West Indies should relieve them no end.

With that, the month-long group stage comes to a close, and, despite the presence of the minnows and the long gaps between matches, they have proved to be far more exciting than was earlier envisaged. A blockbuster of a quarterfinal awaits on Thursday the 24^th, as India take on the once-mighty Australians. It is a match-up worthy of a final, but India’s 2^nd and the Aussies’ 3^rd finish puts them on a collision course as soon as in the top 8. West Indies have on the 23^rd an arguably easier prospect against Pakistan, on paper at least, despite the loss today. New Zealand-South Africa on the 25^th and Sri Lanka-England on the 26^th complete the quarter-final lineups.

Teams:

India: Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

West Indies: Devon Smith, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kieron Pollard, Devon Thomas, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Devendra Bishoo, Sulieman Benn, Ravi Rampaul.

Mini Scorecard:

India 268 all out (49.1 overs, 5.45rpo)
Yuvraj Singh 113 (123) Ravi Rampaul 5-51
Virat Kohli 59 (76) Andre Russell 2-46
Gautam Gambhir 22 (26) Darren Sammy 1-35

West Indies: 188 all out (43 overs, 4.37 rpo)

Devon Smith 81 (97) Zaheer Khan 3-26
Ramnaresh Sarwan 39 (68) Yuvraj Singh 2-18
Darren Bravo 22 (29) Ravichandran Ashwin 2-41

File Photograph Copyright: ICC World T20

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