M A I N   N E W S

Kumble, Srinath fashion India’s win

India’s Javagal Srinath celebrates after taking the wicket of Jan Feiko Kloppenburg of Holland during a cricket World Cup match between India and Holland in Paarl, South Africa, on Wednesday. — Reuters photos

Paarl, February 12
India opened their World Cup campaign on a not-so-impressive note marked by a collapse of its much-touted batting line-up but the bowlers pitched in to pull off a 68-run victory over minnows Holland in a low-scoring pool-A match here today.

India suffered the ignominy of being bowled out inside their quota of overs, mustering just 204 runs, but even that proved to be too much for the inexperienced Holland who folded up for 136 but frustrated the Indians by a spirited late resistance.

Spinner Anil Kumble and speedster Javagal Srinath inflicted the maximum damage, claiming four wickets each respectively, as only opener Daan van Bunge came up with a decent score making a resolute 62.

However, India were left with some serious questions to ponder on ahead of their big game against defending champions Australia on Saturday. With the honourable exception of Sachin Tendulkar, who was the top-scorer in Indian innings with 52, none of the Indian batsmen could really assert themselves against a mediocre bowling line-up of Holland after skipper Saurav Ganguly had elected to bat first.

Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia came up with useful scores of 37 and 42, respectively, but even they were put under pressure and made to work hard for every run. The rest of the batsmen put up a disappointing performance as they failed to find their bearings even on the big stage after their forgettable show in New Zealand.

Tendulkar and Javagal Srinath, who returned with figures of four for 30, achieved personal milestones in this match. Tendulkar became the highest run-scorer in World Cups when he moved from 24 to 28 with a boundary, overtaking Pakistan’s Javed Miandad who had 1083 runs from 33 matches. Tendulkar now has 1111 runs from 23 games.

Srinath became only the fifth bowler and second Indian in one-day history to claim 300 or more wickets when he dismissed J. Kloppenburg with the fourth ball of the innings. Srinath joins team-mate Kumble, Pakistanis Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in the exclusive club.

Tendulkar’s wish of coming back to the top of the order was granted today as Ganguly and he walked out to open the innings after a long time. But unlike the usual flying start that India is so used to, the pair began very cautiously, conscious of the need for both the out-of-form batsmen to settle down before hitting out.

Tendulkar probably justified his promotion with his knock even though it was not as fluent as he would have liked it to be. But Ganguly’s form continued to desert him as he edged a Roland Lefebvre delivery to the wicketkeeper after making a scratchy eight runs.

Rahul Dravid was clean bowled between his bat and pads for the umpteenth time this season while Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Kaif hit juicy full-tosses straight to the fielders as India slipped to 114 for five in the 32nd over.

Tendulkar, who struck seven fours in his 72-ball knock, was out as the third wicket at the total of 81 when a Tim de Leede delivery rose sharply to hit his gloves before going to the wicketkeeper.

It was left to Yuvraj and Mongia to pull out a rescue act and the duo did reasonably well, putting on 55 runs for the sixth wicket in the highest partnership of the innings. But it was not smooth sailing for the two as Holland bowlers maintained a disciplined line and length and were aided by outstanding performance by their fielders.

Scoreboard

India:

Ganguly c Smits b Lefebvre 8

Tendulkar c Smits b De leede 52

Sehwag c Zuiderent b Kloppenburg 6

Dravid b De Leede 17

Yuvraj Singh c and b Raja 37

Kaif c Lefebvre b Raja 9

Mongia run out 42

Harbhajan Singh b De Leede 13

Kumble run out 9

Zaheer Khan not out 0

Srinath lbw b De Leede 0

Extras: (lb-2, nb-1, w-8) 11

Total: (all out, 48.5 overs) 204

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-56, 3-81, 4-91, 5-114, 6-169, 7-186, 8-203, 9-204.

Bowling: Schiferli 10-2-49-0, Lefebvre 9-1-27-1, De Leede 9.5-0-35-4, Kloppenburg 10-0-40-1, Raja 9-0-47-2, Troost 1-0-4-0.

Holland:

Kloppenburg c Sehwag b Srinath 0

Van Bunge b Srinath 62

Mol c Dravid b Srinath 2

Zuiderent c Sehwag b Zaheer 0

De Leede c Dravid b Harbhajan 0

Van Troost c Dravid b Kumble 1

Scholte lbw b Kumble 1

Lefebvre lbw b Kumble 3

Schiferli c Mongia b Kumble 13

Smits c Sehwag b Srinath 26

Adeel Raja not out 0

Extras: (b-2, lb-6, w-18, nb-2) 28

Total: (all out, 48.1 overs) 136

FoW: 1-0, 2-29, 3-31, 4-38, 5-42, 6-44, 7-54, 8-82, 9-131.

Bowling: Srinath 9.1-1-30-4, Zaheer Khan 8-1-17-1, Harbhajan Singh 10-1-20-1, Kumble 10-1-32-4, Ganguly 4-0-14-0, Tendulkar 4-0-9-0, Sehwag 3-0-6-0. PTI