England sneaked in with a win against the West Indies in another match that saw the latest possible hour of the night. The West Indies collapsed and were as indisciplined as they have been over the last two decades. Yet, in their favour, were a few moments of brilliance like Gayle's quickfire 43 off just 21. Albeit, England have finally qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time after 1992.
The next day was dedicated to creating history or rather stopping a 12 year-long continuous creation of history. Australia finally lost a world cup match after an unimaginably stunning 34-match long unbeaten run that spanned 12 years and four world cups. As fate had it, at both the ends of the dream-run Australia were to find Pakistan. Pakistan played competitive cricket, especially while bowling. Umar Gul was absolutely brilliant and looked to be one of the very few sane Pakistani cricketers, and was well supported by the tight left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman. The part-timers bowled neat and tidy and Pakistan bowled Australia out for 176. Australia were bowled out in a world cup match for the first time after 1992. Defending 176 was always going to be difficult but never impossible, not one bit considering the team that was defending it. Australia fought hard as expected. Brett Lee put up a fascinating display of fast bowling as he picked up 4 for 25 in 8 overs but Pakistan managed to cross the line with 4 wickets in hand and beat Australia who felt that they should have scored more runs.
India played the West Indies today in the last league match of the tournament. India won the toss and chose to bat in Chennai. Tendulkar got out in the first over for 2 runs off 4 deliveries which gave the West Indies some hopes. Yuvraj Singh, who shared a fine partnership with Virat Kohli, was the star of the day as he scored a fantastic hundred. Ravi Rampaul bowled really well and the last few overs were once again not sweet for India although there was a slight improvement compared to the grand collapse against South Africa. India scored 268 which looked pretty good. R.Ashwin, the much talked-about off-spinner played his first match of the tournament and also bowled the first over. At one point the West Indies looked well on their way as Devon Smith was batting rather well. Zaheer Khan sneaked in with a beauty to get rid of Smith and since then started a typical West Indian collapse as nobody from number 5 to 11 seemed to be either capable or willing to play a defensive stroke. Zaheer was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up 3 for 26 in his 6 overs. Ashwin bowled his full quota for 41 runs picking 2 wickets. West Indies ended at 188 and the scoreboard confirmed what later turned out to be an easy Indian win by 80 runs.
Today, was the last day of the league stage which provided us immense entertainment and some top-class thrilling cricket. Let us now get geared up for the quarter-finals that start on the 23rd of March, and mature to the next level of excitement.
The next day was dedicated to creating history or rather stopping a 12 year-long continuous creation of history. Australia finally lost a world cup match after an unimaginably stunning 34-match long unbeaten run that spanned 12 years and four world cups. As fate had it, at both the ends of the dream-run Australia were to find Pakistan. Pakistan played competitive cricket, especially while bowling. Umar Gul was absolutely brilliant and looked to be one of the very few sane Pakistani cricketers, and was well supported by the tight left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman. The part-timers bowled neat and tidy and Pakistan bowled Australia out for 176. Australia were bowled out in a world cup match for the first time after 1992. Defending 176 was always going to be difficult but never impossible, not one bit considering the team that was defending it. Australia fought hard as expected. Brett Lee put up a fascinating display of fast bowling as he picked up 4 for 25 in 8 overs but Pakistan managed to cross the line with 4 wickets in hand and beat Australia who felt that they should have scored more runs.
India played the West Indies today in the last league match of the tournament. India won the toss and chose to bat in Chennai. Tendulkar got out in the first over for 2 runs off 4 deliveries which gave the West Indies some hopes. Yuvraj Singh, who shared a fine partnership with Virat Kohli, was the star of the day as he scored a fantastic hundred. Ravi Rampaul bowled really well and the last few overs were once again not sweet for India although there was a slight improvement compared to the grand collapse against South Africa. India scored 268 which looked pretty good. R.Ashwin, the much talked-about off-spinner played his first match of the tournament and also bowled the first over. At one point the West Indies looked well on their way as Devon Smith was batting rather well. Zaheer Khan sneaked in with a beauty to get rid of Smith and since then started a typical West Indian collapse as nobody from number 5 to 11 seemed to be either capable or willing to play a defensive stroke. Zaheer was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up 3 for 26 in his 6 overs. Ashwin bowled his full quota for 41 runs picking 2 wickets. West Indies ended at 188 and the scoreboard confirmed what later turned out to be an easy Indian win by 80 runs.
Today, was the last day of the league stage which provided us immense entertainment and some top-class thrilling cricket. Let us now get geared up for the quarter-finals that start on the 23rd of March, and mature to the next level of excitement.
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