The first match was Ind vs WI at new delhi on a hard pitch with cloudy conditions. Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat despite cloudy conditions. Tendulkar and Sehwag started with a bang and Collymore was walloped for 15 runs of his first. Dillon was punished for another 12 runs of his first and the west indies were placed on the defensive from the second over itself. The windies had a disastrous game with several misfields in the deep eventually ending up in boundaries . Sachin was in amazing form as he unleashed his trademark cover drives and straight drive and on drives. There was no slogging at all as he seemed to find his footwork immediately.Sehwag however slashed at a few but managed to put a few bad balls away. India reached their 100 of just 10 overs in a truly unbelievable start when sehwag threw his wicket away with an atrocious piece of running. Ganguly hung around for a few balls , but was bowled by a straight delivery by collymore , playing across the line. In came Laxman who scored a quick 15 but was caught by gayle at point slashing at short delivery. Dravid seemed to be in fine nick and actually hit a huge six over point but again gave an easy catch to gayle of the bowling of hurley. The spinners managed to slow the scoring rate down - which was still around 8 and over and manged to take the wickets of the dangerous yuvraj and kaif, both getting bowled playing across the line. Sachin on the other end was in sublime form , playing shots all over the ground . Anything full on middle and leg was dispatched to the square leg boundary. Anything short of length on the leg side was played very late and ended up with 4. Good length balls were sent straight down the ground.The hapless windies were thrown off track and ended up bowling far too many wides.Almost 50 were conceded in wides. At this point the Indian tail triggered off one of the most dramatic collapses. Singh and Karthik were both run out by sarwan , both of misfields when they attempted a second run. Sachin tendulkar who had stroked 30 fours till then decided to slow down , but the procession of partners at the other end seemed to distract him , as they kept him off strike and finally was bowled by beauty from Samuels. India then closed of their dramatic innings at 264 of just 37 overs squandering an unbelievable start. With 5 runs outs in one match the team must rectify this if they are to have a chance at winning this cup.
The windies will start after the lunch break , but must be thankful that the total , which once looked like it would cross 350 , is imminently achievable.[
The windies will start after the lunch break , but must be thankful that the total , which once looked like it would cross 350 , is imminently achievable.[
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