Forty-five minutes ended India’s dream at ICC World Cup

By Rahul Banerji

Forty-five minutes of bad cricket puts you out of the tournament is how Virat Kohli described India’s fate at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup on Wednesday, but what a sequence of twists and turns there were at Old Trafford before that against New Zealand.

First, a semi-final that stretched over 28 hours and a half. Fortunes that swung like a pendulum gone mad in the course of 100 overs. Brilliant bowling and fielding from both teams and key moments snatched or squandered.

And finally, it was victory for a group of cricketers who refused to follow the pre-match script and soaked up whatever an all-or-nothing encounter could throw at them. With bat and ball.

Breaking hearts

Martin Guptill broke a billion hearts with a single throw. A man for whom nothing has gone right in this ICC World Cup was on the money when the pressure was at its most intense. The Kiwi caught Mahendra Singh Dhoni short by two inches with the match on a knife’s edge. Match over.

Small margins indeed.

In a sense, India had no right to even be that close to winning. Three wickets – the backbone of their batting through this ICC World Cup – gone with just five runs on the board. Six gone for 92 and 148 runs still needed. Close match? Forget it.

Forgetting the script

Yet someone forgot to remind Ravindra Jadeja that it was game over. Or maybe it was the presence of limited-overs cricket’s greatest finisher at the other end that made him forget the precariousness of the scenario.

Through his career, this was only the second time Dhoni failed to finish a match with victory for India, against 47 successful chases. No one around the world comes even close to that figure.

So, the Saurashtra swashbuckler ran like the wind, swung his bat like a sabre and rattled New Zealand’s growing confidence. And with Dhoni master-minding progress from the other end, it looked like game on till Jadeja swung for the fences once too often, and Dhoni was undone by Guptill.

Twenty-eight runs from 10 balls was what India had needed then.

New Zealand thus progress from a record-equalling eighth semi-final into a second consecutive final this Sunday. Before that, hosts and co-favourites England lock horns with defending champions Australia.

I only hope Sunday doesn’t end in a whimper, as the last ICC World Cup final at Lord’s had done, Steve Waugh’s Aussies crushing Pakistan with 179 balls to spare in 1999. Maybe not.

Gursimar, Amandeep share lead at BGC

Gursimar Badwal and Amandeep Drall carded 3-under par 67s to share the lead as the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour opened at the Bangalore Golf Club for the first time in the tenth leg on Wednesday.

They were followed by Ananya Datar who came in 2-under 68.

Last week’s winner Ridhima Dilawari, Sonam Chugh and Neha Tripathi were on 1-over 71s for ied-fourth, while Siddhi Kapoor, Gurjot Badwal, sister of Gursimar and Gaurika Bishnoi shot 72s on a crowded leader-board.

Amandeep sparkled on the front nine with three birdies and added one more birdie after the turn. Her only blemish was the final hole bogey, but for which she would have had the sole lead.

Gursimar three birdies and a bogey to to turn in 2-under. On the back nine, she birdied once and parred the rest.

Ananya Datar also had three birdies in her outward nine and two more on the way back but also had three bogeys for a 68. Like Ananya, Sonam Chugh also had five birdies against a double four bogeys.

Neha Tripathi had an eagle on front nine, but five bogeys on back nine with just two birdies in the round meant she finished with 71. 

Another one with an eagle was Gurjot Badwal, who shot an impressive two-over 72 in her maiden event as a professional.

Tee times for Round 2

Tee 1:

10 am: Gauri Karhade (77), Ishvari Prasanna (77), Suchitra Ramesh (75)

10: 10 am: Jyotsna Singh (75), Afshan Fatima (73), Anousha Tripathi (73);

10:20 am: Gaurika Bishnoi (72), Gurjot Badwal (72), Siddhi Kapoor (72);

10:30 am: Neha Tripathi (71), Ridhima Dilawari (71), Sonam Chugh (71);

10:40 am: Ananya Datar (68), Amandeep Drall (67), Gursimar Badwal (68)

Tee 10:

10 am: Pranavi Urs (A) (78), Khushi Khanijau (78), Tavleen Batra (78);

10: 10 am: Mehar Atwal (78), Anisha Padukone (79), Shreya Vivek (79);

10:20 am: Anisha Agarwalla (79), Rhea P Saravanan (A) (79), Asmitha Sathish (A) (80);

10:30 am: Smriti Mehra (80), Oviya Reddi (80), Tanirika Singh (81)

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