da bet7： Sharjah, March 27: India came here with the reputation of being thefavourites
da bet7k： Viren Varma28-Mar-2000Sharjah, March 27: India came here with the reputation of being thefavourites. But they did nothing special to justify all the hype. Theynow face the prospects of returning home early. Only an extraordinarytwist to the Sharjah Cup script can delay their flight.On Monday, India were bowled out for 164 – exactly the same score theyhad made in the opening match against the Proteas – but the onlydifference being they didn’t lose by 10 wickets. This time the marginwas a bit better – six wickets with 7.2 overs to spare.South Africa with three clean victories from as many matches have madeit to the final with ease and they take on Pakistan in the last matchof the double-league preliminaries on Tuesday. Even if Pakistan lose,they might still qualify for the triangular series final since theyhave a much better run-rate.The only way India can date South Africa in the final if Pakistan losethe match by more than 100 runs if they bat second. If South Africabat second than they have to achieve the target before 35 overs torelegate Pakistan to the third place.”Only a miracle can save India,” as skipper Saurav Ganguly said afterthe match.On Monday, defending such a small score and that too against a teamwho are on a roll here, India did sparkle for a while when VenkateshPrasad removed Herschelle Gibbs and Lance Klusener off successiveballs in the eighth over.And when dangerman Gary Kirsten (31 off 44 balls) holed out to skipperSaurav Ganguly at slips off Anil Kumble and Neil McKenzie fell toNikhil Chopra, India looked like fighting back into the game. ButSouth Africa, four down for 50 in the 26th over, applied themselves tothe task at hand with maturity to frustrate the Indian camp.Leading the charge was Kallis and skipper Hansie Cronje himself. Thetwo prospered in a match-winning stand of 71 runs to steer their teamhome in 42.4 overs. Kallis remained not out on 53 off 93 balls withtwo fours and two sixes while Cronje, who smashed the winning four offRobin Singh, was unbeaten on 42 off 69 balls.Earlier, the Indian batsmen simply struggled to put across the naggingSouth African bowlers, who didn’t do anything extraordinary, butbowled wicket to wicket, cramming the batsmen for space to executetheir shots. At times even scoring singles was a luxury.Bowling under overcast conditions, South Africa struck the first blowin the fifth over when Hayward got rid of Saurav Ganguly for six.Coach Kapil Dev changed the batting order, sending Mohammed Azharuddinahead of Rahul Dravid. The move seemed to pay off when he andTendulkar built up a stand of 70 runs for the second wicket to takethe score to 80 by the 23rd over when Azharuddin, trying to steal asingle of a misfield, failed to beat a direct throw from Neil McKenziewas caught short of the crease.The most experienced batsman in the world with 331 one-day matchesunder his belt wasn’t at ease during his knock of 36 which came off 65balls with five fours.Tendulkar met a similar fate as that of Azhar, attempting to score asingle which wasn’t there and a direct throw from Gibbs found him wellshort of the crease.Ajay Jadeja, who came two down, looked pretty mystified when he wasruled lbw after a Steve Elworthy delivery hit his pad just above theknee roll.Dravid and Robin Singh batted painstakingly against the disciplinedSouth African bowlers who bowled according to the field which furthermade lift difficult for the two. Dravid managed to score 26 off 60balls with two fours while Robin Singh chipped in with 28 off 45 ballsto add some useful contribution to the crawling scoreboard.Blond Hayward returned with the best spell, taking four wickets for 31runs while Lance Klusener took two for 35.”In the end it was batting that let us down,” concluded Kapil Dev.
