Australia v Pakistan at Centurion It was one of day which very dew people will forgot. A dramatically turn around by Pakistanis at Centurion suddenly raise hopes in the eyes of millions of Indian fans of making their team to the last four of ICC Champions Trophy 2009. But in the end it was brave effort from Brett Lee and N.Harutiz that fealed the game for them on the last ball of the innings to dump India out of the competition. Chasing the target of 206 runs to win, Australians were well posted at 140/2 only to lose six wickets for 47 in a dizzying 12-over sequence that temporarily opened the door for India to leap-frog them into the next round of the tournament. Now they will play England in the 1st Semi Final of ICC Champions Trophy 2009. Md. Asif a man who has made his comeback to the team after 18 months bowled his heart out in his second spell to bring his team right back into the game, Rana Naved was also excellent who bowled two consecutive maiden which helped in thriller finish at Centurion. Australia entered the final over requiring five runs for victory, and Umar Gul gave them a torrid time. Bowling full, straight and with a hint of movement, Gul forced the Australians to edge and scamper for their runs, with victory eventually coming from a frantically-run bye from the last delivery of the match. From Australia M.Hussey (64 runs of 87 balls) and R.Ponting (32 runs of 64 balls) was brilliant after a quick start given by their openers they put on a solid partnership of 81 runs for the third wicket. However dismissal of Ponting triggered the Australian collapse but in the end a team which performs better on a day wins. M.Hussey was declared Player of the Match for his timely half-century. Match Summary (Australia won by 2 Wickets) Pakistan– 205/6 in 50 Overs Md. Yusuf- 45 K.Akmal– 44 S.Watson– 8-0-32-2 M.Johnson- 10-0-45-2 Australia– 206/8 in 50 Overs M.Hussey- 64 R.Ponting– 32 S.Ajmal– 10-1-31-2 Md. Asif- 8-0-34-2 India v West Indies at Johannesburg India finally manage to register their first and last win in ICC Champions Trophy 2009 by beating a depleted Caribbean side by seven wickets in the low-scoring final Group A match. Chasing the target of 130 runs for victory India started their run chase in disastrous fashion loosing both Gautam Gambhir (6 runs of 5 balls) and Rahul Dravid (4 runs of 2 balls) with only 12 runs on the board. But new comer Virat Kohli (79 runs of 104 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (34 runs of 79 balls) put on a match winning 92 runs stand for the third wicket to guide India safely home with more than 17 overs left. V.Kohli struck nine fours and three sixes while D.Karthik found the fence four times. Earlier M.S.Dhoni won the toss and without any hesitation decided to bowl first on a bouncy Wanderers wicket. His decision was proved right after Praveen Kumar (3-31) and Ashish Nehra (3-22) ran havoc with the new ball and then Harbhajan Singh joining the party with two wickets to bundle out the Caribbean side for 129 in 36 overs. A most interesting moment of the day was when Dhoni handed his keeping job to Karthik and bring himself out to bowl. His decision to bowl was taken by little surprise by many but he suddenly picked up his maiden first wicket of his ODI career on his fourth bowl by bowling T.Dowlin for 14 runs and breaking the dangerous looking fifth wicket partnership between Dowlin and Bernard. V.Kohli was declared Player of the Match for his half-century. Match Summary (India won by 7 Wickets) West Indies– 129/10 in 36 Overs D.Sammy- 23 D.Bernard– 22 P.Kumar– 9-3-22-3 A.Nehra- 8-1-31-3 India– 130/3 in 32.1 Overs V.Kohli- 79 D.Karthik– 34 K.Roach– 6-1-27-1 G.Tonge- 10-0-36-1 |
