CSK take on RCB. DC Face KXIP

CSK will take on RCB at Chepauk

Both CSK and RCB coming in this match with the defeat under their belt. CSK lost to KXIP which was bit surprising and RCB lost 2 matches consecutively after winning first game. So, as far as momentum is concern it is more with CSK rather than RCB which is looking for desperate win. As far as resources are concerned both teams looks par.

CSK have M.Vijay, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni, Albie Morkel and Michael Hussey in their ranks as a batsmen and as far bowling is concerned they have the best suited bowling line-up for Chennai wicket. They have 3 good spinners in R.Ashwin, Suraj Randiv and Jakati who can be very dangerous on turning Chepauk wicket.Chennai also have the advantage in captaincy as they have magical captain in MS Dhoni who has also got his batting form back. So this makes Chennai more dangerous.

As far as Royal Challengers are concerned they have illustrious batting line-up. They have likes of Dilshan, DeVilliers, Sourabh Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara. In bowling they have Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Van Der Wath, Dirk Nannes. So RCB is equally good team. Only thing they lack is x-factor in captaincy. Vettori looked completely out of sorts in last two matches and Vettori have be more pro-active.

Nobody is favorite in this game and this will going to be cracker of the contest.

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Team Info:
Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

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Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Jubilant Deccan will face rejuvenate KXIP.

Both the teams coming in this match with win under their belt in their last match respectively. As far as resources are concerned Deccan is having slightly upper hand. But T20 is such contest where the team which play better cricket on a day wins. So resources don’t matter too much as far as this match is concerned. Both teams have seasoned wicket-keepers at the helm of the affairs. Deccan is captained by Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara while KXIP is lead by legendary Adam Gilchrist.

Both the teams have few good youngsters in their side and so far those youngsters have done well. Paul Valthaty played magnificent century innings against CSK and won the game single-handedly for KXIP while Bharat Chipli is playing consistently well for Deccan Chargers. Chipli played superb half-century innings against RCB which helped Deccan to register its first win IPL 4. So there will be lot of pressure now on Chipli and Valthaty to score runs consistently and prove that they are not one match wonder.  As far as bowling is concerned Deccan is far better with Steyn Ishant, Mishra, Gony and Ojha in their ranks while KXIP have only Chawla and Praveen Kumar.

Its going to be entertaining contest and Deccan will certainly have little edge over KXIP.

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Team Info:

Deccan Chargers

Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb.Darren Lehmann(Coach)

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Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach

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Gambhir and Kallis tame Rajasthan Royals

It was thoroughly clinical performance by KKR which saw them home quite easily against Rajasthan Royals. Gambhir and Kallis stuck to the task and helped KKR to win the game quite comprehensively. Rajasthan looked off-colour in bowling today and fielding standards also dropped a bit as they dropped 3 catches.

KKR won the toss and elected to field first on pitch which initially had something in it for the bowlers but Rahul Dravid and Paunikar started cautiously but in 5th over Rajasthan lost its first wicket in Paunikar. Watson was expected but Warnie sent young Menaria at No.3 who stitched good partnership with Rahul Dravid for the 3rd wicket, just when partnership was looking dangerous, Gambhir introduced Yusuf Pathan in the bowling who picked up both Dravid and Menaria in his first over and put Rajasthan on back-foot. But Watson and Taylor knitted little partnership which helped Rajasthan in reaching good score on wicket which was bit stopping. Pathan and Shakib  bowled well but other KKR bowlers including Brett Lee  looked ordinary. Both Shakib and Lee were played in this match and now KKR is at its full strength.

Chasing 159 of RR score, KKR lost Bisla quite early but captain Gambhir and Jacques Kallis build superb century partnership and helped KKR win the game. Both score half century and remained not-out. Gambhir looked in very good touch today right from the word go and probably given full return to KKR owners against his price at which he was bought in auction. Kallis is in superb form and KKR now looks formidable force in year’s IPL. This time KKR will definitely make it to the Top 4. KKR is sure shot contender for semi-final berth.

It was fantastic batting by Kallis and Gambhir which entertained the crowd and not to forget Rahul Dravid once again played superb knock before getting out. Return of Shane Watson didn’t help the cause of RR.

Man of the Match

Gautam Gambhir

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Sachin scored century but Mumbai lost to Kochi

It was beautiful evening at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with Queens Necklace in backdrop. Thousands of fans rushed to Wankhede Stadium to watch the match between Mumbai Indians vs Kochi Tuskers and fans did not disappointed either as the match proved out and out entertainment. Sachin scored his maiden IPL century, Ambati Rayudu scored yet another swashbuckling half-century, Brendon McCullum hitting Malinga with ease and Jayawardene played artistic innings.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first on a pitch which had little bounce and swing. Tendulkar was lucky enough to survive 2 close LBW shouts but he took full advantage of those chances and played brilliant shots all over the park.  He scored magnificent century and dominated the bowlers completely. Sachin’s brilliant innings also included MS Dhoni’s signature ‘Helicopter Shot’.  Sachin executed Helicopter shot to the perfection and proved that their is no better improviser than him in the game of cricket right now and everyday he adds something new to his batting. Ambati Rayudu played brilliant knock and scored his 2nd consecutive half-century. Rayudu matched Tendulkar stroke by stroke and later on sacrificed his wicket for the Master in last over. It was brilliant display of batting at Wankhede Stadium. It was maiden IPL century for Sachin Tendulkar. He is also highest runs scorer in IPL 4 so far and he is yet to be dismissed in this edition of IPL.

After reaching the score of 182, everybody including Mumbai Indian team though they won the game but Kochi Tuskers had other ideas. Coming into this match with two losses under their belt, it was really uphill task for Kochi to win this match but at the the same time it was important to win this match at any cost. Jayawardene this time came to open the innings with McCullum. Lasith Malinga bowled brilliant delivery upfront which almost cleaned up McCullum but Rohit Sharma made a mistake and dropped the easy catch of McCullum. Here on Kochi started hammering Mumbai bowlers severely.

McCullum was severe on Malinga and did not allow him to settle down at all. First time Malinga came under pressure in IPL. Sachin introduced Pollard but he proved more costlier than Malinga as McCullum and Jayawardene tore him apart. Both knitted century partnership between them. Harbhajan also failed to make an impact with wet ball as dew also played its part in Mumbai’s loss.  McCullum was hitting the ball hard while Jaywardene looked like an artist who sketched his innings brilliantly. Finally at the score of 128 Mumbai Indians succeeded in getting the breakthrough as Malinga bowled his Sri Lankan team-mate Jaywardene. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted up the order and he also didn’t disappointed either. He scored brilliant 25 and remain not-out till the end and helped Kochi Tuskers in registering their first win IPL 4. McCullum played brilliant innings of 81 and he was key architect of Kochi win.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCullum

Knight Riders discharged Deccan. Preview: RR vs DD and RCB vs MI

Finally, Gambhir came up the order and Kolkata Knight Riders opened their account of victory in IPL 4. Chasing KKRs par total on a pitch which had something in it for spinners, Deccan lost 3 quick wickets at the start of the innings. Shikhar Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi and skipper Kumar Sangakkara got out early leaving Deccan in all sorts of trouble. Chipli and Dan Christian gave some fight back after top-order collapse but in the end Deccan found 9 runs short of the target and lost the match. Second consecutive defeat for Sanga and his boys. Most importantly Sangakkara who were in tremendous form at World Cup looked completely out of sorts in IPL 4.

KKR started their innings brilliantly as Bisla and Kallis given them solid and steady start at the top and Kingiht RIder batsmen capitalise on that start and put up good total for the Deccan to chase. Monoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan played superb cameos for KKR which helped them in reaching good score. Gambhir once again failed with the bat but he came up the order this time and that was heartening for Shahrukh Khan and KKR. Deccan bowling looked ordinary except Amit Mishra who bowled superb spell for Deccan. Steyn was good in 1st spell but lost his way in 2nd spell. Ishant Sharma was disappointing from the Deccan’s perspective.

So KKR moved on and Deccan have to wait for sometime for the win. KKR started as favourite in this game and they lived upto the expectations of the fans at Edens. Crowd response was  mild from Kolkata as most of the fans refrain themselves from KKR match because ‘DADA’ was missing from KKR line-up.

Man of the Match

Two games coming up today and both are going to be terrific games.

 

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Warnie’s Royals face Sehwag’s Daredevils.

In the first game today, Rajasthan Royals will take on Delhi Daredevils at Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals looks confident side after win in their opening game. On the other hand Daredevils will be keen to open their victory account in IPL 4. On paper RR and DD don’t have much difference. But confidence factor and shrewd tactics of captain Warnie gives the edge to RR. Moreover, they are playing at home and will have definite advantage of home crowd support and conditions. The likes of Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid and Botha who was star in RR victory against Deccan will play important role in today’s game as well. RR bowling  also looks good even though it don’t have any big name except Shane Warne.

Daredevils batting is lacklustre and there is no doubt about it. The way they struggled against Mumbai Indians, seriously put question-mark on DDs batting. Except Sehwag and Warner they don’t have anybody on whom team can rely. If Warner and Sehwag will get out early then DD will surely fail in this match as well. Aaron Finch is good batsmen but it will be difficult for him to play on slow and low pitches of India. Daredevils have relative good bowling line-up as they have Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan in their ranks.

Rajasthan Royals will certainly have upper hand in this match and Shewag have to pull out the win at any cost just to get the momentum.

Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck.. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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MI will face RCB Challenge

Confident Mumbai Indians will take on jubilant Royal Challenger Bangalore at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Both the teams coming in this match with a win under their belt. Both teams also look par as far as resources are concerned but MI  have little edge in their bowling with Malinga firing from the top. The runners-up of the third edition of the IPL retaining most of its previous players in the squad, the team management is keen to rotate the players in the initial games to asses their depth in both the departments - batting and bowling.

Sachin’s from is another good aspect of Mumbai Indians. Andrew SYmonds missed out in last match against DDs on the account of injury, so it will be interesting to see that MI will feature him in this match or not.On the other hand RCB will bank on in-form batsmen AB DeVilliers and Virat Kohli. Both are in good touch. Zaheer Khan provides great strength to RCB bowling and he will spearhead the RCB bowling attack against his ex-team.

It will going to be battle of nerves more than anything else as both teams are equal on paper and nobody starts as favourites in this game.

Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

Fight for momentum. Preview: KKR vs DC

Each team in IPL 4 played their first game and 5 out of 10 teams opened their account with victory. Unfortunately KKR and DC were ended on losing side in their opening games and they have great chance today to open the account of points. It will not going to be easy for both the teams to go in with relaxed mind in this game and pressure will be immense on both the teams. KKR’s skipper Gambhir will be under more pressure compared to DC’s Sangakkara because KKR never ended in TOP 5 in previous 3 editions while Deccan won the title in 2009. It will be a test of nerves for Gambhir & Co.

On paper, KKR looks far better team than DC. It has likes of explosive Yusuf Pathan, legendary Jacque Kallis, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, Bengal Ranji  Captain Manoj Tiwary, superb English middle-order batsmen Eoin Morgan. KKR have all the ammunition this time to beat any team.  However bowling looks bit weak compared to batting, except Kallis there is no big name right now,  Brett Lee is on National duty , so he can’t feature today.

On the other hand, DC batting looks bit weak compared to KKR as they have only Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy as accomplished batsmen. DCs bowling is quite ok with Dale Steyn leading the bowlers pack and he is currently one of the finest fast bowler in the World Cricket. Pragyan Ozha have to raise his game today if  DC wants to make some impression in this game.

It will be interesting to see how Kallis will play against Dale Steyn as both are playing for South Africa and today they will be playting against each other. Kallis will open the batting for KKR while Dale Steyn will open the bowling for Deccan Chargers. It will going be interesting little battle in big contest. KKR have to forget their nightmarish loss to CSK before going into this game as they were cruising at one stage in reply to CSK'S 153/4, but Knight Riders lost wickets in a hurry, and required 9 from the last over, but finished at 151/7 and lost by just 2 runs. Gambhir have to come up the order in batting against Deccan Chargers as opening or one-down is the best place for Gambhir-The Batsman. Gambhir raised lot of question when he came into bat lower down the order against CSK in last game.

Great contest ready to sizzle the Eden Gardens tonight and it will be interesting to see how many fans come to watch this game in absence of KKR’s former skipper Sourav Ganguly. Fans from Kolkata declared after auction that they will not going to watch any of the KKRs game in absence of Sourav Ganguly. KKR starts as  favourite in this game but Deccan have the fire-power to surprise KKR. It is also going to be  important game for Ishant Sharma who is looking to make a come-back in Indian side. He bowled well in last game for Deccan and have to bowl well today against his ex-team.

Team India will go through acid test against Proteas ahead of QF

Team India's serious World Cup campaign starts from tomorrow with the match against Proteas. So far India were playing weaker teams in the tournament and yet they struggled. So Indians will be under tremendous pressure going into this match. India have lot of worries in  bowling, fielding, running between the wickets and top-order batting but remember India have little edge over Proteas according to the statistics of recent times and that suggests out of last 10 ODIs against Proteas, India won 6 of them. Something which can give boost to the Indian team but over all record of India against Proteas is poor which suggests out of 65 ODIs Proteas won 39. But when we talk about recent performance Indian team have little edge. 

 India's main worry in this World Cup is its bowling. So far bowling failed to pick up early wickets except for one match against Ireland. Indian bowlers are certainly struggling on the flat pitches of sub-continent. India's main worry are its regular spinner in Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, both failed to impress so far in the tournament. Harbhajan Singh have picked up only 2 wickets in 4 games although his economy is quite good but remember he is attacking bowler and expected to pick wickets rather than containing the batsmen. What to talk about leggie Piyush Chawla, 2 top wicket-takers in the tournament are leg-spinners and this guy Chawla struggled to pick the wickets in the conditions which favours the spinners and his economy is also poor. India is clearly struggling with 3rd seamer as well and captain Dhoni is completely confused in picking up right combination and that confusion reflects in his statements. I believe they have to continue with 2 pace -2 spin combination and they must replace Chawla with Ashwin in the game against South Africa just to check whether Ashwin fits the bill or not ahead of the knockout stage. I think  not playing Ashwin so far, Dhoni did it deliberately. I think he wanted to introduce him in a big match like this as a surprise package and I believe this can prove master-stroke as well.

Fielding and running between the wickets is also very big area of concern. India struggled badly in the outfield. India fielders allowed opposition batsmen to pick singles easily and also allow them to convert singles into 2s and 2s into 3s and thats not going to help because the opposition team supposed to get 270 in normal circumstances is ending up with 300 or more means 30-40 runs extra just because of poor fielding and extra pressure on Indian batting as well. India has dropped quite a few catches as well. If we look at the match against England Strauss was dropped by Harbhajan when he was new to the crease later in the same match Virat Kohli dropped Ian Bell and both these batsmen took the match away from India. Had those 2 catches taken then I believe result of that match would have been different. So lot to improve in the fielding and I think India have to employ faster fielders on the boundaries and slow fielders in the close-in because singles are anyways available even though field is up but it is important to stop extra runs which are taken when ball goes near the boundary and slow fielders don't able to throw the ball back quickly enough. India have to improve running between the wickets as well. So far we have seen India clearly struggled in this area as well in the tournament. In the first match Tendulkar got out because of poor calling. I think calling have to be precise and batsmen have to work hard in nets to set the good rhythm with their partners while running between the wickets, so that they can be in a sync with their partners in match while running.

Indian top-order batsmen are also struggling and they have to come good now, because one failure can cost dearly. Sachin, Shewag, Gambhir and Kohli have to bat well and out of these four, tow players have to take the anchor role. I think Sachin and Kohli have to play the role of anchor and Gambhir and Sehwag have to go after the bowling and that will be ideal situation for the middle-order batsmen where you have hitters like Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan who can easily capitalise on the good start given by the top-order batsmen. So Indian top-order have to take some responsibility and one or two of them have to carry their bat through the innings. We have seen how Indian team struggled to chase scores in last two matches where top-order failed. However, Yuvraj's form with both bat and ball is a big plus for India.


Squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni(Captain/WK), Virender Sehwag(Vice-Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel. Gary Kirsten(Coach)

Talking about Proteas, I think they are the most balanced side in the World Cup.   Amla and DeVilliers are in great nick and batting looks very good as they possess one of the best batting line-up in the world which includes star batsmen like Jacques Kallis. However Kallis is not among the runs so far in the tournament but he is big match player and against India he is terriffic and in the match against India he will definitely going to make a big score because he loves Indian bowling very much..Proteas won  their first two matches  convincingly but lost to England in a cliffhanger and that will be playing on their mind in this match and they will certainly play better cricket compare to the match against England and will not going to repeat those mistakes which they did against England. Proteas lower-order batting is a bit of concern which often cracks under-pressure and they have to work on this weakness. I think they must promote Morne Wan Vyk up the  order and send Kallis or DeVilliers down the order just to consolidate the lower middle-order.  

Proteas are the best bowling side in the tournament in terms of pace and accuracy. They have great variation in their bowling department. They have two terrific opening fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and Indian batting is quite vulnerable against genuine pace and bounce. They possess great spin weapons in leg-spinner Imran Tahir, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and off-spinner Johan Botha but since Tahir is injured I think they will go in with Johan Botha. They can also think of playing Lonwabo Tsotsobe who had great success against India in the last series and pace is also the Indian weakness so there is no harm in going with pace attack. Felding is the Proteas biggest asset and I must say Proteas starts as favourites to win this game. Imran Tahir is the joint second leading wicket-taker in the tournament and he was trump card for Proteas in previous matches but I think he play or don't play doesn't matter in the match against India because Indians play spin well.


Squad:

Greame Smith(Captain), Hashim Amla, Jacque Kallis, AB DeVilliers(WK), Morne Van Wyk(WK), Jean-Paul Duminy, Collin Ingram, Faf DuPlessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell. Corrie Van Zyl(Coach)

Wicket at VCA Stadium in Nagpur will going to be a belter and will allow score in excess of 300 if teams bat well. I think toss will not going to be a factor in this match because wicket will going to be the same for entire 100 overs and there is no problem of dew as well because we are in mid-March. VCA stadium have the history of big scores. So it will going to be run-feast for the batsmen and nightmare for the bowlers especially Indian bowlers who need some assistance from the wicket.

Proteas open World Cup campaign with a victory over Carribeans

As South African team entered the ground, few minutes later, it presented itself in the form of Johan Botha, standing at the top of his run up, ready to open the bowling. A pitch that looked relatively flat provided Botha with sharp turn for the third ball he bowled which was quite unique. While Chris Gayle was walking back, Graeme Smith's Zimbabwean strategy of opening the bowling with spin was justified. 

Smith, who was battling a case of the sniffles, can be forgiven for forgetting the next 20 overs didn't work out for any of the South Africans bowlers. Steyn's first over was worth 11 runs, Jacques Kallis bowled two overs that went for 10 and nine, and Imran Tahir's second over was 11 as well. Darren Bravo threatened to honour the tradition of a West Indian batsman scoring a century against South Africa to cause an upset and they were settling down as comfortably as content cats on a cuddle cushion in the sun. Then came the drinks break. West Indies used it to relax and South Africa to strategise. They came back in a miserly mood. The next six overs had 27 runs scored off them and then Bravo was out lbw to Botha. Smith had been using Robin Peterson from the other end but when one wicket fell, he sensed that it was time to unleash the mystery man. It was a decision laced with risk, a decision that the South Africa of before may not even have considered. This South Africa was willing to chance it.

Tahir came back with the confidence of a man who had spent years bowling at this level and took two wickets in two overs, which could have easily been three had he held on to the second return chance that went his way. Tahir showed why his debut was more anticipated than start of the tournament itself by most South Africans, disguising the googly craftily and showing no fear in tossing it up, getting hit a bit and then reaping the rewards.Tahir bowled an initial spell of two overs and two more spells of four overs each, the wicket-taking spells. He had Peterson and Botha keeping him company at the other end, with Peterson a silent, yet vital, partner along the way. Peterson had taken the most wickets of any of the South African bowlers in the warm up games and was emerging as an unlikely striker. 

The presence of three spinners even rubbed off on Steyn, who ran through the West Indies tail with the clinical approach of a surgeon. With the wicket-taking responsibility evenly spread, Steyn could save himself for when he was needed and, as a result, "bowled quicker" at times. He was able to play a slightly different, but equally effective role. Purists would not have recognised this South African attack and, although they may be pleased with its results, they'll be happy to hear that normal service has not disappeared from Smith's mind completely. South Africa have eight days to think about what to do in their next match, against Netherlands in Mohali. Until then, they can bask in the knowledge that their captain is living up to his promise of being dynamic and affording them the luxury of variation, and that he is enjoying the unpredictability.

Indeed, a great victory for Proteas and West Indies have to pull-up their socks immediately. Windies also got handicapped because of the injury to Bravo.