It was to be Brendan Taylor’s day but turned out to be Suresh Raina’s night. It was Zimbabwe’s challenge but ultimately India’s conquest. It was a daunting total but Raina-Dhoni chased it down. By the time the sun set on Auckland on Saturday, the expected walk in the park turned into the most competitive duel India has fought thus far in this tournament.
Going into the quarterfinals, a duel like the one in Eden Park, that too with a team that has won no matches except against the UAE, didn’t seem to bode well for Team India but Dhoni said he was happy that all points in his team could be tested and that includes the ability of giving a thrilling run chase to a 287 score. When Dhoni won the toss and elected to chase on Saturday, little did he know that Taylor would take his bowlers to the cleaners and that Zimbabwe would post a total that’s the highest so far against it.
But things didn’t, for once, go as per plan — those fabled Dhoni plans that everyone keeps talking about these days. Taylor, scripting his own showpiece swan song, put all the Dhoni strategies in total disarray. He made the skipper’s reputed spinners look impoverished. With a quick-fire 138 off 110 balls, he helped his team reach 287.
The Zimbabwe innings was speckled with a total of 23 boundaries and 12 sixes and for the first time in this edition, Ashwin reached a dark 1/75 statistic which looked as burdensome as Jadeja’s 71 runs that he gave away for no wicket. Yes India bowled out the opposition for 52 runs once Taylor left but not before a mountain of runs had been made.
So this wasn’t the day for a bowling story, it was the day for Dhoni’s batters to make a statement, for his openers to fire and his one down to round up the runs. But that too wasn’t to be with Rohit Sharma giving a leading edge in the covers after miscuing a length delivery by Panyangara and being held on by Sikander Raza for 16.
Within three balls, Dhawan followed him into the dugout at 4 and it was for Virat Kohli to generate a win. He got the loudest cheer from the crowd as he walked in, made a solid 38 with picture perfect shots but played in Sikandar Raza when India was only 92. Ajinkya Rahane had, meanwhile, departed on a run out and then it was time for that part of Team India which is generally at its best but was yet untested in this tournament — in giving the great Indian run chase.
In came Dhoni as captain and Raina his ablest soldier in such circumstances. They bloom on the crease the best under pressure and at Eden Park there was pressure galore with the run rate mounting to over 8 at one point with four wickets gone and the Zimbabwe bowlers exploiting the wicket to bowl those slower ones to maximum impact.
It was the second match in this World Cup that Dhoni was chasing and the Zimbabweans made him work hard at it. As Raina took to his natural talent of stroke playing, Dhoni ambled along as the anchor from the other end.
Dhoni reached his half ton in 56 balls with six boundaries and no sixes. It was a well-played knock under pressure and as he eased up a bit with Raina in the lead, the anticipation had already turned positive. Raina who came into his own after a cautious start, changed the gears after he was dropped at 47. “You can’t expect to bring down oppositions if you drop catches like Raina’s,” a disappointed Taylor said later in the night.
Raina’s well-crafted 100 came in 94 balls with 8 boundaries and 4 sixes. Dhoni, too, flung around his bat though he couldn’t order the helicopter despite a continuous chant for it from the stands. From 8.5 runs an over by the 35th over, to chasing down just 6 runs in 9 balls to win, it was quite an effort by the duo who’s been in this situation many a time.
And as the final runs had to be made, the crowd started demanding that famous last-ball six by the skipper and Dhoni obliged though the occasion this time was much smaller than a World Cup final. Taylor watched from behind the wickets just as Dhoni had earlier in the evening not knowing how to plug the leak and give his century a reason to be. But that wasn’t to happen on the last day of his international cricket and India won by six wickets, jet-setting home on a record breaking 196-run partnership at No 5.
From here-on, it is one match at a time from March 19 at Melbourne when India meets Bangladesh at the MCG.