Chennai, March 20: India, riding on the back of Yuvraj Singh’s maiden World Cup century, cruised to a comfortable 80-run victory against the West Indies in their last Group B fixture at the M. Chidambaram Stadium here Sunday and set up a quarterfinal date with Australia.
Chasing India’s total of 268 all out, the West Indies, after a promising start, caved in meekly and were dismissed for 188 in 43 overs with Yuvraj’s two wickets in 10 balls in the middle overs breaking the back of the Caribbean challenge. Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan picked up three for 26.
India, with nine points, finished second in the group behind South Africa (10), followed by England (7) and the West Indies (6).
The 29-year-old Yuvraj, who struck three half-centuries in his last four innings in the tournament, showcased his sense of timing and sublime wristy stroke-play, hitting a fluent 113 off 123 balls. Yuvraj, who was struggling in heat and humidity, added 122 runs in 23.5 overs with Virat Kohli (59 off 76 balls) to hold an otherwise shaky innings together.
The Yuvraj-Kohli partnership apart, the Indian batting never showed much conviction and a collapse thereafter seemed par for the course as yet again, the hosts wasted a strong start, losing their last seven wickets for just 53 runs in 7.3 overs.
For the West Indies, Cup debutant fast bowler Ravi Rampaul’s five for 51 went in vain. Also going waste for West Indies was opener Devon Smith’s 81 (97b, 1×6, 7×4) as the rest of the batsmen, barring the experienced Ramnaresh Sarwan (39), virtually committing cricketing suicide.
India opened the bowling with local boy and off-spinner Ravichndran Ashwin and opener Kirk Edwards (17) became his first World Cup victim. Ashwin, also a Cup debutant, finished with figures of two for 41. Zaheer, in his second spell, castled Smith who was well set and look good enough to score a century.
Barring the top-four, none of the West Indies batsmen could get to double figures and they lost eight wickets for just 34 runs.
Earlier, the first of Rampaul’s five victims was Sachin Tendulkar (2) who was dismissed in the very first over when he nicked a delivery that rose sharply for wicketkeeper Devon Thomas to accept the catch.
Umpire Steve Davis actually turned down the appeal, but Tendulkar walked to the disappointment of the spectators who were hoping to witness the 100th international century by the maestro.
The other opener, Gautam Gambhir, and Kohli steadied the ship, but it was a rather scratchy partnership that was broken in the seventh over. Gambhir cut Rampaul straight to the third man fielder Andre Russell and India were 51 for two.
Thereafter, Yuvraj and Kohli came together. The duo initially batted with some circumspection as the Windies’ pacers generated some pace and bounce, but once they got their eye in, the partnership flourished.
Yuvraj survived two chances when on nine and 11, dropped both times by skipper Darren Sammy, first off Russell at backward of point and then off his own bowling in the next over.
Yuvraj dominated with typical wristy shots, particularly on the leg-side, while Kohli nudged and pushed with an occasional boundary. Kohli proved to be an ideal foil for the aggressive Yuvraj, who in the latter half of his innings suffered from dehydration, but carried on manfully.
Sammy shuffled his bowlers, but to little effect until he brought on Rampaul for his second spell and the Trinidadian fast bowler nipped one back to castle Kohli.
With skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for company, Yuvraj cruised along and soon got to his 13th ODI and maiden World Cup century off 112 deliveries. Yuvraj hit 10 fours and two sixes during his stay.
Dhoni did not last long as he jumped out to leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, missed the line totally and was stumped to trigger a collapse.
World Cup debutant Suresh Raina followed his skipper soon after, sweeping Sammy to short fine-leg where Rampaul took a smart catch and not long after, Yuvraj offered a tame return catch to Pollard as India slumped to 240 for six at the start of the batting Powerplay during which India lost four wickets for only 28 runs.
—-IANS