Pre-World Cup warm-up: India versus New Zealand
As the ICC World Cup 2011 approaches, all the teams are busy playing warm-up matches. India and New Zealand clashed for a practice match and India won convincingly on their home ground.
Both the teams were playing their second warm-up match, coming to the game with a win each in their previous practice matches.
India had humiliated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751. The home team and New Zealand are placed in different groups and might play each other again provided they qualify for the knockout stage.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 and Sachin Tendulkar started off cautiously before Tendulkar
was dismissed in the seventh over for just 17 runs. Kiwi bowler Tim Southee bamboozled Tendulkar with a slower ball that found a way through his pad and the bat all the way to the stumps. After adding just 23 runs to the total, Sehwag was bowled out on the
first ball of Jacob Oram’s spell. The ball kept low and went under Sehwag’s bat, hitting the off-stump.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 took over and stabilised the innings, taking the score from 42 for 2 to 148 runs at the expense of three wickets. Both the players played quick and developed a 106-run partnership. Oram claimed his second wicket of the match
when he removed Kohli for 59 runs off 68 balls. Skipper MS Dhoni joined Gambhir and started in an offensive manner. His hitting intentions were clear as he dominated the Kiwis. On the other hand, Southee bagged his second wicket as Gambhir’s innings perished
for 89 runs. His gutsy innings included 11 boundaries and a strike rate of 104.71.
Suresh Raina and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 added 124 runs with some delightful power hitting that deflated the opposition completely. Raina fired a quick 50 off just 26 balls and hit three monstrous sixes in his innings. On the other hand, Dhoni played his trademark ‘helicopter’
shots to score a century. The all-rounder skipper remained not out on 108 runs from just 64 balls. His innings had 11 fours and three sixes. India heaped a huge total of 360 runs at the expense of five wickets at 7.2 runs per over.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 started their innings with Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum in a positive manner. The openers played sensibly and utilised their power plays, scoring 94 runs before in-form batsman Guptill was removed by the spinner, Ashwin. Soon after the
dismissal, McCullum reached his fifty and got run-out in a suicidal run. He scored 58 runs off 54 balls that including seven boundaries. New Zealand was on the track chasing 361 runs but these two back-to-back setbacks halted their progress.
Once the home team introduced their premier spinners, things got tough for the Kiwis. Jesse Ryder strived hard for his 32 runs and once he was out, wickets started to tumble at short intervals. Four Indian spinners shared seven wickets and that too at very
economical rates. The Kiwis were bowled out for just 243 runs in 43.1 overs with wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum topping his team’s scorecard with his sensible 58 runs.
Once again, the Indian spinners proved too strong for the visiting teams and earned their team an easy victory. Team India won by 117 runs, wrapping both their warm-up matches in style. Team India will start their ICC World Cup 2011 campaign against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747
in the World Cup’s inaugural match whereas New Zealand will face arch rivals Australia in Nagpur.
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