Clinical India Continue Their Confident March Beating UAE

India 104-1 (Rohit 57 no) beat
UAE 102 (Anwar 35) by nine wickets
World Cup, 21st Match Pool B at Perth
Scorecard

Ravichandran Ashwin got his first four-wicket haul as India displayed a near-perfect performance on the bouncy, fast wicket at Perth to beat the United Arab Emirates by nine wickets, India’s second biggest margin of victory in terms of balls remaining.

UAE had put up two decent totals on the board in their previous two matches.

However, after winning the toss and choosing to bat, they couldn’t repeat that batting display as a clinical Indian bowling performance never let them find a firm footing.

Umesh Yadav (2-15) picked up Andri Berenger (4) off a fast bouncer in his very first over.

Meanwhile Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-19), making a comeback from injury, in place of the injured Mohammad Shami, accounted for the other opener, Amjad Ali (4).

From then on, it was the Ashwin (4-25) show in a man of the match performance.

He picked up his maiden four-wicket haul, turning the ball beautifully and getting wickets the classical off-spinner way, using flight, dip and turn.

Ashwin even managed to find both swing and drift for his arm ball as he foxed the UAE middle order.

Shaiman Anwar (35), UAE’s batting hero in both the previous games was the only one to offer any resistance to the Indian bowling juggernaut.

He kept running out of partners and only found some support from Manjula Guruge (10) who helped him add 31 for the tenth wicket, the biggest partnership of the innings.

It was a satisfactory day for Indian bowlers as all of them recorded something in the wickets column, Ravindra Jadeja (2-23) and Mohit Sharma (1-16) making hay as well with UAE’s lower middle order.

This was the tenth lowest total against India by a team in all One-Day Internationals and the lowest at the World Cups.

Chasing a very small total, India didn’t go the New Zealand way and instead just looked to do it comfortably, even allowing the innings break to disrupt their chase, only to come back and finish off the match in no time.

Shikhar Dhawan (14) looked to be in good touch as he stroked couple of crisp boundaries before slicing a wide ball airily and falling to a stunner of a catch by Rohan Mustafa at backward point.

That would be the only joyous moment for UAE as Rohit Sharma (57 not out) and Virat Kohli (33 not out) closed off the match solidly and without a hiccup, reaching 104 in 18.5 overs.

India would be particularly pleased with Ashwin’s form and Rohit spending time out in the middle after being dismissed cheaply in the first two games.

With this win, India consolidate their position at the top of Pool B with six points.

© Cricket World 2015