From "No Hopers to Title Contenders"-- The Indian Team

The second week of the round robin had four matches that evoked my t  interest.

The first one  was  Ireland blowing away the Windies ( as briefly indicated in the last blog ) – Ireland have their one or two acts for each of the World Cup and it was unfortunate for the WI as they notched up a 300 + plus score but saw it being surpassed quite easily by the Irish . The Ireland team will continue their giant killing acts and I believe this is not their final  act of this World Cup

The second one between England and NZ saw some phenomenal swing bowling by Southee of NZ.. For the first four overs or so , nothing seemed wrong and the England openers Bell and Ali held firm.  One wicket – that of Bell just opended the flood gates and Southee ran through the English batting order to return with seven wickets.  England crashed to 123 all out and that was it . NZ skipper and opener Brendon Mcculum was in a hurry. A  World cup record of 50 runs in 18 balls saw the English loose two out of two.. In deep trouble indeed is the English team

WI bounced back with a win over Pakistan.  Pakistan was in control till Andre Russel punished them in the last five overs to take the WI over 300. The batting was a horror story for Pakistan. Losing four wickets for one run is going to take the Pak team  nowhere and that is where they went. A second loss and a mountain to climb for the Pak team

It is important to note that no team is yet out and so England and Pakistan can still claw their way back in to the reckoning

The final match of the week was an unbelievable one-- India Versus South Africa. A sea of Blue at the MCG greeted everyone. Only Indians can do this. A  estimated crowd of over 75,000 ( out of the 87,000 at the MCG ) were Indian supporters . I doubt if there was any Local in the crowd -- Either it was an Indian fan or South African --  I can bet no other team can expect this support on foreign soil . If one did not notice keenly they would have thought the match was being played on Indian soil. And that probably turned it on for the Indian team.

MSD won the toss and rightly choose to bat against a hostile SA attack. Rohit failed again but this time was unlucky. A brilliant direct hit by that man AB Devilliers who had one stump to aim ended his stay. Dhawan and Kohli picked off from the last match and Dhawan is turning things around for him. Kohli departed when he could have made a another century. However , diminutive Rahane played an innings of his life. Shot making was unbelievable. Steyn and rest of the bowlers were treated with disdain. Dhawan got to a well deserved hundred and  Rahane fell as he tried to up the pace. In the end , India   put up another 300 plus score but one thought they were short by around 20 runs. To me, Rahane’s innigs was the game changer

The Indian bowlers were right on the money. Pressure built up and SA lost their openers as they tried to hit out. The   opening bowlers not only bowled fast but their line and length was in the right areas. ABD and Faf took easy control and were going along well when ABD was run out. This was a great piece of fielding on the boundary by Mohit ( he has slipped in nicely in to the team for the injured Ishant )  and it is not easy to catch ABD short of the crease... he runs well and hard  between the wickets – this was an important breakthrough done just by excellent fielding effort. Umesh Yadav did the same and this time it was one more key wicket gone through a run out and that was David Miller.  The fielding was excellent and the commitment on the boundary line was outstanding ( Shami , Umesh , Mohit after their bowling spells were chasing and getting the ball back and  it was a treat to watch them slide and get the ball back ). It was clear that SA was loosing . Wickets started to fall as the pressure built up and the bowling   outstanding..  In the end the victory was an easy one.

Big changes in the way the Indian team is playing :

        Scoring runs – any target of over 300 is going to be a challenge for the opposition to chase

       Fielding – this has been the surprise packet—Two runs outs in the SA match were due to excellent work on the field

     Bowling – the bowlers are bowling in the right areas.. Pace and bounce were key weapons in addition to bowling the right lengths..

Wonder , what went wrong in the Tri series earlier and in the warm up matches. Now everything seems to be working.

Either way , this is a great sign and I now believe that India is a serious contender to defend their title.

But as they say in Cricket – Anything can happen

check the video below -- may be South Africa will find their insipiration

http://goo.gl/vDCtCD