Graphic: Mike Atherton’s guide to the Super Eights
Any thoughts that South Africa and India would progress comfortably from group E were blown away last night as Dwayne Bravo, who missed the recent Test series against England because of ankle trouble, produced an all-round display of confidence and class to give West Indies a winning start to the Super Eights.
Having taken four wickets as West Indies restricted India to 153, Bravo then obliterated all remaining candidates for the man-of-the-match award by hitting 66 from 36 balls, removing his helmet in glee even before a winning hit against Zaheer Khan had cleared the boundary at wide long off for his third six.
The implications of defeat for India, the defending champions, will run deeper than the failure to earn some early points towards qualification for the semi-finals. West Indies showed that traditional weaknesses against the short ball remain and the travails of their young batsmen are sure to have registered across the event.
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Colin Croft, one of the phalanx of fast men who elevated West Indies to the pinnacle of the world game during a period spanning three decades, laughed nostalgically — almost menacingly — at suggestions that the approach of Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards represented a brief return to those victorious days.
India has made itself the home of Twenty20 cricket, first by winning the inaugural event in South Africa and with the establishment of the Indian Premier League (IPL) fuelled by surging interest on the back of their biggest one-day success since beating West Indies in the 1983 World Cup final. Those roles were reversed here at the same ground, packed to capacity again but with a vastly different demographic among the crowd.
There will certainly be an extra spring in England’s step when they practise this afternoon for their meeting with India at Lord’s. With only two of the six group games gone it is too early to think about permutations, but whoever loses tomorrow will need luck to reach the last four.
It must cause West Indies regret that Bravo was appearing for Mumbai Indians as the national side were floundering against England in May. The selectors said that his ankle was too weak to withstand five-day cricket, but Bravo had already signalled his intention to commit to the IPL.
West Indies were already in control by the time he joined the attack yesterday, and he merely increased India’s troubles. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina were all unsettled by the short ball and Mahendra Singh Dhoni carved a cut to deep backward point. Erratic in the past, West Indies’ fielding was usually assured.
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A fifth-wicket stand of 64 in 35 balls between Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan sparked a recovery, but Bravo returned to remove Pathan and his half-brother, Irfan, in an eventful final over that finished with three successive fours by Harbhajan Singh.
Yuvraj had given his bowlers something to defend, but they needed early wickets. West Indies, though, timed the response perfectly. The departure of Chris Gayle brought in Bravo with the clear instruction to play aggressively, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan there as back-up below him. Lendl Simmons offered useful support and Bravo found gaps regularly by hitting inside-out shots formidably through the off side.
Dhoni opted to hold back his best bowlers so that Zaheer, Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spin bowler, all had three overs left going into the second half of the innings. With 93 needed it looked an even contest, but India’s fielding became more and more nervous as Bravo looked increasingly dominant. He made it look easy.
India
G Gambhir c Simmons b Bravo 14
R G Sharma c Simmons b Edwards 5
S K Raina c Ramdin b Edwards 5
Yuvraj Singh c and b Edwards 67
*†M S Dhoni c Fletcher b Bravo 11
Y K Pathan b Bravo 31
I K Pathan c Simmons b Bravo 2
Harbhajan Singh not out 13
Z Khan not out 0
Extras (lb 1, w 4) 5
Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) 153
I Sharma and P P Ojha did not bat.
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Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-27, 3-29, 4-66, 5-130, 6-140, 7-141.
Bowling: Taylor 4-0-44-0; Edwards 4-0-24-3; Bravo 4-0-38-4; Gayle 3-0-13-0; Pollard 2-0-7-0; Benn 3-0-26-0.
West Indies
*C H Gayle c Khan b Y K Pathan 22
A D S Fletcher c Yuvraj Singh b I K Pathan 0
L M P Simmons c I K Pathan b Ojha 44
D J Bravo not out 66
S Chanderpaul not out 18
Extras (lb 3, w 3) 6
Total (3 wkts, 18.4 overs) 156
R R Sarwan, K A Pollard, † R R Sarwan, K A Pollard, <SC134>D Ramdin, J E Taylor, S J Benn and F H Edwards did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-42, 3-100.
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Bowling: Khan 2.4-0-26-0; I K Pathan 2-0-9-1; Y K Pathan 4-0-27-1; Harbhajan 4-1-31-0; Sharma 3-0-31-0; Ojha 3-0-29-1.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and R E Koertzen.