MUNAF SHINES IN INDIA WIN

Javed Ali, SQUARE CUT, YaHind Sports

First match of the Main tournament of the ongoing Championship Trophy was played between India and England at Sawai Man Singh Statium, Jaipur. Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to field first probably because of two reasons, firstly there was a lot of wear and tear due the earlier matches played at the venue and secondly he wanted to give a litmus test to the bowlers. Things went on India’s way as Munaf and Pathan came up with fine piece of fast bowling and justified their captain’s decision, Munaf kept his line and length and bowled a superb spell of 8-2-18-3 which later earned him his maiden Player of the Match award. After a long gap Pathan appeared as if he is on the way to get back his rhythm, a welcome sign for Team India and a big sigh of relief for the coach Greg Chappell and the team management. None of the English batsmen offer resistance to the Indian bowlers as their spinners especially Romesh Powar wrapped up the innings to a meagre total of 125 all out. When India began it was expected that Sehwag and Sachin will finish the proceedings with no hesitation, but Sehwag was perished playing a flashing shot over the slips, Pathan once again donned the role of a pinch-hitter and was successful, he was unlucky to be caught by Pietersen brilliantly at point. Rahul Dravid coming out two down started off with a fine cover drive, he looked excited and as the cheers get momentum from the crowd he too played a flashing shot only to be caught by Strauss off Anderson. Sachin & Yuvraj steadied to reach the target, India lost Sachin, Dhoni and Raina in quick succession and it was left to Harbhajan to score the winning runs, Yuvraj remained not out on a confident 27. The way India got 125 losing 6 wickets is not that much commendable, had the total between 180-200 it would have been a different story because the behaviour of the pitch changed and there was uneven bounce.