The confidence of any team would be sky-high when it hits a winning streak. Similar was the case with Team India who were riding an impressive run of six wins on the trot when they took on New Zealand in their final Super Six tie at Centurion.
Sourav Ganguly decided to put the opposition in at SuperSport Park, a move which was made to seem vindicated by pace spearhead Zaheer Khan’s venomous opening spell. The left-arm seamer got on top of the New Zealand top-order and ensured India maintained a vice-like grip over them.
Zaheer snuffed out Craig McMillian in the first over with Kiwis not even opened their account. Indian joy knew no bounds when Zaheer struck a lethal blow when he caught Nathan Astle plumb in front as the New Zealand innings made a wretched reading at zero for two.
The onus was on New Zealand to throw a fight against the Indians as they were the ones who had to win this game or at least bank on Zimbabwe scripting an unlikely win against Sri Lanka to keep their semifinal hopes alive.
But it appeared as though there was only one team that was hungry to win on that day. And the Black Caps didn’t look anywhere close to being one. Only captain Stephen Fleming showed some application against the incisive Indian bowlers but lack of support from the other end made things difficult for the Black Caps.
Brendon McCullum was promoted ahead of Chris Cairns to shield the latter from the Indian opening ball operators but the move boomeranged as McCullum became Zaheer’s third victim and also became the bowler’s 100th ODI scalp.
Zaheer’s early burst allowed the other Indian bowlers to assert their dominance over the New Zealand batsmen. He dealt another important blow when the bowler had Chris Harris leg-before wicket which pummelled New Zealand to 96 for 7 in the 29th over.
The Kiwi tail wagged to some extent courtesy – Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori but a score of 146 was never going to challenge an in-form India.
Shane Bond’s twin strikes upfront ignited some hope but Mohammed Kaif and Rahul Dravid kept Indian winning run intact.
It cannot be denied that the modest Indian chase can be attributed in big measure to Zaheer’s 4 for 42 as the bowler deservedly won the Man-of-the-Match award.
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