For a Sunday morning, it was a bit of surprise to see a deserted golf course. In fact, most of the tee-offs on the day happened in the adjacent greens at the Wanderers Stadium. In the midst of a go-clubbing-obsession, India failed to go one-over 190, the score needed to win against New Zealand in their first Super 8 play-offs.India, who allowed New Zealand to collect two points, are now standing with their backs to the wall — having to win both their remaining games, and pray the arithmetic of run-rate calculations doesn’t hinder their progress in this competition. India frittered away a good start and lacked the finishing touch with both the bat and ball — they gave big overs while bowling in the death and managed very little through partnerships while batting second.Thus, they allowed New Zealand to score the highest score by a team sent in to bat and became the only first serious contender — disregarding Kenya — to lose while chasing.New Zealand were 112/5 at the end of the 15th over and India were 135 Same left-right combo on the crease for both teams at the crease but Irfan Pathan is neither Jacob Oram nor Dinesh Kaarthick a Craig McMillan. New Zealand scored 78 in the last five overs as Oram and McMillan plundered a record sixth-wicket partnership of 73 in just 33 balls with six sixes and three boundaries. In comparison, India’s 45 runs in the last block of five was a shame. Signs of concern emerged when Yuvraj was smacked for 25 runs in the 16th over — almost a repeat of the Mascarenhas slog at The Oval. Yuvraj’s introduction in the 12th over to bowl in tandem with the super spell of Harbhajan Singh was a nice innnovation. But the experiment was carried a bit too far for a team bowling with five specialists bowlers with Sehwag waiting in the wings. To make things worse, McMillan hit clean with four sixes in his 44 from 23 balls — an innings much more exhilarating than Brendon McMullam’s 45 at the top of the order. Meanwhile, Agarkar’s problems in the death continued and his misery was extended when Kaarthick dropped Oram on 25 with New Zealand at 137 The tall all-rounder made another 10 before his 15-ball innings came to an end but India were left licking their wounds. Agarkar gave away 8 and 21 in his last two, Sreesanth came next gifting away quite a few in the 19th. But luckily, India managed the best of the innings in the 20th with just five runs and four wickets, including three run outs in that RP Singh over.
