Eight days a week

Nothing was as pleasing than to be an Indian fan …. a stark contrast to the earlier week. Sachin Tendulkar’s emotional tribute to his father against Kenya not only infused new life into the Indian team but also saw the pocket dynamo stamping his class on the event by becoming the first centurion. With Tendulkar showing the way, Rahul Dravid andSaurav Ganguly followed suit.

Dravid and Ganguly exhibited the Oriental flair while charting a world record partnership against Sri Lanka.

Lo and behold!

Indians were back with a bang and three of the top five highest run-getters of the tournament so far were: Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar. While Dravid topped the charts with 316 runs followed by Ganguly on 302, Tendulkar (170) was placed fourth. More importantly, four centuries were posted during the week and all belonged to India!

Besides the Indians who hogged the batting limelight, Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul Haq was fast motoring his way to the top having logged scores of 81 against Australia and 73 not out against New Zealand.

Zulu warrior Lance Klusener extended his reign on the event by topping the wicket-takers list with 12 under his belt. The 28-year-old South African was the first to grab a five-wicket haul which came against the Kenyans. With three successive man of the match awards in his kitty, Klusener has armed himself well to takea shot at the player of the tournament sweepstakes. Sharing the wicket-takers list with Klusener was Kiwi left-arm paceman Geoff Allot followed by the economical Courtney Walsh (11).

An Indian too made an impact. No it wasn’t Javagal Srinath or Anil Kumble but Robin Singh who claimed 5-31 against the Lankans on the same day when Klusener took five.

The wicket-keeping honours go to West Indies’ Ridley Jacobs for his superb role not only while donning the gloves but also while wielding the willow. He equalled the world record for most number of victims when he plucked five catches against New Zealand and went to climax the day with an unbeaten 80. He almost did an encore against the Scots by pouching four.

Captain Fantastic

Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, who had led from the front whenever the chips have been down. Interestingly, Akram remains the only skipper amongst all the 12 nations to have fared creditably in the tournament so far.

Wet Gunpowder: Shahid Afridi, Saeed Anwar, SanathJayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva.

AWESOME TWOSOME: Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly who tied up a 318-run world record stand.

LEFT-HANDED COMPLIMENT: Saurav Ganguly who recorded an Indian ODI best of 183 in that amazing run-fest at Taunton.

— Compiled by Jaideep Marar