India held up by Dutch courage

Spinner Anil Kumble and speedster Javagal Srinath inflicted the maximum damage, claiming four wickets each respectively, as only opener Daan van Bunge came up with a decent score making a resolute 62.

However, India were left with some serious questions to ponder on ahead of their big game against defending champions Australia on Saturday. With the honourable exception of Sachin Tendulkar, who was the top-scorer in Indian innings with 52, none of the Indian batsmen could really assert themselves against a mediocre bowling line-up of Holland after skipper Saurav Ganguly had elected to bat first.

Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia came up with useful scores of 37 and 42 respectively but even they were put under pressure and made to work hard for every run. The rest of the batsmen put up a disappointing performance as they failed to find their bearings even on the big stage after their forgettable show in New Zealand.

Tendulkar and Javagal Srinath, who returned with figures of four for 30, achieved personal milestones in this match. Tendulkar became the highest run-scorer in World Cups when he moved from 24 to 28 with a boundary, overtaking Pakistan’s Javed Miandad who had 1083 runs from 33 matches. Tendulkar now has 1111 runs from 23 games.

Srinath became only the fifth bowler and second Indian in one-day history to claim 300 or more wickets when he dismissed J Kloppenburg with the fourth ball of the innings. Srinath joins teammate Kumble, Pakistanis Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in the exclusive club.

Tendulkar’s wish of coming back to the top of the order was granted today as Ganguly and he walked out to open the innings after a long time. But unlike the usual flying start that India is so used to, the pair began very cautiously, conscious of the need for both the out-of-form batsmen to settle down before hitting out. (PTI)