Next up in WCup: Champions challenge

As he showed here,in short spells,Zaheers efficiency with the old ball provides the team with the ability to fight all odds at any given stage. On Sunday,he bagged three late wickets with his reverse swing 8211; the game reverse-swung in Indias favour after Devon Smith seemed to have hijacked it with his 81 at the top of the order and his crucial 54-run partnership with Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Munaf Patels introduction to the attack at the halfway stage provided a perfect opportunity to assess how the West Indies paced their innings 8211; they scored 132 for two in the first 25 overs,and left themselves 137 to get with eight wickets in hand,with eight overs from Zaheer,six from Harbhajan and two from Ashwin still be tackled.

The famous West Indian collapse soon revisited the MAC stadium three days after its staging against England. Zaheer castled Smith with a ball that reversed enough to crash through his defenses while a resurgent Harbhajan scalped the vital wicket of Kieron Pollard,who holed out to long on. MS Dhoni showed first signs of serious intent when he placed a short-leg for Harbhajan 8211; a move he had avoided through the league phase. The bowlers responded brilliantly to the attacking fields. Yuvraj,brought in for his second spell,lured Devon Thomas with flight and Dhoni whipped the bails off in a flash as the wicketkeeper-batsman overbalanced. West Indies went from 154 for two to 174 all out,with seven overs remaining. Andre Russel,hero of the England game,went for no score while skipper Darren Sammy was dismissed for two.

Man of the match Yuvraj Singh displayed his all-round credentials once more with two wickets,but it was his batting that really stole the attention.

Yuvrajs hundred,off 112 balls,was punctuated by 10 graceful boundaries,two sixes and two sighs of relief for two dropped catches by Darren Sammy,one straightforward and the other a half chance. A fresh-to-the-crease Yuvraj provided just the stability that the middle-order was looking for,hitting Sulieman Benn and Devendra Bishoo comfortably with the spin and not hesitating to pull anything that pacers Ravi Rampaul and Andre Russel dropped short.

A dehydrated Yuvraj,before being dismissed by Pollard for 113,went out looking for that momentum that Team India again seemed to have lost,despite postponing that batting powerplay to the very end.

Powerplay loss

India scored 28 runs and lost four wickets in those last five powerplay overs,giving Rampaul a five-for after a collapse not dissimilar to the one at Nagpur a week ago. The match began with Virat Kohli walking in to pin-drop silence after Sachin Tendulkar walked,acknowledging a faint nick that umpire Steve Davies didnt hear. Kohli managed to woo the utterly disappointed crowd with his delectable strokes straight and square of the wicket,and stitched a 122-run partnership with Yuvraj.

Yuvraj and Kohli gathered their runs at a steady trot,sprinting hard between the wickets and picking up the odd boundary,benefitting from the West Indian seamers short bowling. Yuvraj overtook Kohli when he banished Darren Sammy straight over his head for six,and picked off Devendra Bishoo and Sulieman Benn for two boundaries in an over each to reach his half-century.

India still have a few points to ponder they failed to play out their overs for the second straight game and the batting powerplay is yet to be addressed properly. But as with every victory,these little worries take the back seat against a crescendo of optimism and popular sentiment.