India clinical at Hamilton ~ records galore for Team and Dhoni

It has been a dream World Cup for the Indians who only recently struggled in the Test Series against Australia and in the Tri Nation tournament involving Australia and England.   Today, it was another clinical victory, though the opponents were only Ireland.   India won by 8 wickets with 79 balls remaining.  Today, the match was at Hamilton, and can you link why Gundappa Viswanath’s picture is featured here :

The  venue, Seddon Park,  was  named after  former New Zealand Prime Minister Richard John (King Dick) Seddon, the oval was renamed Trustbank Park following a major renovation and construction.  Hamilton (Māori: Kirikiriroa) is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato Region, in the North Island of New Zealand. The area now covered by the city of Hamilton  was originally the site of a handful of Māori villages.  The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for 425 kilometres through the North Island. It rises in the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and emptying into Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake. The present course of the river was largely formed by the large volcanic eruption from the Lake Taupo volcanic complex  hundreds of years ago. The name Waikato comes from the Māori language and translates as flowing water. 

With this win, it is 5 Number of consecutive ODIs where India have bowled out their opposition, their first such instance. The only team to have a longer streak in World Cups is South Africa, who bowled out their opposition six consecutive times in 2011. India's pace bowlers had a rare imperfect start as William Porterfield went after Umesh Yadav, Paul Stirling pounced on Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma.  The first ten overs saw Ireland score 60 (57 off the pacers in the first nine), the most runs conceded by India during those overs in this World Cup.  The spinners came on in the tenth over and within five overs Ireland were entangled. In the space of 62 minutes, India bowled 22 overs, a rate which even had the ground scorer "hopping."  Between Ashwin, Raina, Jadeja and Rohit completed 30 overs ending Ireland at 259.

The opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma of 175 is  the best opening stand for India in a World Cup match. This is India's sixth 100-plus opening stand in World Cups.  With this win, Dhoni has led India to victory 12 times surpassing the mercurial Kapil Dev’s 11. 

The man whose head was most sought after, now stands in his now common mush style – Shikhar Dhawan is presently 2^nd highest scorer in the present WC.  Today, a catch flew in 3^rd man region, Umesh Yadav ran came under and took – with that of Alex Cusack, Umesh Yadav has 7 – now the unlikely topper of catches this WC. 

More than 3 decades ago – after that great victory in Melbourne – India played ODI no. 117 on 15th Feb 1981 at this venue,  Hamilton.  India lost the match by 57 runs after restricting the Kiwis to 210 thanks to tight bowling by Kapil.  Incidentally, that  was the only One dayer ever captained by the little master – classy Gundappa Vishwanath, the stylist known for his delicate late-cuts and square cuts.  In a career spanning 91 tests (6080 runs), Vishy played 25 One dayers and captained this match as Gavaskar did not play.

Viv Richards has been crowned the greatest one-day cricketer ever by a jury of 50 eminent players, commentators and writers assembled by the Cricket Monthly. An astonishing 29 of 50 jurors picked Richards as their first choice, giving him a landslide victory over four other ODI legends: Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Akram, Adam Gilchrist andMS Dhoni. The contest for second place was a close affair between Tendulkar and Akram. Tendulkar, eventually prevailed by a hair's breadth over Akram.  Rounding off the top five were Gilchrist at No. 4 and Dhoni at No. 5. In all, 21 cricketers received at least one vote from the jury: six Australians, five Indians, four Pakistanis, two West Indians, two South Africans, a Sri Lankan and an Englishman.

In case you are following and nursed some hope after Tamil Nadu were bundled out for 134 and Karnataka had some tense moments at 40/4 – at the end of day 2, they were ahead by 189 runs…….. and now Karun Nair amassed a triple ton [310 no] taking the score to 618/7 – a lead of 484 runs.  TN has been runner-up so many times and in stead of a 3^rd title, they will now have 10 runner-ups.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10^th Mar 2015.