Cairns charisma leaves India dazed

Cairns charisma leaves India dazed
VIKRANT GUPTA

Nairobi, october 15 The Indian dressing room is not a happy place to be in. The last of the Sun's rays have gone down, and as darkness descends onto the Nairobi Gymkhana, there are some among the Indians who will break down, any moment.

Anil Kumble, hands on head, is incosolable. He knows how close it was and how he just gave it away. One over, merely two balls, was all it took for the Knock-Out Mini-World Cup to fall into New Zealand's laps.

Chris Cairns, who could barely walk when the match began in the morning, and whose battered knee didn't allow him to do that once the last ball had been bowled, hit Kumble out of the ground for a six, and at 24 runs off 21 balls, you thought can India still defend? Cairns swept Kumble for a boundary the next ball and it was all over. That over cost 14 runs and the Kiwis could afford to walk to the target then.

The Indian dream has been shattered as New Zealand won by four wickets. They promised so much but when it came to the crunch, Cairns was unstoppable. Here was a player, the doctors said shouldn't have played in the final today if he wanted to go with the New Zealand team on their South African tour this month, who played the innings of his life time, an unbeaten knock of 102.

``It's unbelievable. I mean, I still can't believe we've won it. It's a long party tonight,'' Cairns said later. The New Zealanders won the biggest cricketing show of their life and the partying began in the ground itself.The defeat would rankle the Indians for long, especially after they had beaten Australia and South Africa earlier but they have themselves to blame for today's disaster. They failed to consolidate on such a splendid start skipper Saurav Ganguly, who scored a back-to-back century, and Sachin Tendulkar who looked so convincing before a tragic run out ended his hour of glory.

A total of 265 was at least 30 runs short of what the Indians threatened at a stage. And, as their bowlers found out, that turned out to be the difference. Between the Cup and disappointment.

Scoreboard
INDIA
Saurav Ganguly c Harris b Astle (130b, 9x4, 4x6) 117
Sachin Tendulkar run out (82b, 10x4, 1x6) 69
Rahul Dravid run out (34b, 1x4) 22
Yuvraj Singh c Twose b Styris (19b, 2x4) 19
Vinod Kambli c O'Connor b Styris (5b) 1
Robin Singh c Spearman b Allott (11b, 1x4) 13
Ajit Agarkar Not Out (17b) 15
Vijay Dahiya Not Out (2b) 1
Extras: (lb 1, w 4, nb 2) 7
TOTAL: (for six wkts in 50 overs) 264
Fall of wickets: 1-41 (Tendulkar), 2-202 (Dravid), 3-220 (Ganguly), 4-229 (Yuvraj), 5-237 (Kambli), 6-256 (Robin). Bowling: Geoff Allott 10-0-54-1, Shayne O'Connor 5-0-38-0, Chris Cairns 10-2-40-0, Scott Styris 10-0-53-2, Nathan Astle 10-0-46-1, Chris Harris 5-0-32-0.

NEW ZEALAND
Craig Spearman c Yuvraj b Prasad (8b) 3
Nathan Astle c Robin b Kumble (48b, 5x4) 37
Stephen Fleming lbw Prasad (11b) 5
Roger Twose st Dahiya b Kumble (35b, 4x4) 31
Chris Cairns Not Out (113b, 9x4, 2x6) 102
Craig McMillan c Ganguly b Tendulkar (14b, 2x4) 15
Chris Harris c Robin b Prasad (72b, 4x4) 46
Adam Parore Not Out (4b) 3 Extras: (nb 7, w 1, lb 15) 23
TOTAL: (for six wkts in 49.4 overs) 265
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Spearman), 2-37 (Fleming), 3-82 (Astle), 4-109 (Twose), 5-132 (McMillan), 6-254 (Harris). Bowling: Zaheer Khan 7-0-54-0, Venkatesh Prasad 7-0-27-3, Ajit Agarkar 6.4-0-44-0, Anil Kumble 9-0-55-2, Sachin Tendulkar 10-1-38-1, Yuvraj Singh 10-0-32-0.
Result: New Zealand won by four wickets.
Man-of-the-Match: Chris Cairns .