India’s twin RP dose knock South Africa out of Twenty20 World Cup

Sep 21: Proteas World Cup jinx continues, India enter semis

India’s twin RP dose did the trick to knock South Africa out, beating them by 37 runs paving the way for Kiwis, as first Rohit Padbanaban Sharma with his poised unbeaten 50 and later Rudra Pratap Singh fiery spell of 4 for13 came up with something special for India to storm into the semis of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup at Kingsmead in Durban last night.

New Zealand scraped through, helped by India’s 37-run victory in a nerve-racking match to top the group. The host’s chance for qualification ran parallel to win-the-match-calculations. They needed 45 off the last over to win but they targeted at only 17 runs to qualify; but managed just eight in the end.

South Africa World Cup jinx continues as they lost to India after remaining unbeaten in the whole tournament till Thursday’s match. Durban has been a happy hunting ground for India for quite some time. Durban is a home away from home for the men in blue due to the population of Indians over there, which was quite evident last night from the fact that Indian flags were in large in numbers comparatively to South African flags.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bat first after winning the toss but soon India were in dire straits at 33 for three in the sixth over, as Durban track was seaming a bit and the Proteas bowlers did no mistake in exploiting the advantage, but an all important 85-run partnership between Sharma and Dhoni for the fifth wicket propped the team to a fighting total.

India missed the services of Yuvraj Singh in the middle order, the architect of Wednesday's sensational victory over England, as he was ruled out for the match because of an elbow injury.

India surely missed the flying start from Sehwag-Gambhir duo, which they were providing in the earlier matches as both fell cheaply without much contribution. Dinesh Kaarthick got out on a soft dismissal as he lobbed a simple catch at square-leg without scoring a single run. Three wickets in the span of four balls, and India were in the doldrums. Shaun Pollock (2/17) was the most successful bowler for South Africa.

Then came Rohit Sharma who took Yuvraj’s place. It is his first appearance at the crease after along lay-off. Sharma grabbed the opportunity with both hands and completed his well deserved half-century with a six off the last ball. The 20-year-old from Mumbaikar hit seven fours and two sixes in his 40-ball innings. It was not easy to bat on that too for man who his taking the center stage at this crucial juncture for the first time, but Rohit held his nerve till the end to take the team to a respectable total.

If the first part of the match was in Rohit Sharma’s name then the later part was totally mesmerized by Rudra Pratap Singh’s presence on the field. A double whammy at the start by RP Singh put Proteas on the back foot.

RP struck again in his third over from round the stumps to send back Shaun Pollock finishing his first spell with 3-0-11-3 while Rohit Sharma did a brilliant job in effecting a run-out to send back the dangerous Justin Kemp.

South Africa at 31-5, the target looked to be achievable as they needed just 126 to qualify at least, and there on Boucher and Albie Morkel recovered their team to an extent with a 69-run partnership. Though Sreesanth got the wicket late, the tension in the Indian camp vanished with Boucher’s exit. Irfan Pathan bowled a fine spell but was not lucky to get a wicket.

Harbhajan had Vernon Philander stumped in the next over and R P Singh then returned to dismiss Morkel and end South Africa's hopes.

"We seemed to find a way to lose in big tournaments. It is really disappointing not to make the semis of our own tournament," said Smith, the South African captain.

"But that is how it goes sometimes and we have to get on with life and get over the disappointment quickly."

Indian skipper Dhoni said “ We weren’t sure when we took the field to defend our total. But it was our efforts which charges us up.”

The man of the match was awarded to Rohit Sharma for his brilliant unbeaten 50 and a terrific run-out to send back dangerous Justin Kemp. India now plays Australia again at Durban in the semifinal in on Saturday while South Africa take on Pakistan in Cape Town earlier on the same day.

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