India breezes into one-day cricket finals

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 44

India breezes into one-day cricket finals

NZPA staff correspondent Launceston New Zealand’s bid for a place in the World Series Cup cricket finals petered out at Launceston yesterday with another brittle batting performance.

India laboured through to 202 off 49 overs but New Zealand could not get a whiff of the target, worming its way to 168 off 45 rain-reduced overs. The tour selectors may have rued the decision to omit the experienced lefthander, John Wright, as India breezed into the finals with a deserved 22run victory. A further reshuffle to the New Zealand batting order failed to produce the results which might have propelled the New Zealanders into the money-spinning finals.

The Indian bowlers cast a spell over the batsmen who battled for survival and threw their wickets away when the task became too great at the finish.

Kapil Dev wrecked New Zealand’s bid for a storming finish by taking three wickets in six balls.

He was sitting on a hattrick after getting rid of Jeremy Coney and Ervin McSweeney at the end of his sixth over and had Martin Snedden caught in the deep hitting out in his next over. Bruce Blair, whom the selectors have pinned firm faith on, continued to thrash away in a lone stand with faint hope. He and Stu Gillespie connected with powerful blows but by then the game had already slipped from New Zealand’s grasp. The New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, said he was disappointed to

miss the finals but more despondent about his team’s form.

“We just have not been playing well enough. Sometimes our batting has been right, other times our bowling, but we haven’t been able to put it together,” he said. Coney defended the decision to leave Wright out of the side and said it was “easy to be wise after the event.” “You could say a dropped catch (Jeff Crowe put down man-of-the-match Chethan Sharma when on one) cost us the match. “There were many reasons in the end, we did not play well enough, simple as that.” The Indian manager, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, said Sharma swung the course of the game. “We were heading for a score of about 160, which would have been difficult to defend, when Sharma came along and pushed us over 200.” At the outset, after New Zealand had won the toss, Hadlee put the screws on India, claiming the prized wicket of Sunil Gavaskar when the game was only 13 balls old. Gavaskar spent 10 minutes at the crease, spending most of the time changing a pair of boots. He received only three balls and was out the first delivery he faced after putting on his new boots. Hadlee conceded only 17 runs off his 10 overs and was instrumental in

reducing India to 202 off 48 overs. INDIA S. Gavaskar c McSweeney b Hadlee .... 1 K. Srikkanth lbw b Snedden. .......... 22 M. Amarnath c McSweeney b Gillespie ... 24 A. Malhotra c Snedden b Gillespie 39 M. Azharuddin c McSweeney b M Crowe 3 R. Shastrl b Snedden . . 23 Kapil Dev lbw b Gillespie 2 C. Sharma not out. .. . 38 R. Binny lbw b Hadlee. 24 R. Kulkami c Gillespie b Chatfield 9 K. More not out 1 Extras (lb 7 w7, nb2). 16 Total (for 9 wkts) 202 Fall: 1, 52, 56, 64, 119, 127, 127, 180, 199. Bowling: R. Hadlee 10, 5, 17, 2; E. Chatfield 9,0, 43, 1 (w2); S. Gillespie 9,0, 54, 3 (w3, nb2); M. Snedden 10, 0, 46, 2 (w2); M. Crowe 10, 2, 35, 1. NEW ZEALAND J. Crowe c Kulkami b Binny 3 B. Edgar C More b Shastri 26 M. Crowe c and b Binny. 10 J. Reid b Kulkarni. ... 37 J. Coney c Shastrl b Kapil 37 R. Hadlee c Azharuddin b Sharma 5 B. Blair c Srikkanth b Binny 19 E. McSweeney b Kapil . 0 M. Snedden c Binny b Kapil 1 S. Gillespie not out ... 15 E. Chatfield not out. . . 0 Extras (lbB, w7). .. . 15 Total (for 9 wkts) 168 Fall: 7, 27, 48, 102, 113, 135, 135, 147, 163. Bowling: Kapil Dev 9,1, 26, 3; R. Binny 9,1, 26, 3; C. Sharma 9,1, 35, 1 (w3), R. Shastri 9,0, 33, 1; R. Kulkarni 9,0, 40, 1 (w4).