India opened their World Cup campaign on a not-so-impressive note marked by a collapse of its much-toutedbatting line-up but the bowlers pitched in to pull off a 68-run victory over minnows Holland in a low-scoringpool-A match here today.
India suffered the ignominy of being bowled out inside their quota of overs, mustering just 204 runs, buteven that proved to be too much for the inexperienced Holland who folded up for 136 but frustrated the Indiansby a spirited late resistance.
Spinner Anil Kumble and speedster Javagal Srinath inflicted the maximum damage, claiming four wickets eachrespectively, as only opener Daan van Bunge came up with a decent score making a resolute 62.
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Earlier, the famed Indian batting line-up failed to find its bearings even in the World Cup opening game asit struggled to reach a modest score of 204 before being bowled out inside their quota of overs by minnowsHolland here today.
With the honourable exception of Sachin Tendulkar, who top-scored with 52, none of the Indian batsmen wereallowed to play freely and were tied down by a limited but accurate bowling attack of Holland.
Yuvraj Singh (37), and Dinesh Mongia (42), came up with useful knocks in their 55-run stand for the seventhwicket, the highest partnership of the innings, before the Indians were bundled out in 48.5 overs.
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The dominance of the bowlers and fielders was also evident in the fact that just 13 boundaries -- seven ofthem by Tendulkar -- and one six were struck during the entire innings by a batting line-up that has some ofthe best-known stroke-players in the world.
Later, the captain, Sourav Ganguly admitted that "the batting needs to be sorted out. This was thefirst game. A lot needs to be done.
Ganguly, who made a scratchy eight runs from 32 balls before being caught behind, evaded a direct reply tohis own batting form.
"It was a slow pitch and a bit damp. They bowled a good line and length and bowled wicket to wicket.... We are surprised by the slowness of the pitches on which we played the first three matches (including thewarm-up games). When we toured South Africa in October 2001, the strips had more bounce and pace," hesaid.
Leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who took four wickets for 32 runs, said he was happy to have bowled a good spellafter a long time. "I didn't get much opportunity to bowl in New Zealand. So today's spell helped me toget back into my rhythm," he said.
