Ganguly Leads From The Front

Skipper Saurav Ganguly struck timely form to pull his team out of a self-inflicted mess andguide it to a crucial six-wicket triumph over Kenya in a World Cup Super Six matchat the Newlands in Cape Town today.

Ganguly, who had been struggling for form recently, notched up his 21st one-day century, remaining unbeaten on107, as India went past Kenya's total of 225 for six with 13 balls to spare.

Ganguly's second century in this tournament -- the first had come against Namibia -- rescued the team from a precarious24 for three in the 10th over and almost sealed a place for India in the semi-finals.

India, who carried over 8 points from the league stages, now have 12 points with matches against Sri Lanka and New Zealand to go.

Kenya, making their first appearance at this stage of the World Cup, impressed with their overall performance and gave avery good account of themselves.

 They did extremely well after electing to bat to post a respectable score -- thanks to agutsy 79-run knock from Kennedy Obuya and some lethargic work in the field by the Indians -- and then backed it up withdisciplined bowling and superb fielding.

In fact, they looked headed for a major upset when they sent top guns Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and MohammadKaif packing by the 10th over with just 24 runs on the board.

However, Ganguly, who struck 11 fours and two sixes in his 120-ball knock, came up with a magnificent innings and,in two crucial partnerships with Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, saw his side through.

Yuvraj, who had done extremely well in this tournament, played another brilliant knock underpressure situation and remained unbeaten on 58 from 64 balls.

Earlier, Kenya got a very good start from Kennedy Obuya and Ravindu Shah, the pair putting on 75 runs for the firstwicket. Both of them were dropped by the butter-fingered Indians and they took full advantage of the missed chances tolay a solid foundation for their team.

It was not before the 21st over that India earned their first breakthrough, through the run out of Shah who made 34.

Two overs later, India got the big wicket of Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo who played an irresponsible sweep shot againstHarbhajan Singh and gave a simple catch to Zaheer Khan at the square leg boundary.

Then came an important 76-run partnership between Obuya and Thomas Odoyo. It was once again Harbhajan whobroke the partnership as he clean bowled Obuya with a beautiful delivery. Obuya hit six fours and two sixes in his134-ball knock.

Odumbe used all his experience to play a vital innings towards the end as Kenya comfortably crossed the 200-run markto set a challenging target for Indians to chase under lights.

India had a horrible start under lights with both openers -- Tendulkar and Sehwag -- returning to the pavilion by thefifth over.

Sehwag scored 3 before edging a catch in the slips while Tendulkar, the top-scorer in this World Cup so far, managed just 5 runs before being caught at short square leg.

Mohammad Kaif, who played such a crucial knock in the game against Pakistan, was once again sent to bat at numberfour but this time he could contribute only five runs before falling leg before wicket to ThomasOdoyo.

At 24-3, panic could have set in in the Indian camp but the captain and the vice-captain played sensibly in their 84-run partnership for the third wicket that brought the teamback on rails.

Dravid, who made 32 with three boundaries, got a little stuck up against leg-spinner Collins Obuya who had claimedfive wickets in Kenya's shock defeat against Sri Lanka in the league stage.

Unable to get the runs, Dravid got desperate and finally gave a tame return catch to Obuya as the Kenyans bounced back into the game.

Obuya sent down a few really good overs against Yuvraj too as the required run rate went above the six run mark at one stage.

Ganguly, who had reached his half-century by then, took on the responsibility and came up with a flurry of boundarieswhich broke the shackles. Runs began to flow easily for India after the 37th over and even Obuya was punished by both Yuvraj and Ganguly.

PTI