Some reports of this match said things like "India stunned Australia in the quarter-final of the icc knockout". It’s never correct to say that India stuns anybody when it wins. India stuns only its own fans. And that’s when it loses. What’s true, however, is when people say it was a close match though India won by 20 runs. There is no such thing called an easy victory against Australia. When the World Champions put India into bat in Nairobi, they would have marked out the usual suspects. Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly were going to try and destroy Australian’s main bowling attack. But it would be someone else, an 18-year-old who would come later and play a remarkable knock. Before that the first duel in the contest was an equally absorbing one. McGrath vs Tendulkar. The mood that Sachin was in, there seemed to be no real contest at times—he hit McGrath for three sixes off successive overs. Then he had to go. By the time Dravid left, the score was 90 for 3. Yuvraj Singh walked into the field to play his first ever one-day match. It was a calm confident debut against the World Cup holders. It was an innings that cemented his place in the one-day side though he would be dropped later in his brief cricket life. His 84 in 80 balls came with arrogant shots off the best names in the business, singles that the Australians may have thought only Michael Bevan could take, a solid defence in the face of a good attack. But the target India had set was never considered to be beyond Australia. The only good news for India then was that Australia had to forego two overs because of their uncharacteristically slow bowling rate. Though Mark Waugh fell early, the middle-order made the task look simple. Chasing 266, Australia was 159 for three and heading towards a comfortable win. But a good Indian bowling attack triggered off an unbelievable Australian collapse. After the match, Steve Waugh said that India wanted to win the match more than his team did. That was not true, if one may dare to disagree with Waugh. Australia wanted to win as much. But India beat them that day.
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This That
- Yuvraj Singh made his debut in this match. He scored his 50 in 47 balls with four boundaries
- India beat South Africa in the semi-final, and lost to New Zealand in the final
