Dhoni, Raina break Zimbabwe’s hearts
Reigning world champions India end group stages with their sixth win after crushing Zimbabwe by six wickets.
Published On 14 Mar 2015
World champions India extended their unbeaten record at the cricket World Cup with a six-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in their final group match before a noisy crowd of predominantly Indian supporters.
Suresh Raina (110) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (85) combined in an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 196 at Eden Park to give their team a sixth successive victory in the tournament.
The win had no influence on the group standings as India were assured of top place in Pool B regardless of the result while Zimbabwe had already been eliminated.
Keep reading
list of 4 itemsAustralia’s Smith joins Washington Freedom before MLC cricket season
Jadeja reaches IPL cricket milestone in Chennai’s win over Kolkata
Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 192 runs to sweep Test series 2-0
Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor was the day’s individual hero, celebrating his last international before taking up an English county contract by scoring 138 in his team’s 287 all out from 48.5 overs.
Taylor reached his eighth ODI hundred, a Zimbabwe record, with a ramp shot off Mohammed Shami which steered the ball over third man for a six. He was also the first Zimbabwe batsman to score consecutive centuries in a World Cup.
The Zimbabwe skipper then struck three fours and two sixes off an over from left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja to become the second-highest run scorer in the tournament before he was caught off Mohit Sharma.
Early trouble
In reply, Tinashe Panyangara rocked the Indians by capturing the wickets of openers Rohit Sharma (16) and Shikhar Dhawan (4) in the same over.
Ajinkya Rahane (19) played some handsome drives before he was run out trying to regain his crease after a misunderstanding with his partner Virat Kholi.
India were in trouble when Kholi was bowled around his legs for 38 trying to sweep off-spinner Sikandar Raza before Raina found his timing to hit Williams’s left-arm spin into the crowd from successive deliveries.
The Zimbabwe fielding began to falter and the bowling became more erratic and Raina completed his first World Cup century and his fifth in ODIs 94 balls.
Dhoni secured the victory with eight balls to spare by hooking a six.
Scorecard:
Zimbabwe 287 all out in 48.5 overs (Taylor 138, Yadav 3-43)
India 288 for 4 in 48.4 overs (Raina 110*, Panyangara 2-53)
Source: Reuters