Ind v SA World Cup 2011 Half Time: India Lose Way After Sachin's 48th Ton, Sehwag Rampage

For about eighteen overs of India's batting innings, South Africa thought they had lost the plot and we at the mercy of the hosts in Nagpur. However, South Africa crept through and in the end, a little bit of benevolence from India ensured South Africa would have felt much better when the innings ended in the Ind v SA match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 despite another innings of explosive magnitude from Virender Sehwag and yet another century from Sachin Tendulkar.

virender sehwag sachin tendulkar v sa

In a highly anticipated clash, India chose to bat first and for the first part of the innings, it seemed like India had made a decision that would bury the visitors. South Africa, still perhaps reminiscing about their dramatic loss to England, appeared wary of the two batsmen at the crease, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.

Uncharacteristic bowling emanated from the South African camp with Dale Steyn feeding Sehwag on the leg side while Morne Morkel was rather generous with juicy half volleys. Between the two of them, Graeme Smith, the South African captain, thought he had lost two fine bowlers on the day. With the Indians showing scant respect for any of the bowlers that South Africa had to offer, South Africa would have thought that this was going to be one horrendous bowling fiasco.

Sehwag showed no mercy, pouncing on bad balls, jerking South Africa on the wides (twelve for the match) and just rocketing off runs with Tendulkar a spectator for the better part of the start. But just when it seemed South Africa had run out of their fair share of bowlers, the breakthrough came through the unlikely option of Faf du Plessis as Sehwag was perhaps guilty of being a touch over confident and giving himself more room than necessary. Sehwag was dismissed for seventy-three and India at 142 in the eighteenth over.

The onus then fell on the other set batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, and while Tendulkar kept himself ahead of the runs per ball tally, it was evident that the berserk momentum of the match had been forfeited by Sehwag. But it was the stupendous runr ate early on that allowed India to slowly generate the runs as the spinners began to slow down the rampage that hit Nagpur early on. Johan Botha tied things up while Robin Peterson began to etch away at the wickets.

But the second most dramatic session of the innings came about after Tendulkar completed his forty-eighth ODI century, his ninety-ninth international century and the second century in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

As India looked to accelerate and opted for the batting powerplay, the tide went against them with India losing nine wickets for only twenty-nine runs added thereafter. Tendulkar was the start of their slide with India on 268 in the fortieth over. Thereafter, every batsman that came along looked to play like Sehwag with the result being that at a time when India could have played sensibly and added runs through singles and twos, they completely lost the plot to lose the remaining wickets to give South Africa confidence about their chances with Dale Steyn storming back with five wickets even as Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked on helplessly from the other end for want of India rotating the strike. 296 is still a tall order but on a fine pitch and smooth outfield, and knowing that they could have been chasing anything over 360-400, South Africa will believe they are back in the hunt.