India coasts to warm-up win

India sailed to a 182-run win in their warm-up match ahead of the World Cup 2007 against Netherlands, despite a valiant all-round performance by Ryan ten Doeschate who took five wickets and top scored the minnows’ innings.

After being put into bat, India got off to a flying start, thanks largely to a score of extras given by the Dutch opening bowler Mark Jonkman. However, ten Doeschate’s introduction to the attack brought about a couple of quick dismissals, of both the openers Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag, which were then followed by Uthappa’s removal by Darren Reekers.

This brought Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the old guns, into the middle with the score at 82-3 in the 16th over. Despite the quick succession of wickets, they continued at a breezy pace, passing their individuals half centuries on the way. Tendulkar was dismissed for 61 in the 35th over with the score at 198, while Dravid followed a little later for 74 with the team score at 244.

ten Doeschate’s second spell was all the more penetrative than his first as he picked up three middle to lower-order wickets, as India could never fire in the last 10 overs. However, they were able to reach a score of 300, which would, and later proved to, be a very difficult target for Netherlands.

The Dutch openers started nervously, and thus at no point looked as if they were actually even going to try to come close to India’s score. Only Bas Zuiderent and ten Doeschate managed to spend some time in the middle. However, once Zuiderent was dismissed, it looked highly unlikely that Netherlands could go much beyond 100.

When ten Doeschate was the fifth batsman to be dismissed with the score on 100, it was only a matter of time before the innings was closed. It turned out to be Yuvraj Singh surprisingly who picked up the scalps, picking up four wickets with his slow left arm orthodox.

India 300 for 9 in 50 overs
Sachin Tendulkar 61, Rahul Dravid 74
Ryan ten Doeschate 5-57

Netherlands 118 all out in 37.5 overs
Bas Zuiderent 32, Ryan ten Doeschate 31
Yuvraj Singh 4-12

India won by 182 runs.