World Cup Match 34 Group B India vs Ireland Review; Dhawan shines in India win

World Cup Match 34 Group B India vs Ireland Review; Dhawan shines in India win: India played Ireland in their 5th match of the World Cup in Hamilton. Having already qualified for the knockouts, India just saw the match as some more batting practice before their quarterfinals. Whereas for Ireland, if they won the match, they would have had a strong chance of qualifying for the knockoffs as thy have to face Pakistan next and losing against India meant their match against Pakistan becomes a virtual knock out game. Read on for our full review of the match.

Ireland won the toss and decided to bat first on a seemingly flat wicket at Seddon Park. They got a good opening start with William Porterfield scoring 67 and Paul Stirling scoring 42 and adding 89 for the first wicket in 14 overs. But Dhoni brought on spin in form of Ashwin who dismissed Stirling and Raina who dismissed last match’s hero Ed Joyce for 2. Porterfield fell to Mohit Sharma and Ireland were 145/3 in 31 overs.

Then Niall O’Brien (75) and Andy Balbirnie (24) got together and tried to give some impetus to the Ireland innings with a 61 run partnership for the 5th wicket. But Mohammad Shami and Ashwin broke the partnership accounting for Balbirnie and O’Brien brothers in quick succession. Rest of the Irish batting didn’t pose much threat to the Indian bowling and Ireland were bowled out for 259 in 49 overs. This was the 5th consecutive match in which India bowled out their opponents. Mohd. Shami was the pick of the bowlers with 3/41.

India had a great chance to have some good batting practice in the match and the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma did just that. They started dominating the medium pace attack of Ireland from the word go. Rohit Sharma who has been quite in the World Cup apart from a 50 against UAE hit another 50 against Ireland. He scored 64 runs with 3 fours and 3 sixes. But the match belonged to Rohit’s partner Shikhar Dhawan, who dominated the bowling to the maximum. Dhawan got 2 chances in the field, when his catches were dropped by John Mooney himself on his bowling and by a fielder on Mooney’s bowling again. Dhawan took advantage of that and pummelled the Irish for his second century in this World Cup. He scored 100 in 85 balls with 11 fours and 5 sixes. India lost their 1st wicket on 174, that of Rohit Sharma in the 23rd over, making this the highest opening stand for India in the World Cups beating Sachin Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja’s 163 run stand against Kenya in 1996 World Cup.

Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli got together after the loss of Dhawan and both made 70 runs together to take India to victory by 8 wickets in the 37th over. Virat remained not out on 44 and Rahane scored 33 not out. India now has won 9 straight win in the World Cups and 5th straight win in this World Cup and have now cemented their place on the top of the table.

It is now certain that India will play Bangladesh in the quarterfinals and will play Zimbabwe next on 14th March at Auckland. While Ireland will play Pakistan next to decide which team goes forward to play New Zealand in the quarterfinals in a knockout game before the knockouts.

Shikhar Dhawan won the Man of the match for his brilliant 100.

Brief Scores:
Ireland 259 (N O’Brien 75, W Porterfield 67; Shami 3-41) lost to India 260/2 (S Dhawan 100, R Sharma 64; S Thompson 2/45) by 8 wickets and 79 balls remaining.

Records and Trivia:
# 174 runs stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma is the highest opening stand for India in World Cup matches.

# This is MS Dhoni’s 175th ODI match as captain, the most by an Indian captain in ODIs, beating Azharuddin (174).

# Dhoni becomes the most successful Captain for India in World Cups winning his 12th match overall and 9th consecutive win in the World Cups.

# India bowled out their 5th team in this World Cup in 5 matches.

# This was India’s 9th straight win counting from the 2011 World Cup. They beat their record of 8 wins in the 2003 World Cup.

# Whenever Shikhar Dhawan scores 95+ (done it 9 times before this match), India has won.

# India’s 2nd biggest ODI win by balls (79) to spare while chasing a target of 250+ (but best in WC).