Indian hopes of reaching the next stage of the Decades Tournament were dashed in Pune by a talented Rest of the World 2000s team.
Chanderpaul won an important toss and his side made good use of a flat pitch. Mahela Jayawardene batted beautifully for 180 (383 mins), before 6 wickets fell for 42 on the 2nd morning.
India closed day 2 on 239-4, Sehwag having dashed to 90 off 105 balls before succumbing to Bond's famous yorker. Ganguly could not add to his overnight 104 on day 3 as India got within 16 runs of ROW's 1st innings score.
The pitch continued to play well and day 4 was illuminated by a 3rd wicket partnership of 280 by ROW's Yousuf (138) and Fleming (165no).
Set 354 to win, India lost Gambhir in Bond's opening over but by lunch on day 5 their hopes were high, 187-1 with Ganguly and Sehwag batting carefree. Thereafter however, spin became more of a factor. 9 wickets tumbled for 71 as Vettori and Kaneria took a stranglehold on the game. A 90 run defeat was perhaps harsh on a home team who had competed well for at least the first 3 days. But their over reliance on Sehwag and Ganguly for runs (65% of India's match total) and Dravid's absence through illness certainly hindered them.
Jayawardene was MOM for his 1st day masterpiece.
India 2000s: G Gambhir, V Sehwag, SC Ganguly (c), VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, J Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma
Rest of the World 2000s: KC Sangakkara (wk), Mohammad Yousuf, DPM Jayawardene, SP Fleming, S Chanderpaul (c), WPUJC Vaas, DL Vettori, Shoaib Akhtar, Mushtaq Ahmed, SE Bond, Danish Kaneria
Rest of the World 2000s 1st Innings 378-10 (124.2 Ov)
DPM Jayawardene 180, S Chanderpaul 66, KC Sangakkara 50, Zaheer Khan 4-69, Ishant Sharma 2-86
India 2000s 1st Innings 362-10 (116.4 Ov)
SC Ganguly 104, V Sehwag 90, Munaf Patel 48, Shoaib Akhtar 4-76, SE Bond 2-50, Danish Kaneria 2-62
Rest of the World 2000s 2nd Innings 337-3 (95 Ov)
SP Fleming 165*, Mohammad Yousuf 138, Ishant Sharma 2-87
India 2000s 2nd Innings 263-10 (101.3 Ov)
SC Ganguly 123, V Sehwag 92, DL Vettori 4-36, Danish Kaneria 4-58, SE Bond 2-45
Rest of the World 2000s won by 90 runs
Man of the Match: DPM Jayawardene
Group Table
South Africa, England and the Rest of the World all have 16 points as we head into the final round of this group. The Rest of the World have completed all of their games so they must now hope for a victor between South Africa and England in order to qualify via the tie-break process.
South Africa and England will slug it out in the final game in Johannesburg to determine who will qualify as Group Winners.
Australia and India are both eliminated and cannot qualify as they head to Canberra for their final game.
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