The third edition of the tournament, played in the West Indies, was a forgettable one for Team India.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men started with a win over new entrants Afghanistan, at Gros Islet, St. Lucia. India knocked off the target of 116 with seven wickets and five overs to spare.
The next game, played against South Africa at the same venue, witnessed an extraordinary batting performance by Suresh Raina. The left-hander became only the third batsman after Chris Gayle (West Indies) and Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) to score a T20 International hundred. His sixty-ball 101 featured nine fours and five huge sixes. Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith added 97 for the second wicket in pursuit of India’s 186-5, but the Proteas finished fourteen runs short. Yusuf Pathan was India’s most successful bowler with figures of 2-42.
The Indians thus entered the Super Eights stage on a high, only to be outplayed by Australia in their first game. Michael Clarke’s side batted first and handled the Indian bowling with aplomb to score 184-5. The Indian batting then came a cropper against some lively Australian bowling. Rohit Sharma essayed a lone hand of 79, even as his team was bundled out for 135.
The next game against the West Indies was a do-or-die affair for India. Dhoni once again won the toss and elected to field, and saw the hosts rattle up 169-6. The target was by no means beyond India’s reach, but the Windies bowlers gave nothing away. They tested the technique and patience of the Indian batsmen, and made breakthroughs at regular intervals. The Indians struggled to string together partnerships, and were 155-9 at the end.
When Dhoni won the toss in the third Super Eights game against Sri Lanka and elected to bat, his team’s only hope of qualifying for the semi-finals was to win by twenty runs or more, and then hope that Australia beat the West Indies later in the day. Gautam Gambhir (41) and Suresh Raina (63) gave India a rollicking start, but the Sri Lankans put down the shutters and yielded only 73 runs in the last ten overs. India finished with 163-5, after looking good for 190-200 at the halfway mark. The Indian bowlers then tried their best, but the Sri Lankan batsmen displayed resilience. Consecutive sixes by Chamara Kapugedera off the final two balls of the penultimate over reduced the equation to thirteen off the last over, and killed India’s chances of qualifying for the semis. The final over, bowled by Ashish Nehra, began with a six over long-off by Angelo Matthews, and ended with one as Kapugedera cleared the cover boundary when three were required off the final delivery.
It was the second consecutive ICC World T20 event in which the 2007 champions had lost all three Super Eights matches.
