Target 190: Early losses for India as Sehwag, Sachin and Pathan go
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New Delhi: India’s plans to end the Kotla carnival early hit a bump after the Dutch sent Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar back to the podium.
Sehwag, who looked in a hurry to finish off the paltry 190-run target, gave out his wicket to Pieter Seelaar.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has made his plan of pushing the net run rate clear by sending in the pinchhitter Yusuf Pathan.
Sachin Tendulkar, who gave India a blazing start along with Sehwag, became the first batsman to score 2,000 World Cup runs, reaching the mark by hitting three consecutive fours in front of legions of fans in New Delhi.
The brutal openers of Men-in-Blue went behind all the Dutch bowlers and seemed to end the Feroz Shah Kotla carnival soon.
The placid pitch had nothing in offering for the pacers and was reported to slow down more in the second innings.
Earlier, India relied on a pace-spin combination to bowl out the Netherlands for a below-par 189.
Spinners Piyush Chawla and Yuvraj Singh shared four wickets while fast bowler Zaheer Khan grabbed 3-20 after Dutch captain Peter Borren elected to bat before a 30,000 crowd at the Kotla Stadium.
Borren offered the only resistance with a late cameo of 38 runs off 36 balls, with three fours and two sixes, in an otherwise disappointing batting performance by the Netherlands on a placid track.
A victory in this day-night clash will virtually assure India of a place in the quarterfinals.
The Netherlands have lost all their three matches so far and languish at the bottom of the Group B table without a point.
The Dutch were off to a steady start with openers Eric Szwarczynski and Wesley Barresi negotiating India's bowling attack with surprising ease in the first 15 overs.
Szwarczynski, one of two changes in the Netherlands team, hit Zaheer for two fours in an over and looked composed until he was bowled by a googly from leg-spinner Chawla.
Szwarczynski made 28 with four fours and shared 56 runs for the opening wicket with Barresi.
Yuvraj struck in his very first over when he had Barresi (26) trapped leg before for his 100th wicket in one-day internationals.
The burly all-rounder starred in India's five-wicket win against Ireland on Sunday, grabbing a match-winning 5-31 and making an unbeaten 50.
Yuvraj gave India another breakthrough when star all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate (11) offered an outside egde which was superbly pouched by Zaheer just inches from the long-off boundary.
It was all downhill for the Dutch from there on, with Tom Cooper (29) edging to wicket-keeper and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Ashish Nehra's second spell with the old ball and Bas Zuiderent caught in front by Zaheer for a duck.
The Dutch slipped to 108-6 in the 35th over when Tom de Grooth was run out by a throw from Chawla to Dhoni who whipped the bails off.
Chawla picked up his second wicket with Alexei Kervezee holing out listlessly to Harbhajan Singh near the ropes.
Bradley Kruger was the second batsman to be run out before Borren provided some late fireworks, hoisting Chawla for two sixes in a row in the 42nd over.
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