Lara Rum Pum Pum

Jerome Taylor flying high

Pehli baat, koi please mujhe samjhaon ki bhai yeh kya ho raha hai?

I mean from the past couple of matches that have been played in the current Champions Trophy it seems like the (so-called) under-dogs are taking over the game.

First we had New Zealand beat South Africa fair and square, then we saw Pakistan in a way thrash the daylights out of the Sri Lankan team and just yesterday the West Indian slammed a victory across the invincible Australian Team.

The Guardian reports:

Any doubts concerning the intensity of the competition in the ICC Trophy were dispelled last night when West Indies, humiliated in their final qualifying match against Sri Lanka after being bowled out for 80, defeated Australia by 10 runs in Mumbai last night. Their young fast bowler Jerome Taylor took his side’s first hat-trick in a one-day international.

The defending ICC Trophy champions were in early trouble at 63 for four before Lara and Morton came together to put on 137. Lara, who was applauded all the way to the crease by the predominantly Indian crowd, began circumspectly, but gradually gained in confidence to score 71 in 94 balls. Morton made 90, although the general feeling at the end of the innings was that the West Indies’ total of 234 for six was perhaps 20 or 30 runs short.

Gilchrist had eschewed his natural flamboyance for, as Lara had demonstrated, it takes time to get a measure of the slow Indian pitches. He waited for bad balls and punished them severely. However, once he had gone, Australia had nobody else to follow suit, and West Indies displayed some commendable bowling discipline. “We were pretty happy chasing that sort of total, but we didn’t play well enough,” said Ponting.

Another bit that I found really surprising was the pumped-up support given by the Mumbai crowd in favor of the visiting Jamaicans. They were literally dancing out of their skins every time an Australian wicket was shot down by the West Indian bowlers – especially when Jerome Taylor completed a hat-trick in the last over of the game and finished with a match-winning 4-49.

For the Indian team the result of their next two matches, one with West Indies and the other with Australia would in a way be a reality check with regards to the 2007 World Cup series. Hopefully the Indian will sort out their batting dis-order or else they will surely be down down & out from the series and our hearts.