The Top Performers on Tuesday

Tilekratne Dilshan 48 (37) and Mahela Jayawardene 41* (29)

The two Sri Lankan batting heavyweights made New Zealand pay heavily for the number of loose boundary balls they bowled, literally one after the other. Dilshan opened the innings and was least affected in his belligerent plans by Jayasuriya being dismissed on the first ball and Silva following soon after. Along with Sangakkara, he gave the Lankans a perfect platform from which to launch. And when he was dismissed in the 12th over, he was replaced by Jayawardene, who allowed the Kiwis no respite. The total of 158 that resulted was always going to be too steep for an out of form batting line-up.

Ajantha Mendis 3-0-9-3

The Mendis mystery continues to baffle international batsmen. It was New Zealand this time who ended up completely clueless about what the ball was going to do after pitching. The dangerous Ross Taylor, Scott Styris and wicketkeeper McGlashan all became hapless victims during his brief spell. Another Kiwi collapse followed, and Mendis walked away with the Man Of The Match award.

AB deVilliers 63 (51)

The fact that every other batsman in the two star-studded batting line-ups struggled to come to terms with the turn and lack of pace in the wicket, and none of them got past 29, is some measure of the quality of AB’s innings. Displaying great timing and skill in footwork and placing the ball, deVilliers held the South African batting together and made sure that they managed to post a competitive total. An obvious man of the match award followed one of the most convincing performances of this world cup.

The Spinners

While Botha ended up being the most successful spinner with figures of 4-0-16-3, and in general the South African spinners got more of the limelight as they had managed to give India a taste of their own medicine, virtually every spinner who bowled in this match held sway over the batsmen. Jadeja (3-0-9-1) and Harbhajan (4-0-20-1) held a stranglehold over Boucher and Duminy in the later overs, and deserved a pat on their backs even though their demoralized batsmen could not press the advantage. However, it is no surprise that everyone is talking about Van Der Merwe and Botha. It is the first time that the cricketing world is getting the opportunity to say ‘quality spinners’ and ‘South Africa’ in the same sentence, and it is probably the first time in a long time that the Indians have been outplayed on a turning track.

To add salt to India’s wounds, Dhoni leaves this game with a sloppy run out and one more questionable decision to contend with – why was Jadeja not given his fourth over? Dhoni chose to give Zaheer Khan the last over, and Albie Morkel might have thanked him. The South Africans promptly took 11 of that over, and India went ahead and lost a game, that could have been much closer, by 12 runs.