India staged an impressive fightback to record a memorable 80-run win over the West Indies in Chennai on Sunday.
The victory sets up a thrilling quarter-final encounter with the reigning champions Australia in Ahmedabad (24 March), while the West Indies face a trip to Dhaka to take on Pakistan (23 March).
The other quarter-finals will see Sri Lanka-England in Colombo (26 March), while New Zealand and South Africa will also face off in Dhaka (25 March).With Sachin Tendulkar on the verge of scoring 100 centuries, most of the crowd would have been hoping to see him achieve that feat, but sadly for them he fell in the opening over to Ravi Rampaul.
When Gambhir followed to leave India struggling on 51-2, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh rebuilt the innings with an excellent 122-run partnership.When Kohli (59) became Ravi Rampaul’s third victim, Yuvraj continued to play a vital role, despite struggling with the strong Chennai sunshine, and he deservedly recorded his first World Cup century off 112 balls.
However, when Dhoni fell for 22, it sparked another India batting collapse as it went from 218-3 to 268 all out, with Yuvraj finally falling for 113. Ravi Rampaul was undoubtedly the pick of the West Indies attack, as he took 5-51, although Devendra Bishoo once again showed promise with an excellent display of spin bowling.
In reply, Devon Smith and Kirk Edwards gave the West Indies a brisk start. Even when Edwards fell, Smith and Bravo carried on the good work, with Smith making an impressive 81.
But when Smith departed, the West Indies inexplicably collapsed from 154-2 to 188 all out, as Zaheer Khan (3-26) did the damage, and once Sarwan went for 39 its hopes of victory had disappeared.