Man-of-the-match Zaheer Khan's romance with Trent Bridge continues as he finishes with 4-19
Man-of-the-match Zaheer Khan's romance with Trent Bridge continues as he finishes with 4-19
Zaheer Khan continued his love affair with Trent Bridge as his opening burst of three wickets in two overs effectively sealed Ireland's fate in the World Twenty20 group game yesterday.
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Ireland's Jeremy Bray (left) walks after Zaheer Khan shatters the opener's stumps with a yorker during their ICC World Twenty 20 match at Trent Bridge in Nottingham last night. pics/AFP, ap |
Zaheer finished with 4-19 off his three overs and claimed the man-of-the-match in a game that was delayed by 50 minutes and reduced to 18 overs due to rain. On his last visit here in 2007, Zaheer's nine-wicket haul helped India to an eventual, rare Test series win in England.
Good memories"I really enjoy bowling in England especially on this wicket. There is always something for the fast bowlers here.
If you have good memories of the ground, it helps you perform better," said Zaheer after the match.
After restricting Ireland to 112-8 off their 18 overs, India knocked off the runs for the loss of just Gautam Gambhir and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's wickets. Rohit Sharma continued his impressive run at the top being unbeaten on 52 runs off 45 balls as India won with 15 balls to spare.
Zaheer, who is playing his second game after coming back from a shoulder injury, was on the ball right from the start, vindicating Dhoni's decision in choosing to bowl first.
Zaheer came on in the second over and struck off the last ball of the over shattering Ireland opener Jeremy Bray's stumps with a yorker. He then picked up two wickets in his next over William Porterfield and Andre Botha both caught at first slip by Yusuf Pathan. The left-arm paceman came back to pick his fourth wicket in the penultimate over.
Narrow escapeZaheer said the injury suffered in the Indian Premier League could have been lot worse.
"When I fell (while fielding) then I was a bit scared but once the scan results were out, I was pretty confident.
It was a narrow escape for me. It could have been worse. I was lucky to get away. I worked really hard on strengthening the shoulder and there's still some work that needs to be done. The good thing is that there is no danger to the shoulder," he said.
Losing three wickets in the first four overs is never easy and teams seldom recover from such situations.
Ireland did recover a bit to finish up with 112 courtesy a late-order resurgence, but that was never going to be enough to thwart a strong Indian batting line-up.
Zaheer said that IPL had really helped the Indians.
"You can see the kind of form Rohit is in. It was good to play the Twenty20 format for the last five weeks coming into the World Twenty20," he said.
Brief scores: Ireland 112 for 8 in 18 overs (A White 29,
J Mooney 19; Z Khan 4-19) lost to India 113 for 2 in 15.3 overs (R Sharma 52 not out, G Gambhir 37; W McCallan 1-28)
