Not surprisingly, newspapers devoted a number of column inches to Shikhar Dhawan’s 137 in India’s mauling of South Africa at the World Cup on Sunday.
Dhawan’s coach Madan Sharma is quoted in The Times of India as saying that the batsman wasn’t sure whether to attack short balls or not: “but before leaving for Australia, he made up his mind. He came to the academy and practised the upper cut against the bowling machine. And it has started to come off since the World Cup match against Pakistan.”
Dileep Premchandran writing for The Guardian digs deeper and finds a link between Dhawan’s performance yesterday and Facebook. Premchandran writes that during Dhawan’s years-long slump, he met his Melbourne-based wife Ayesha Mukherjee on the social media site, “Mukherjee, 12 years older and mother of two girls – she and Dhawan now have a baby boy as well – sorted him out. A trained kickboxer, she helped Dhawan take on board the discipline and mental composure that marks the truly special from the also-rans.”
But Premchandran also uncovers a stunning statistic, “what matters is this: in seven innings across the Champions Trophy and this World Cup, Dhawan’s scores are 114, 102 not out, 48, 68, 31, 73 and 137. He really is a big-time Charlie, in the best sense.”
Read the rest of the article here.
In The Indian Express Sandeep Dwiwedi, writing from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, hypes up India’s bowling performance, “World Cup promos in the years to come will feature clips of the spells Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav bowled. The sight of the South Africans ducking, swaying, getting hit on their fingers, closing their eyes and those run-outs are expected to run on loop.”
And speaking of the 86,000+ crowd at the MCG, The Hindu quotes MS Dhoni as saying that the massive support from Indian fans helped the team “the attendance was close to 86,000 or 87,000. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt, 20,000 to the South African fans, but to get over 50,000 people in Australia just adds to the atmosphere that gets created.”
Writing in The Hindu, former Indian spinner Murali Kartik focuses on Ajinkya Rahane’s 79, “ if Suresh Raina’s was the clinching innings in spite of Virat’s hundred against Pakistan, it was Ajinkya Rahane’s effort on Sunday which shaped the way the scorecard progressed. He was dominant from the start and came up with a solid performance.”
Of course, newspapers also focused on the team performance and the meaning of the win.
The Times of India states, “when the World Cup began barely 10 days ago, only die-hard Indian fans believed their team had a chance. The bookies pointed to India’s toothless attack and out-of-form batsmen and placed them in the middle rung. Two matches on, the defending champs have emerged as serious contenders, following up their triumph over Pakistan with a scarcely believable 130-run walloping of South Africa.”
On ESPNCricinfo, Sidharth Monga brings in some perspective on team India, “they might not be the strongest team in the field, but on big days in limited-overs cricket they stay calmer than most. In a match to potentially decide who finishes top of their group, India sat back and saw South Africa work themselves up into a frenzy, get too funky and wilt under the weight of their own mistakes.”
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)