When the Indian cricket team arrived in England as the defending T20 world champions, MS Dhoni’s men were hot favourites to take the trophy home again. Placed in a comparatively weaker group with teams like Bangladesh and Ireland, India cruised its way to the Super Eight stage. However, the smooth start was soon jolted by a 7-wicket loss against the West Indies in their first super eight match. India was now in desperate need of a win as it faced England at the Lord’s on June 14, 2009.
Winning the toss, captain Dhoni decided to field first with hopes of getting early wickets to put the English side under pressure. In the second over of the match, Yuvraj Singh provided his team with the required early success when he dismissed English opener Luke Wright, after which Kevin Pietersen joined Ravi Bopara at the crease.
Under pressure, the duo slowly started getting the batting back on track and stitched a partnership of 71 runs before Bopara was clean bowled by Ravindra Jadeja. And Just when Pietersen was inching close to a fifty, he was also dismissed by Jadeja in the 13th over. After Pietersen’s dismissal, wickets continued to fall in regular intervals and the England scorecard could never really take off. England finished at 153 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs.
In reply, India also did not have a great start and lost two wickets in quick succession. While Gautam Gambhir started off well, his innings failed to pick up the pace and he was dismissed at 26 in the 11th over. The decision to send Jadeja over in-form Yuvraj Singh at number 4 also cost India heavily. Batting at no. 4 he scored 35 ball 25 before being dismissed by Graeme Swann. Yuvraj hit a 9 ball 17 before becoming the second target of Swann.
Towards the end of the chase, the partnership between Dhoni (30 off 20) and Yusuf Pathan (33 off 17) gave some hopes for India but was not enough as the Indian fell 3 runs short of the victory target in the final over and India finished at 150 for 5. India conceded its second straight win in the super eight stages virtually ending the team’s campaign in the tournament. Ryan Sidebottom was adjudged Man of the Match for his 2 for 31 in 4 overs.
Dhoni’s team showed a sorry form in the T20 WC 2009 and finished it off with another defeat against South Africa in its last match.
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