India romps home

By Our Special Correspondent

BLOEMFONTEIN, OCT. 13. The Indians will return to the Goodyear Park, the venue for the first Test in the first week of November, with fond memories. On Friday night, here, they scored a thumping 10-wicket win over the Kenyans to take their points tally to nine, as many as the South Africans, after three matches in the Standard Bank tri-series. The day/night match against the Kenyans turned out to be such a mismatch that even India's new set of openers, Deep Dasgupta and Virendra Sehwag, could not be prevented from showing their mettle.

Though Sourav Ganguly will not get many opportunities in the series to change the established and in-form opening pair in himself and Sachin Tendulkar, he must be happy the way Dasgupta and Sehwag shaped against Kenya's new ball attack.

The Indian captain provided an opportunity for Dasgupta to get used to the conditions against a bowling attack that did not pose any threat. Dasgupta did not get a chance to bat against South Africa at `The Wanderers', but made eight off 12 balls in the second match at `The Centurion' which India won by 41 runs.

The Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman provided the right support to Virendra Sehwag who hit the ball hard and long to make his second half century in his 19th one-day International.

Ajit Agarkar - who was picked as a replacement for the injured Ashish Nehra - was declared the `Man of the match.'

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Section  : Sport
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