South Africa - vs - West Indies

The sad thing for West Indies is that they were not as bad as the final margin suggests. In fact, they were on top for a good part of their innings, with Darren Bravo mastering South Africa's spinners and seamers with Laraesque grace. Imran Tahir was hit out of the attack, but once Bravo fell to an efficient Johan Botha, Tahir came back on and turned hoops around West Indies. Steyn did his bit, and West Indies finished well short of what they needed. And then Dwayne Bravo picked up an injury which reduced them to a 2.5-man attack. AB was just too good to let them off. Comprehensive win in the end. 

 Score Card

JP: "Good to start with a win. Wasn't too difficult to get in on this pitch. Special knock from AB. You knew when he hit that first four, that he was song. Lots of confidence in the dressming room - Immy [Imran Tahir] did exceptionally, so good on him." 

The Delhi crowd and the South African contingent in the stands cheer on as AB de Villiers picks up the Man of the Match award. "It is a batsman's game [that's why Tahir is not Man of the Match he says, tongue in cheek!] I wasn't timing it in the nets last week, but it came off well tonight. Prior IPL experience in Delhi helped a bit - it was my advice to bat second, and that worked for us tonight." Graeme Smith: (clearly nurning a sore throat of sorts) "Winning the toss was nice, we started well. Darren Bravo played really well, but we managed to peg it back in the middle. We tried to mix it up in the middle. Once you pick a wicket, you can build pressure and we managed to pick up wickets in clusters. My batting wasn't the best - I have been a little ill coming into the game, so I just wanted to bat through with AB and build a partnership. AB went faster than run a ball and paced it real well. Long time to our next game, good vibe in the group and we will take some time off."

Darren Sammy: "We had an opportunity to get a lot more runs .. We needed someone to play like AB did for SA. Few positives - Darren Bravo played really well and we hope he can continue. We kept losing wickets in clusters, and it did not help. Losing Dwayne Bravo was not good for us. We don't know the extent of the injury yet. Hopefully he'll be ok."

India stay on top of Group B on Net run rate, but we have a real long way to go before that begins to matter.

Today's Matches 

25 Feb	Australia vs New Zealand	Score Card	Nagpur
25 Feb	Bangladesh vs Ireland	Score Card	Dhaka

Australia vs New Zealand:
Ponting wins the toss and chooses to bowl under clouds. "Solid start in the first game, not spectacular, but this is a very different wicket. Some moisture around, and cloud cover, we expect to do well with the ball. Not often that you begin in conditions like these in India, so this is interesting." Harsha got it right - Aus are unchanged.

There was some rain in Nagpur yesterday, but the good news is that it's stopped in time.

New Zealand were 68/5 (15 ov)