Records tumbling at Cricket World Cup in India

It is not every day that the breaking of two cricket records is witnessed in person.

One such day was last Saturday at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley stadium. South Africa savaged Sri Lanka’s bowling attack to the tune of 428 for the loss of five wickets, beating the previous record of 417.

Three players scored a century, with Aiden Markram scoring the fastest one in ODI World Cup history off 49 deliveries. This surpassed Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball hundred in 2011. Last Tuesday, Pakistan chased a target of 345 against Sri Lanka, the highest successful run-chase in ODI World Cup history. In a quirk of fate, this beat the sensational defeat of England by Ireland in 2011 in India, when O’Brien made history.

If this opening round of matches is anything to go by, it will be a World Cup of broken records. Despite two low-scoring matches, the average first innings score has been 288, with three totals in excess of 300. The low score in Chennai took place on a wicket helpful to spinners, India selecting three top class purveyors of the art. They were largely instrumental in shackling Australia, whose middle order batters seemed reluctant to take risks.

A target of 200 appeared straightforward for India, but they were reduced to two for three wickets and would have been in deeper, possibly irreparable, trouble when Virat Kohli offered a catch which was dropped. This would have rendered India 12 for four. Instead Kohli steadied the ship and, along with KL Rahul, was responsible for his team reaching the target in 41.2 overs.

India followed up this victory with an eight-wicket win against Afghanistan on Wednesday. Your columnist has detected an expectant atmosphere in India. The locals have little doubt that India will win.