DURBAN, 21 March 2003 — Captain Saurav Ganguly struck his third hundred of the World Cup yesterday to spur India to a 91-run semifinal win over Kenya.
Chasing India’s imposing 270 for four, Kenya never looked likely to threaten an upset and eventually succumbed for 179 in a desperately one-sided match.
The 1983 champions now play defending champions and favorites Australia in the final at The Wanderers on Sunday.
Ganguly’s century, his fourth overall in World Cups, equals teammate Sachin Tendulkar and Australian Mark Waugh’s record. He also joined Waugh as the only batsman to have scored three hundreds in a single tournament.
Ganguly was undefeated at the close of the Indian innings, his 111 runs coming off 114 balls with five fours and five sixes.
“I’ve batted pretty well in the World Cup,” said Ganguly. “We need to fire in the next round. It was important not to lose early wickets with the white ball and the hard seam.
“We will have a good rest tomorrow, we will have to wait and see what the wicket is like at The Wanderers.”
Under gray Durban skies that promised rain but delivered only a brief early sprinkling, India started patiently with, Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag batting watchfully on an unusually slow Kingsmead pitch.
Sehwag was on 33 when he lost patience with the accurate but toothless Kenyan bowling and spooned a catch to cover off Peter Ongondo.
Tendulkar batted well within himself, passing his 50 off 64 balls and looking well set to notch his 35th one-day hundred when he pulled Steve Tikolo straight to deep midwicket where David Obuya clung onto a rasping catch above his head.
His 83 runs came off 101 balls with five fours and took his tournament record tally to 669 in 10 innings.
Ganguly played himself in before looking to accelerate, targeting young leg spinner Collins Obuya as he did in Cape Town in the Super Six match between the two sides.
Twice in the same over Ganguly slog swept Obuya for towering sixes over midwicket and he continued to improvise throughout his innings, several times charging down the wicket to the Kenyan medium pacers as the overs ran out.
Kenya’s highest successful run chase in a One-Day International is the 214 they chased to beat Bangladesh by eight wickets in Dhaka in 1998-1999, so the odds were always heavily stacked against the East Africans.
A good start was always going to be essential for Kenya to mount a genuine challenge, but India’s much-improved seam attack ensured not even the faintest sniff of an upset.
Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath and Ahish Nehra picked up a wicket each as Kenya slumped to 30 for three and rapidly out of contention.
Ravindu Shah (1) was plumb in front to Zaheer, Ongondo (0) looked totally out of his depth at number three before offering a catch to mid on off Nehra and Srinath continued his good tournament with a fine delivery Kennedy Otieno (15) could only edge to the wicketkeeper.
Nehra grabbed his second shortly afterward when Sehwag did well to hold on to a steepling catch at fine leg to dismiss Thomas Odoyo for seven.
Ganguly looked to profit from the good start and brought on his slow bowlers early in a bid to reach the 25 overs needed for a result in case of rain as quickly as possible. In the process he captured the wicket of Maurice Odumbe (19), caught in the deep off Yuvraj Singh.
With a result assured, Zaheer returned to remove Hitesh Modi (9) leaving only Tikolo (56 from 83 balls) to battle for some personal pride against the part-time spin of Tendulkar and Sehwag as the crowd thinned dramatically and Kenya slipped meekly from the World Cup.
“Saurav won an important toss,” said Tikolo.
