India lifts Future cup !!

Dravid again won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bowl, in a rain curtailed 31 over encounter. Agarkar had come back after missing out the last match and his presence turned the match India's way in no time. The delivery that trapped Van Wyk was a good indipper but the dream ball that castled Kallis (for the 2nd successive ODI, he got bowled) brought back memories of vintage Agarkar of the Adelaide days. Zaheer was leaping in with usual vigor and when DeVillier's edge was pounced at 1st slip by Sachin, it was a dream start; but somehow, Aleem Dar decided to have a temporary blindness and DeVilliers himself should have walked. I am not sure how Aleem thought the an edge will fly to slip, other than from bat. It was a horrible decision and the very next ball, Gambhir floored a tough chance. De Villiers hit the next one for a pull shot and I thought that Indian bowling will get back to days when they used to get distraught quickly with umpiring debacles but they did not. The overs kept ticking and the SA batsmen could not accelerate until Kemp showed up. Sourav's 2 wicket package was a bonus and Dravid was not complaining, when Ganguly slipped in a quick 6 overs at 4 apiece. Kemp had played that brilliant innings against India during the last tour and his kind of batting is something normally India does not prepare for. Here too Kemp willed his way through and when Gibbs decided to anchor the innings, it was another fruitful partnership. In the end, I thought that Dravid should have planned for a medium pacer to bowl the last over but Sachin came up with 2 wickets after being hit for a 6 by Kemp.
148 off 31 is by no means threatening score and a good start should have put SA out of the game but that was not to be. Sachin was all edges in one over from Ntini and when catches were routinely getting floored, Boucher came up with a beauty. Gambhir does not have the technical ability to play a tight innings and he got out bowled and when Ganguly too went, it looked like that India will find it tough. Dravid and Yuvaraj somehow hung in there with neither looking fluent until the very end, when Dravid took on Kallis. Dhoni provided the last bit of acceleration and India was through.
The man of the match award to Yuvaraj was a bit generous. He played well but not fluent enough in my eyes; I would have given to Agarkar, even though he just took 2 wickets. When Sachin, unexpectedly called Yuvaraj to share the man of the series award, it was even more surprising but anyway, all in all - a good series for India. Couple of things went in their favor - Dravid won 2 important tosses and they had bowled well using the new ball. Question is - do they have the bowling to be a threat when they bowl second? I doubt it, unless the bowlers are backed by a huge score and that will require real acceleration from the top. The long tour of England is about to begin but I hope that Uthappa will get a game in Scotland, to prove his worth.