WC 2015 IND vs UAE: India crush UAE to seal hat-trick of wins

Perth: India cruised to a comfortable win and have now completed a hat-trick of victories in the ICC Cricket World Cup at the WACA in Perth on Saturday . Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side crushed minnows UAE by nine wickets with yet another flawless display all departments – batting, bowling and fielding. This is Dhoni's 58th ODI win as captain for India away from home joint most with Sourav Ganguly as India's captain in ODIs. 

For the first time at this World Cup, an Associate team has played like an Associate team. UAE collapsed in the face of some pretty good bowling in bouncy conditions, and the target of 102 was always going to be a stroll for India. A half-century for Rohit Sharma supported well by Virat Kohli’s 33 sealed the win for the Men in Blue. Ravichandran Ashwin's superb figures of 4 wickets for 25 runs in his spell of 10 overs was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Here's how the action unfolded:

UAE skipper Mohammad Tauqir won the toss and made the easy decision to bat first against defending champions India on what looked to be a good batting wicket. 

Umesh Yadav struck in his first over with a well-directed short delivery which was too quick for Andri Berenger to hook. Skipper MS Dhoni took a simple catch after moving a few steps to his left. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar started off proceedings for Team India but looked a bit wayward starting off with a wide and giving away six runs in the first over. It looked like Bhuvi has found his form back again. The short delivery worked well for the Indian bowlers and this time Bhuvi made good use of it sending Ajmad Ali back to the dressing room. Ali didn't trouble the scorers much scoring just the four runs off the 12 balls he faced.

There was no stopping Ravichandran Ashwin as he just picked up his third wicket. Khurram Khan judged the wrong length to sweep on a pitch with this much bounce, gloved it in the air over Dhoni, and Raina moved quickly to his right from slip towards a leg-slip-ish position to take a dolly. Khan, when he looked to be settling in went out for 14.

Mohit Sharma just couldn't resist joining the party. Mohit picked up Rohan Mustafa after a straight delivery angling towards the off stump and Mustafa, who was looking to defend missed the inside edge by a long way and the ball hit him on the back pad.

However, Mustafa wasn't convinced about the decision and immediately asked for a review. But the hawkeye certainly wasn't Mustafa's friend on the day and the dejected batsman had to make the slow walk to the pavillion scoring just the two runs.  

The Indian bowlers were certainly having a field day in Perth at the cost of the UAE batsmen. Ravindra Jadeja, brought into the attack struck in the very first ball itself. Jadeja angled in one flat with that round-arm action, and it turned away sharply as Amjad Javed came forward to defend but only found the edge and Raina caught an easy one at slip.

Mohammed Naveed, who was the new man to enter struck a huge maximum off Jadeja's next ball over wide long-on.

Naveed was also lucky in the next delivery after Raina, falling to his left couldn't hold the ball at slip. But his tenure at the crease was short-lived as Ashwin came back to haunt Naveed crashing his woodwork with a quicker delivery after the batsmen made room for himself. Naveed added just six runs to the total. 

Ashwin however, did the damage for Team India taking four wickets in his 10 overs going for just 25 runs. 

With the campaign for title defence firmly on track, it will be consolidation time against the UAE as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men are focused on getting the top spot in Group B, which would enable them play the fourth-placed team of Group A in the quarter-finals. 

Rohit Sharma then got into the action but he was more far sighted smashing a huge six on the front foot as the ball easily cleared the leg-side boundary.

Dhawan and Sharma were tackling the small total quite maturely but not for long as Mohammad Naveed sent Dhawan packing back to the dressing room giving UAE the early breakthrough. If Naveed short ball outside the off-stump was credible then Rohan Mustafa's casual one-handed catch at point was one to watch out for. India's star left-hander scored just 14 runs. 

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UAE have just about managed to avoid becoming the first team to get bowled out for under 100 against India in a World Cup. It's still their lowest total, and the lowest total by any team against India in a World Cup. The extra pace and bounce on the Perth pitch was too much for their batsmen in the end. India's spinners enjoyed the bounce too, and picked up six of the 10 wickets, with Ashwin getting his first ODI four-for.

On the field as well as on paper, UAE stand no chance against the world champions who have simply outplayed Pakistan and South Africa in their 76 and 130 run victories respectively. The Indian batting unit has performed admirably well while the bowlers' performance has surpassed everyone's expectation in the first two matches.

India though will be without the services of pacer Mohammed Shami due to a knee injury, but that is unlikely to make much difference in their bowling show against the UAE. Bhuvneshwar Kumar replaces him and will look to seal his place in the side leading the pace attack for the Men in Blue.

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The match against UAE will give them a chance to record another big win and enhance the net run-rate in case they face a hiccup against the West Indies or Ireland in the later group stages of the tournament.

While Virat Kohli, with a century and 46, is back in touch, Shikhar Dhawan has been in blazing form with a half-century against Pakistan followed by a brilliant career-best ton against South Africa. Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina have also made their fair share of contribution. 

With four of the top six batsmen in form, it could be ominous signs for an extremely inexperienced UAE bowling attack, whose collective experience is less than 30 matches.