India have added fuel to the fire of the argument against keeping the minnow nations in future World Cup tournaments, with a commanding nine-wicket win over the United Arab Emirates at the WACA Ground on Saturday. The unbeaten Indians showed the true gulf that exists between the top sides and the rest in front of a dismal Perth crowd of just 8718. The UAE won the toss and chose to bat first, but were dismissed for just 102 in the 32nd over. Before the 31-run last wicket partnership between Shaiman Anwar and Manjulu Guruge, the UAE were staring down the barrel of one of the top 10 low scores in World Cup history. The Indians reached 1-104 to claim victory in just 18.5 overs, without really exerting themselves. They lost the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan for 14 when the score was 29, but it took a terrific one-handed catch by Rohan Mustafa off the bowling of Mohammad Naveed to complete the dismissal. The game was over seven minutes (2.5 overs) after the players took the scheduled break for what should have been the change of innings. The artificial light had only just taken over. Indian opener Rohit Sharma played himself into some much-needed form, with an unbeaten 57 from 55 balls, including 10 boundaries and a six, following his duck and innings of 15 against South Africa and Pakistan respectively. Virat Kohli also remained unbeaten, on 33 from 41 balls. It wasn't the pacey wicket that was the UAE's undoing though, but the spin bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Ashwin returned the third best bowling figures by an Indian spinner at a World Cup, with 4-25 from his 10 overs, while Jadeja claimed 2-23 from five overs. Only Anwar, batting at number six, looked capable of holding firm against India. He top-scored with 35, having also led the way against Ireland (106) and Zimbabwe (67). This is the first time India win first 3 matches at a WC for first time.
