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Flowers bloom, but Oz scent victory

Prem Panicker

For the third time in the ongoing Pepsi Cup, Zimbabwe skipper Alistair Campbell choose, on winning the toss, to insert the opposition.

For the third time, the Zimbabweans batted superbly right until the Happy Hour, then lost their way in the slog to lose by a very narrow margin. Put it down to inexperience -- the side, today, played its 100th ODI.

And Australia, powered by a superb century by Ricky Ponting, went through into the final against India, at the Firozeshah Kotla, on Tuesday next.

They couldn't have had a better day for cricket. The sky was overcast, a pleasant breeze blew through the morning to take the sting out of the 20 degree C heat, the pitch was hard and firm and the outfield lush.

It all pointed to a high scoring game -- more so, given the fact that the Kotla is one of the smallest grounds in India. Big-hitting sides, batting here, invariably pepper the hoardings with fours and sixes though, by the same token, twos and threes are harder to come by as the ball has less distance to travel to the man in the deep.

And, while this may not be relevant to the actual cricket, it was good to see that the Delhi District Cricket Association had made a major effort to improve spectator comfort inside the stadium -- comfortable chairs were provided for the spectators, and anyone who has tried to sit on a slab of sun-warmed concrete will know what a relief proper seating can be. And spectators, who pay premium prices these days for cricketing tickets, do deserve a bit of cossetting.

Zimbabwean bowlers make a habit of getting the quick breakthrough. Here, it came as early as the first ball of the second over, when Mbwangwa warmed up with a beauty, just on line of off seaming away, forcing a tentative Adam Gilchrist to edge to the keeper.

Ricky Ponting has been in good nick through this ODI competition -- but his earlier efforts with the bat paled beside the one he produced today. Unlike the earlier efforts, though, this particular essay was ebullient, dominating, right from the start. Ponting tends to play with bat close to body, often going across off to work the ball to leg. Today, however, he opened up his stance, freed his arms and hit sweetly through the line, finding the short boundaries on the off side with a succession of impeccably timed drives and cuts.

At the other end, Mark Waugh was several notches short of the sublime touch player he can be at his best. Like a real master, Waugh quickly adjusted his game, concentrating on rotating the strike, letting his partner do the bulk of the hard work, and played a highly competent second fiddle to the effervescent Ponting.

What is it with Zimbabwe and record partnerships anyway? Between them, Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting piled up a mammoth second wicket partnership of 219 -- watched by coach Geoff Marsh who, along with Dean Jones, held the earlier record for the wicket.

And the runs came at a rapid clip, what's more. 50 of the partnership off 55 balls, the 100 off 123, 150 off 169, 200 off 223. If you were looking for a downside to this effort, it would lie in the fact that the scoring could have been even faster -- the Zimbabwe attack, barring Streak and Mbwangwa, proved totally unable to either penetrate, or even contain.

The cause of the fielding side, one suspects, is being considerably hampered by the inability of Paul Strang to bowl, thanks to a finger injury. And it is indicative of the lack of real bench strength that despite that injury, Zimbabwe was forced to play Strang as a batsman. Strang is normally a very restrictive bowler in the middle overs, and it is in that phase that the Zimbabwe attack generally gets collared. On the day, only Andy Whittall could bowl with any kind of control on the batsmen.

At 214/1, Australia went into the happy hour well placed to blast the score above the 300 mark -- but somehow (and this must be worrying for the tourists, who will need to do even better against India on this ground) lost their way a bit, managing only 80 off the last ten.

Mark Waugh was the first to go, attempting to flick an inswinging yorker from Streak through midwicket, only to lose off stump as he played across the line. The dismissal owed some of its credit to skipper Campbell -- the previous ball had produced a similar shot from Waugh, which Campbell fielded magnificiently at midwicket. The second time round, Mark Waugh tried to beat the fielder by placing it finer, and lost the line in the process.

Off the very next ball, Michael Bevan could well have been walking back. The left-hander drove with bat away from body at an angled ball outside off, the ball flew off the edge to Andy Whittall at point and the fielder, who had excelled all day, grassed a sitter.

Campbell appears to have a marked -- and given the bowler's performance thus far on this tour, inexplicable -- preference for the medium pace of Guy Whittall. The medium pacer has, for opposing batsmen thus far, been Christmas come early -- but here again he was brought in when the field restrictions were still in place, and Ponting in particular creamed him to the tune of 30 runs in his first three overs. But much to everyone's surprise, it was Whittall who was pressed into the attack for overs number 47 and 49 -- chalk up 22 more runs to the Aussies.

Whittall though did get a fortuitous wicket when a full toss on leg saw Ponting trying a bit too much. Normally, the batsman would have pulled it away through midwicket but here, he tried to get under the ball and lift it over the ropes. Mbwangwa, a magnificient outfielder -- surprisingly so, not too many quick bowlers being in that category on the field -- pulled off a beauty, racing around from wide mid on all the way to midwicket to snag it on the run as it was about to go over the ropes.

Ponting's 145 was not only his personal best, but also tied with Dean Jones for the highest individual score by an Australian in one day internationals. And it was a chanceless knock -- or nearly so, Ponting midway through his innings miscuing a square drive off the front foot, to put the ball in the air and dangerously close to a diving Murray Goodwin at point. Would have been interesting if Goodwin had taken the blinder -- he and Ponting were mates at the Australian cricket academy and Ponting would have had to leave, somewhat short of his 100, thinking rather harsh thoughts of his erstwhile roomie.

Michael Bevan and Damien Martyn took the batting side through to 294. It could have been more, but for a lovely last over from Craig Evans which went for a mere 5 runs. Makes you wonder for a moment why Campbell preferred Whittall over Evans.

In the two Flower brothers, Murray Goodwin and Alistair Campbell, Zimbabwe have got a good top order. And it was up to those four to deliver, in the chase. As it turned out, Campbell abdicated. In the second over, a slashed drive flared off the outer edge of the bat and Steve Waugh, who initially couldn't pick the ball coming to him at point out of the crowd, tumbled back to hold a good one.

Goodwin, like Ponting, has been in good touch through this tournament and here, again, he played the aggressor while Grant Flower, with a century under his belt in the last outing, opted for the more watchful anchor role.

Given Zimbabwe's tendency to panic at the death, it is ironic that earlier in the innings, its batsmen are coolness personified. Both Flower and Goodwin played the bowling to its merits, ran superbly between wickets and played with panache to keep just close enough to the Australian rate of progress after a comparitively slow start.

This is how the chasing side went (Australia's position in parenthesis): 8/1 in 5 (19/1), 33/1 in 10 (49/1), 64/1 in 15 (95/1), 89/1 in 20 (108/1). Australia had pulled away between overs 10-20 thanks largely to the 30 Whittall conceeded in his first three -- for the Australians, skipper Steve Waugh came in to bowl a disciplined spell that kept the run-making in reasonable check.

In fact, it was Steve Waugh's restrictive bowling that finally proved too taxing for Goodwin's patience -- four dot balls on the trot induced the batsman to try and launch the last ball of the 22nd over out of the park on the off side. Kasprowicz, on the line at long on, had a bit of a juggle but finally clung on to the catch.

That brought Andy Flower to the crease to join his brother -- and the game turned on a dime. The left-handed Andy began with a couple of fierce hits to the fence -- and then just kept going, in a calculated assault on the Australian bowling.

The rate of progress from there on tells the story (Australia's position in brackets): 123/2 in 25 (136/1), 155/2 in 30 (165/1), 184/2 in 35 (185/1), 216/2 in 40 (214/1).

At this stage, with both the Flowers blooming into scintillating strokeplay, with the big-hitting Craig Evans and Heath Streak still to come in, backing Zimbabwe to win would have been a good idea -- except that the side has a proven record of choking at the very death, when inexperience begins to tell on the nerves.

Today was no different. The 41st over saw Grant Flower depart for a controlled 89 -- Warne bowled him a flipper that kept low (the first of two dismissals to deliveries keeping low -- which is interesting in view of the final to be played on this ground on Tuesday, if the trend continues, then the side winning the toss could be well advised to bat first) and Flower, who had come down the wicket to try and hit through off, was late bringing his bat back down. Out went the leg peg.

The next dismissal owed to as spectacular a piece of fielding as you ever want to see. Andy Flower, who had batted with panache to take the Australian bowling by the scruff, stroked a cover drive and set off for the single. Mark Waugh, in that position, standing square, raced to his right, then dived headlong to field and, still in the dive, underarmed the ball back to Adam Gilchrist to catch Flower out of his ground as he attempted to regain his crease.

A piece of fielding you might want to include in any compilation of the best of such efforts.

Two wickets in two overs and, true to Zimbabwe's form, the next over produced yet another one. This time, Guy Whittall reverse-swept Warne to Darren Lehmann at short third man. The ball was going straight to Lehmann's left hand -- his natural throwing arm. Craig Evans, who had kicked off his innings with a murderous pull for four off Warne in his earlier over, raced down to the business end for a run that wasn't there. The big-hitting batsman was the one who could have swung the game, from that position, into Zimbabwe's lap -- inexperience, coupled with an eagerness to get back on strike, triggered his dismissal.

Reverse sweeps look quite cute when someone pulls it off -- Whittall, in fact, thumped one through point for four. But the problem with that stroke -- ask Mike Gatting -- is that if you muck it up, you end up looking incredibly foolish. Vide Whittall who, in over number 45, got a rank full toss on leg stump. That was the kind of ball you could either thump through midwicket, or tickle down to fine leg, to the fence. Whittall, however, had decided on the reverse sweep as his special stroke of the day -- this time, he hit it straight to Warne at short third man. A silly end, to an eminently forgettable tour, for the Zimbabwean all rounder.

From that point, Zimbabwe was out of the hunt. It's lower order had neither the experience, nor the ability, to cope with a rapidly escalating asking rate, and Damien Fleming with a very good 47th over in which he claimed Strang and Andy Whittall off successive deliveries, sealed the batting side's fate before Kasprowicz finished it off in the next over. It was, by the way, the dismissal of Whittall that once again saw a ball -- in this case, a straight one on off -- keeping low to do the batsman in.

Australia went out the winners. And Ricky Ponting, deservedly, took the man of the match. "Not strong enough to clear the field," said the Tasmanian, tongue in cheek, when asked about the mode of his dismissal.

An aside: Australia scored 28 fours and two sixes in its innings, to Zimbabwe's 26 boundary hits. Given the size of the ground and the speed of the outfield, I suspect there will be many more than that come Tuesday, when India and Australia square up at the venue. Stand by, for a high-scoring finale to the Pepsi Cup triangular.

Tailpiece: It was during the Titan Cup, of late 1996, that we first had occasion to question the BCCI's wisdom in appointing inexperienced local umpires, by way of returning favours to various zones, to officiate in international engagements.

The board appears to have learnt nothing from that fiasco -- the umpiring in this competition, especially when it comes to calling wides and suchlike, has oscillated from the bad to the downright laughable.

Today's game produced at least two more instances of why this policy, being adopted by the board, is sheer folly.

The first one came when Heath Streak swung high, wide and handsome to midwicket. Michael Bevan, racing round, held brilliantly on the line, but found himself losing his balance and overstepping. At the last split second, he tossed the ball back into the playing area before going over the line. The third umpire was called in and, after consulting replays, he surprisingly signalled a four.

That was the height of illogic. The only reason for the decision was that from the replay, it looked like the toe of Bevan's boot was touching the line when he held the ball. And in that case, it should have been declared a six, not four, as the ball was still to touch down. The decision prompted a grin from Streak.

Worse followed immediately thereafter. Streak went way across, ending up outside his off stump, to try and hit Fleming to leg, targetting the vacant space at deep midwicket. The ball was pitched on middle, seamed away, and missed leg stump by a whisker. "Wide", called the umpire, obviously going by the distance between batsman and ball, not accounting for the fact that the batsman had gone way outside off, and that wide is called based on the distance between the ball and the stumps, not between ball and batsman.

When Fleming heard the call, he whirled round, looked at the umpire for one incredulous moment, then burst out laughing.

I don't blame him -- that was ludicrous. And before India gets more visiting players in hysterics out in the middle, the board needs to review its policy, and appoint only experienced, top quality umpires for international engagements.

I mean, Australia went on to win this one quite handily in the end. Imagine the furore, though, if Zimbabwe had lost by two runs, and the Bevan take, given as four, became a cause celebre? Or Australia lost off say the last ball, and the Fleming wide -- as also many others before it, became an issue?

We really don't need that, do we?

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