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Zimbabwe dump listless Lankans

I'm beginning to like the look of this Zimbabwe side. Well coached by Dave Houghton, well led by an imaginative Alistair Campbell, the side as it takes the field these days seems comprised of 11 guys who know to perfection what each is supposed to do, 11 guys who back each other up the maximum and, most important, play to full potential all the time.

They are a side on the make, and with this win over Sri Lanka after their win in the third ODI against India earlier when India toured there, they have learnt that they can win -- the one lesson they needed to really finish the job of making them dangerous opponents.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have a lost look about them thus far in this tournament. Today, they were way below par -- with the bat, ball, and on the field. And predictably, went under by a thumping seven wicket margin, to now face the prospect of being eliminated before the final.

The day's game was played on the second of the two pitches here -- identical in looks and character to the one used yesterday, with the one difference that it seemed to play fractionally slow.

Alistair Campbell won the toss and got it bang on when he asked Lanka to bat first -- his argument being that since Lanka loves to chase, this would upset their gameplan and further, give the Zimbabwe batsmen a target to chase, so that they could plan their batting.

When a captain inserts, the one thing he is looking for is backing from his bowlers -- and he had nothing to complain of on that score, here. Eddo Brandes returns to the side, and was, in a word, magnificient -- the adjudicators seemed to think so too, for they gave him man of the match ahead of Grant Flower with his unbeaten, anchoring knock.

Brandes' strength is that he can both swing, and seam, the ball both ways. Add to this the fact that he bowls very close to the wicket, keeping the line bang on the stumps, which means that when the ball hits the pad, the LBW is always on (to explain that, when you are bowling wider of the crease, and the strike is on the front pad, the umpire always has the doubt that the angle is taking the ball outside line of the stumps -- Brandes, bowling so close to the stumps, takes that doubt out of the umpire's mind).

An inspired first spell had the Lankans reeling. Jayasuriya should have gone for 1 in the second over when Neil Johnson pitched leg, seamed it away, got the edge as Jayasuriya flicked and nicked for Andy Flower to hold -- only, umpire Javed Akthar thought otherwise.

Gunwaradene, like so many modern players, keeps trying to flick across the line -- a shot that supposedly tries to cash in on the untenanted onside during the first 15. But the trick would be to play it to the right bowler -- Brandes with his line was always going to be risky, and the left hander found out when he missed, the ball straightened off the seam and thudded into the pads. No problem for umpire Orchard on that one.

Kaluwitharana came out to pinch hit, and fell to as silly a piece of cricket as I have seen in a long time. He thumped one to cover, walking into the shot, Grant Flower pulled off a superb diving stop, Kalu meanwhile casually turned round and strolled back -- Flower, with good presence of mind, threw and hit the stumps, with the batsman still strolling through the park and way out of his ground.

That brought Atapattu to the crease and first ball, Brandes again, the straight line on off, the batsman presented a pad to it, no problem again for Orchard to rule it plumb.

48/3 at the end of 10 and Sri Lanka were in all kinds of trouble.

Jayasuriya, meanwhile, looked at sea as the bowlers bowled the tight line around off, rarely giving him width to free his arms and thump the ball around square on either side of the wicket, as he loves to do. I'm afraid that increasingly, bowlers around the world have sorted the southpaw out -- pretty much everyone seems to have figured out how to choke him and force the errors. Here, despite the evidence of his eyes, he made the mistake two colleagues had made before him -- went across to off, flicked Brandes towards off, missed, and was horribly plumb, his back foot about two inches in front of middle when the ball struck home.

That brought Ranatunga and Aravinda together -- and this is where I would really give Zimbabwe full marks. The two experienced players have been there, done that before, they know how to work the singles around, take the pressure off. But it just wasn't happening, not with Zimbabwe. Once the quicks went off, the spinners kicked in, not trying anything fancy, keeping it very very tight on line of off and the fielding, here, was downright magnificient. Figures tell the story: Lanka went from 70/3 in 15 to 81/4 in 220, 97/4 in 25, 120/5 in 30. Check that out -- just 50 runs in 15 overs, despite the presence of Aravinda and Ranatunga on a batting track, and that gives you an idea of how electric the fielding side was. And to Campbell's credit, he kept six, sometimes seven, fielders inside the ring right through, making the single almost impossible to get.

That kind of pressure inevitably produces the error -- here, Ranatunga made it, giving Whittall the predetermined charge, not getting to the pitch and watching helplessly as the ball spun and bounced over his flailing bat, to the keeper who had a simple stumping to pull off.

That brought Mahanama and Aravinda, the two best players of spin, together -- but the fielding remained tight as a drum, the Lankan progress remained painfully slow, and the pressure just kept mounting.

Mahanama was incredibly lucky to be let off when Streak speared one in on leg, the batsman flicked, edged to the keeper and this time, umpire Orchard turned the appeal down before the batsman was into double figures. Campbell meanwhile brought Murray Goodwin -- another seam up slow medium trundler whose forte is bowling very close to the stumps and keeping it wicket to wicket -- into the attack and Aravinda's turn, this time, to flick off the pads, miss and be adjudged LBW, Javed Akthar getting it dead right there. Aravinda had played a contained, collected innings, but really needed to bat right through if Lanka were to have a prayer.

The story of the rest of the innings is foretold in this progression: 120/5 in 30, 136/6 in 35, 152/6 in 40, 171/8 in 45. In other words, the Lankan batting machine had managed, in the teeth of thoughtful, steady bowling and brilliant fielding, to make just 101 runs in 30 overs.

With that kind of pressure, wickets were always going to tumble, and Craig Evans merely proved the catalyst. evans to mahanama, ball two is on driven for the single, evans like the others bowling tight, wicket to wicket, here. Samaraweera, who was batting solidly if unspectacularly, decided that the run rate had to be upped, went for a wild heave to leg to a ball on off and middle, missed, was rapped full on the pad and Orchard, again, had no problems. Rather amazing when you think of it -- five LBWs in a game is pretty unusual, even more unusual the fact that all five were dead plumb. And in there, somewhere, lies a tribute to bowlers who, on a batting track, stuck to the virtue of a full, straight line and reaped rewards.

Two balls later, Evans pitched one middle and off, straightening it with the arm, Vaas pushed away from his body, playing for seam movement, and saw the ball go through the gate onto off stump.

In his next over, Evans struck another decisive blow, a full length ball on off had Mahanama stepping away to leg trying to hit over cover, the little dipping inswing on the ball carried it under the bat and onto off and it was all over for Lanka, really. But fittingly, the last wicket fell to a stunner in the field -- Zoysa drove fiercely to cover, running with the shot, Streak flung himself to his right, stopped, picked up and still prone, flung the stumps down with the batsman hopelessly stranded.

It was a focussed, incredibly committed performance with the ball and in the field, and had Lanka reeling, the eventual total about 65 runs too short of a defendable target. And full kudos to Campbell here -- he got it right when he inserted Lanka, he changed his bowlers around superbly, always had the right guy bowling at the right time, kept the pressure on with a close set field right through, not one bit intimidated by the Lankan reputation -- a great example of thoughtful leadership.

Lanka was always going to have a problem defending a total that required the batting side to score under four an over -- barring Vaas, they don't really have a good frontline bowler, the attack is made weaker by the absence of both Muralitharan and Upul Chandana, and all the Zimbabweans had to do was weather the opening burst and they could realistically expect to push their way to the target with singles from there on.

Campbell blotted his copybook a shade, launching into an overambitious pull at a ball not short enough -- Zoysa, all of six feet five and bowling with a nice high arm action, has the knack of making the ball climb off a length, this one cramped the Zimbabwe skipper and forced him to balloon it to Ranatunga at short point.

Johnson was sent to pinch hit, but found himself completely at sea against Vaas in particular who, as always, was outstanding with the new ball. He could have been out any number of ways, but the wicket finally fell to a great throw in from the deep as Johnson pushed for a third run that was not only non-existent, but also, at that stage, unnecessary.

Grant Flower had his problems against Vaas, too, but to his credit, he gritted it out, settled into his usual anchor role and allowed the free--stroking Murray Goodwin the bulk of the strike. And Goodwin on the day was outstanding -- little chips over mid on and mid off, sweeps, paddles, savage pulls (especially off Aravinda, introduced early and promptly blasted out of the attack) and flowing drives kept the board ticking over nicely, and took the match right out of Lanka's hands.

Check the progression: 17/1 in 5, 37/2 in 10, 56/2 in 15, 80/2 in 20, 110/2 in 25 and, clearly, by the halfway stage the Zimbabweans had got the game cornered.

The Lankans did their bit with some erratic catching -- Ranatunga letting Grant Flower off at cover, a sitter really as he got the leading edge to an intended on drive, and later, in the 35th over, Nuwan Zoysa at deep midwicket making a complete meal of an Andy Flower aerial sweep.

But the game as a contest was pretty much over anyway. With 197 to defend, Ranatunga had little options -- if he pulled the field in, the batsmen could chip over the top; if he pushed them back, the batsmen stroked the singles with ease. Vaas and Zoysa at the top, Dharma in the middle did their best, bowling as tight as possible but the Zimbabweans batted with a complete absence of pressure -- where would it come from, given that by the halfway stage, they were looking at an ask of just over three an over?

To their credit, the Flower brothers showed no signs of Zimbabwe's famed propensity to panic and give away won games -- batting with calm assurance, they went to the target with the pushed singles as the bread and butter stroke, and never let the fielding side have the least little daylight to see their way through by.

Lanka have two more to play and need to win both -- how, would be the pressing question, with a bowling lineup that looks 32 teeth short of the full set.

For Zimbabwe, meanwhile, a key outing against India tomorrow -- and given their form, morale and confidence, I doubt if anyone is going to be labelling them underdogs here.

Should be a cracker. Given that the pitch was already used on the first game, it should begin playing just that shade lower and slower, so Azhar's best ploy would be to retain his five bowlers and, if he wins the toss, to opt to bat first -- letting Zimbabwe in for a chase against a strong bowling lineup on a slowing pitch.

You want to toss a wild card into that equation? There is a bit of dew later on in the day, which makes it hard for the spinners to get a good grip.

But hey, they do have towels in those parts, right? So the dew as a dampener would be outweighed by the relative slowness of the track for the side batting second -- I doubt we will see too much of blazing strokeplay in the second innings tomorrow, especially after the first fifteen, so bottomline, I was Azhar, I would still bat first and look to choke Zimbabwe out of the game.

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