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That man again!

This particular Coca Cola Cup is proving to be the graveyard of records -- the other day it was Azharuddin with the world's highest aggregate in ODIs, today it was Sachin Tendulkar with the most number of international centuries, with his 20th in ODIs and 36th overall.

For all you know, another one could go tumbling. Sachin, with the man of the match today -- his 30th -- is now one short of Viv Richards all time highest of 31 MOMs in his career.

And, in passing, India won the match with seeming ease against Zimbabwe, and now should be favoured to go through to the final.

Yesterday, at the end of the match report, I had added a few thoughts about today's game. One was that it would be a plan to go in with all five bowlers again -- which was what India did. The other thought was that India, if it won the toss, should bat first and then use its strength in bowling to choke the Zimbabweans.

Got that wrong. Azhar inserted, some superlative bowling by the spinners, some fine bowling changes and field settings by Azhar, and -- for once in a long time -- an international-quality performance in the field from the Indians kept Zimbabwe down to 196/2 -- a score that was never going to be challenging enough.

And yet, I do have a stray thought on this insertion thing -- my argument yesterday was that this wicket will get progressively slower and more spin friendly as the tournament wears on. Checking the Indian batting card, I notice that the two highest scorers in the second innings after Sachin (we won't look at his better than a run a ball effort, because he is perhaps the one batsman on view who can transcend such mundanities as pitch condtition and such) were Saurav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin -- both 28. One off 49 balls, the other off 58 (and here you have to remember that Azhar was batting with the confidence of his previous innings behind him).

Is the pitch slowing down? Is batting first going to be an increasingly more attractive option? We'll see...

Both sides went in with the same lineups that defeated Sri Lanka. Azhar won the toss, and inserted.

Srinath and Agarkar bowled well in the first 10 to keep Zimbabwe down to 47/0 at that point -- I say "keep them down" because Campbell is always aggressive and Grant Flower, today, had stepped up a gear and was down the track to the quicks, swinging away.

Agarkar did come up with his fair share of gimme balls, but to his credit he got the right line and length more often than not, and paved the way for the spinners -- Azhar bringing on Nikhil Chopra and Anil Kumble in successive overs.

The first wicket was a tribute to some outstanding fielding. Grant Flower went a long way down the track, swung mightily and missed with everything. The ball went to fine leg off the pads, the batsmen took one, went for the second on Agarkar's throw, and it was Flower running to the 'danger end'. Agarkar picking up, shaped to throw to the keeper, then saw that Campbell, aware he was running to the non striker's end and theoretically out of danger, let fly for the further set of stumps and, glory be, hit from fine leg. Even if he hadn't, Campbell was still gone -- he was ambling along halfway down the track when the ball crossed him, travelling like a rocket. Great piece of thinking there, and the wicket against the run of play in the 11th over.

In the 12th over, Azhar brought on Kumble. And off the fifth ball, the leggie struck. If Grant Flower, the other day, was perfectly in line and playing straight, today he swished and missed, or hit across the line, far too often for comfort. Here he tried it once too often, going for the predetermined paddle to a Kumble flipper on a full length, missed and was trapped bang in front.

Nikhil Chopra -- who is visibly gaining in stature with every successive outing -- then got into the act. Most offies, at the point of delivery, are nicely balanaced, feet spread wide, weight balanced on both feet and the swing of the arm and the spinning fingers do all the work of flight, loop and turn. Chopra, though, is a front foot bowler -- hits the front foot down, transfers weight onto it and then lets fly. Fastish pace, very accurate, wicket to wicket always and very good control of length being his fortes.

Introduced an over after Kumble, Chopra did the right thing when bowling to the left handed pinch hitter Neil Johnson -- he kept a very full line on middle and off and cramped a batsman whose obvious intent was to hit. Finding drives unprofitable, Johnson tried to cut, picked the wrong ball, and stood there watching while the arm ball hurried through under his flailing bat and pegged the middle stump back.

Murray Goodwin loves to use his feet, but Chopra is not exactly the kind of bowler you want to do that to. In a masterly display of control, Chopra kept drawing Goodwin down the track only for the batsman to find himself unable to get under the offie and tonk him around, forcing defensive push after defensive push. Finally, the pressure told, the batsman flicked across the line of an arm ball, failed to get to the pitch again, ended up playing in the air and an easy take by Robin at midwicket had Zimbabwe in all kinds of trouble.

The progression tells the tale, really. 26/0 in 5, 43/0 in 10. 55/3 in 15, 71/3 in 20, 82/5 in 25, 92/6 in 30. This is the phase wherein Azhar's captaincy needed kudos -- seeing the fall of three quick wickets around the 16 over mark, Azhar kept the pressure right on with as many as seven fielders stopping the singles, making them impossible to find, and attacking further by a slip and silly point/short square leg in place for his spinners.

That was the way to go -- the squeeze play at its best, and Azhar went that route with rare brio. The bowlers bowled the perfect line, the fielding backed them up one hundred per cent, and India suddenly looked a complete side out there.

Andy Flower is another good batsman to spin, but his shot selection to Joshi was rather bizarre today. A paddle almost had the ball in Mongia's gloves. The next ball, Joshi pushed one through straight outside the southpaw's off stump, Flower shaped for the cut, the ball bounced and the shot flew through the air for Jadeja at point to dive forward and hold.

Craig Evans, for some reason, couldn't seem to stop sweeping. And missing, but he still kept trying the shot, instead of playing straight. In one over, he had two near misses against Chopra, in the next he went for it against Joshi, again the bowler bowled the full length for the arm ball, the sweep, played for turn, missed and back went middle stump.

If Zimbabwe went on to run up 196 all out, credit goes to two factors. One was a very good partnership between Wishart and Heath Streak -- both batsmen using their heads, to work the ball around for singles, not getting hustled by the tight fielding, refusing to panic and go for the big hits but concentrating instead on batting out the overs. And the second reason was that after the 30th over, suddenly, the close fielders disappeared and the field went back out on the line, which meant that if you could guide the ball around, the singles -- earlier the scarcest commodity in Sharjah -- were suddenly there for the taking.

Together, these factors produced the best partnership of the Zimbabwe innings, with Wishart playing second fiddle to the more aggressive streak before the former finally misread a flipper from Kumble, went for an almighty sweep and was trapped in front.

Streak by now was way past his best internationa score and going good -- two soaring sixes off successive balls from Joshi signalling that he was about ready to cut loose. Azhar brought back Srinath who, with his experience, does the right thing at the death -- bowling under full pace, angling the ball in on the stumps, keeping the full length, he had the batsman fidgeting. Streak finally tried to club one over square leg as Srinath varied by pitching short and making it climb, the ball was in the air a long time and Ganguly, running in from fine leg, dived full length to hold a beauty at the full stretch of his arms.

Tendulkar came on to bowl in the 49th over and Brandes gave him the old heave ho, decieved in flight and mishitting down Jadeja's throat at long on for him, of all people, to blot the fielding copybook by flubbing a sitter. But Agarkar quicklyl mended matters with the yorker as Brandes went to leg to try and hit over cover, and made a meal of the stumps. And Paul Strang, a sticky customer with the bat, was promptly run out by Mongia as he took off with the intent of stealing a bye, to wind up the innings in the 50th over.

For India, as said earlier, good bowling changes, good aggressive field settings most of the time, very good bowling by the spinners in particular and some outstanding fielding were the highlights. And the real standout was Nikhil Chopra -- 10-0-21-2 would have done credit to any seasoned offie, the youngster's performance here was a real eye-opener. Like someone pointed out on chat, wonder when some match referee will call him for chucking, which seems to be the fate of any subcontinental off spinner who dares do well with the ball these days.

The target was never going to challenge India, and Sachin from the outset indicated he was in the mood for a big one when he took his time to get his eye in, then opened out with one of his trademark cover drives. When he begins by gliding out of his crease in just that fashion, and punches with such power-packed precision that the ball passes within inches of the cover fielder without giving him time to move, you can pretty much bet on a big one -- that is the surest sign I know that the master opener is middling them and feeling good about himself.

At the other end, Ganguly, who has had a poor run in his last three, four outings, needed to bat himself back into form -- and the conditions here were ideal, since there never was any pressure on India on the chase. He did play a few of his glorious drives through coverpoint and extra cover, but rather against his cricketing character, kept overhitting too often for comfort, seemingly so anxious to get the ball away that his bat was swinging in something miles away from that normally elegant arc.

For Zimbabwe, Brandes was not quite the force he was yesterday -- from the way he bowled, I suspect he figured that if he kept it on the stumps, Sachin would get under it and hit over his head, so he kept going to off and sometimes leg, and got the treatment. Johnson for his part had Sachin's wicket in the two innings of the recent Test, but here he was pretty much reduced to a bowling machine as the batsman carved him up at will. And Streak, with Sachin's wicket four times in 12 meetings, was similarly rendered ineffective with some classically punchy drives spiced with delicate glances and flicks.

If anyone could stem the rot it had to be Paul Strang -- and he straightaway took out Ganguly. The southpaw kept coming down the wicket only to find himself unable to get to the pitch. With the batsman's intentions thus clearly telegraphed, Strang pushed one through straight, Ganguly was down the track again, moving inside the line playing for it to turn, instead the ball just went through with the arm, beat the bat and Andy Flower had the easiest of stumpings to effect.

Mongia came in at number three -- not that there was any need to change the order since India were comfortably ahead of the run rate and Sachin on song -- and tried a shot he had played to perfection the other day. Down the track, inside out over mid off -- only, this time he managed to hit straight to the fielder. The way it goes, you are a hero when you pull them off, but can look all kinds of a fool when you go back with 0 against your name.

That brought Azhar to the crease -- an uncharacteristically subdued Azhar what's more, when you remember his innings the other day and the confidence it must have given him. With the ball not quite coming on, he kept finding the fielders with his wristy flicks, and finally settled down to taking the singles as and when, letting Tendulkar do all the work.

100/2 in 20, 134/2 in 25, 154/2 in 30 -- tells its own story, really. Tendulkar was in rare touch, never more so than in one over from Whittall when, after clubbing two brutal fours on either side of the track, he went waltzing out, got under one and gave it the heave ho, sending the ball soaring over a pavilion estimated about eight storeys high, and right out of the ground.

Azhar finally fell trying to swing Strang over midwicket only to mishit completely, Johnson on the line there racing forward, then diving to pick the ball an inch off the turf. But at 161/3, the only interest left was in the Sachin century, and he duly got there and then powered India home -- interestingly, the only batsman on the day to go over 100% on strike rate, while everyone else found run making considerably difficult.

When he scored his 19th ODI century in the game against Australia in the Wills Cup in Dhaka, Sachin had tallied 35 international 100s -- which put him on par with Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes, all of whom have the same number in Tests and ODIs combined.

Sunny Gavaskar had 34 Test tons and one in the shorter version, Viv Richards had 24 in Tests with 11 ODI tons and Haynes had the best balance of them all, with 18 Test tons and 17 ODI 100s.

Of the foursome, Tendulkar again is the fastest to the mark -- his 35 100s having come off just 263 Tests and ODIs combined, and his record breaking 36th coming off 265 internationals, as opposed to the 354 internationals the next fastest, Haynes, took to record that number of centuries.

And so on to tomorrow, India again in the field against Sri Lanka. Nice question for the team management to ponder -- five bowlers, or the extra batsman?

On balance, given the lack of teeth in the Lankan bowling, I would opt for the former, because I would think the pitches are only going to get lower and slower and more spin-friendly. And yes, for taking first strike, for the same reasons -- but hey, insertions are the flavour of the month, so...

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