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Zimbabwe dumps Lanka again

For the World Cup holders to be dumped out of a triangular tournament is a new experience -- for Zimbabwe to be the ones doing the dumping, with two wins in two outings, will probably be the salt in the wound for a proud team.

And that is why more than the how, the why of it all is the hot subject of discussion. Tiredness? Just one of those things? The beginning of the end? Muralitharan's absence? I've heard any and all of these reasons offered by fans today -- but I suspect the real search for answers, or rather the search for real answers, will begin only when the side gets back home to Colombo, and all concerned can get down to the drawing board to do the sums and see what it totals up to.

Today's game threatened to be a corker, given the fact that more than just winning or losing, Sri Lanka needed to do something about an uncharacteristically low net run rate of -0.7 going into this game. And yet, it proved to be pretty much of a damp squib, enlivened only by Hashan Tillekeratne's heroics at the very end, and Kumara Dharmasena's rediscovered stickiness in support.

Both sides made a change apiece, New Zealand bringing in Gavin Rennie for Craig Evans, and Sri Lanka, with an eye on that run rate, beefing up the middle with the return of Hashan Tillekeratne, in place of Aviskha Gunawardene.

Ranatunga won the toss. That he would want to field first was a given -- when you need not only to win, but also to win big, it helps to go in knowing what kind of run rate you are looking at.

The Lankans came out swinging, Wickramasinghe doing the damage while Chaminda Vaas was his usual efficient self with the new ball. With Alistair Campbell -- quite out of character -- looking subdued, Grant Flower figured he needed to get in there swinging. He looks good when he plays in line, but he is not up there when it comes to the hell for leather strokeplay at the top. Wickramasinghe produced a classic quick bowler's delivery outside off, seaming away, Flower pushed at it and Kaluwitharana had it easy.

Campbell followed him in quick order, inner edging onto his stumps off a tentative push and Murray Goodwin, the most fluent of the Zimbabwean strokeplayers, got an inswinging yorker on his boot bang in front of middle, and Zimbabwe were in all kinds of trouble at 24/3.

Lanka had their own troubles, though, and they became apparent as Neil Johnson, sent in as pinch hitter, changed gears and began focussing on staying out there. Andy Flower too got into the groove right smart, and both batsmen seemed completely unworried about such things as runs and run rates, their seeming focus being on staying there for as long as they could.

And that's where Lanka's problems began. Once Vaas and Wickramasinghe finished their first spell, they just didn't have anything else to throw at the batting side. The result, a 149 run partnership for the fourth wicket, a record for Zimbabwe against the islanders, and around the 35 over mark, a much better position at 154/3 than they were when they finished the first 10 overs at 39/3.

Neither batsman did anything special, focussing on the basics of playing the ball on merit, knocking it around, working singles when they could and, when they were presented with the odd gimme ball, taking full toll.

Rather than the progression, the speed with which each successive 50 runs were scored is indicative of how well the Zimbabweans, after the early setbacks, paced their innings: first 50 in 85 balls, the second off 78, the third off 44, the fourth off 45, the fifth off 43.

Could Ranatunga have done anything differently? Given the limitations, only one aspect of the Lankan game plan struck one as odd. The Lankans had two off spinners in Aravinda and Samaraweera (ADS in fact has tended through this tournament to get much more turn and bounce than the regular offie). The Zimbabweans had two left handers at the crease. It did seem strange, since neither batsman was really swinging for the lines till late into their association, that the Lankans didn't put a slip in place and have the offie bowl round the wicket -- a classic ploy when you are trying to get the batsman driving with the turn, opening up the possibility of the edge.

By the time Johnson got himself run out going for a second that wasn't there, the only question that remained was just how much Zimbabwe would eventually put on the board, and how quickly Sri Lanka would need to get there to shade Zimbabwe on run rate and nose into the final. Thanks to some smooth acceleration by Andy Flower -- distinctly unlucky to miss a deserved century -- and fine support from Eddo Brandes in particular, the batting side ended up with 259 in the allotted overs.

Lanka, as per the official scorers, had to get to 260 by the end of 41 overs in order to put them ahead of Zimbabwe on strike rate. And for once, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana seemed to be having things their way. Neither Brandes nor Streak went round the wicket to Jayasuriya, as quick bowlers have increasingly begun to do, and the Lankan opener for once found room to free his arms and slash through the off side.

Kalu meanwhile was pulling at just about everything, irrespective of length and line, and that stroke proved his undoing when he bent at the knee, launched into a fierce pull, misread the pace and had the ball crash high into his thigh. The thigh is not exactly the prescribed landing zone for the LBW, but on the other hand Kalu had got very low to try and hit under the ball -- on balance, though, he deserved benefit of the doubt but here, he wasn't getting it.

Then came a completely crazy period of cricket. Marvan Atapattu ran like a man in a dream and in the space of about four overs, I counted at least six times he could have been run out by considerable margins (not forgetting that Andy Flower put down a sitter before the batsman had opened his account). And at the same time, the normally electric Zimbabwe fielders acted like they were auditioning for the remake of the Keystone Kops. Fun and games all round for a while, and indicative of nothing so much as the nervous tension on both sides.

When the quick bowler goes round the wicket to him, Jayasuriya in recent times has managed to get himself bowled more often than not. Here, with the bowlers slanting across him, he fell back on an earlier mode of dismissal -- flicking from middle, with the roll of the wrists, and powering it down to backward square where a fielder is almost invariably placed for him.

The way the Lankans played the Zimbabwe spinners -- especially Strang -- was going to hold the key to the chase and as it turned out, they played him very badly indeed. Strang was tossing the ball right up, Atapattu, who looked very nervy through his innings, came down looking to hit inside out, the turn on the ball got the edge and Campbell at cover had an easy take.

Three balls more into Strang's first over, and Ranatunga came charging down, trying to clear mid off, didnt get within range, and Grant Flower at mid off dived forward to hold in style, and the Lankan innings suddenly was in disarray.

Aravinda like Atapattu had a rather nervy time out in the middle -- clearly indicating how low in confidence the team is at this point, for his forte is his calm assurance at the crease, circumstances notwithstanding. A bad ball diving into his crease to complete a dodgy run ended with him hurting his knee and calling for a runner, and batting on with hampered footwork. Mahanama at the other end was looking nice and smooth, but Strang took him out quickly, pitching one on leg and middle and turning it in, the ball was short but not enough for the pull the batsman aimed at it and he was gone, plumb -- trying for an Oscar for acting with a disbelieving expression, but there was nothing in it.

And just to make things certain sure, Strang quickly took out Aravinda as well, flighting the ball right up on leg, looping it a bit more than the previous two deliveries, drawing Aravinda into the sweep and inducing the top edge for Johnson to hold at deep midwicket. A man of the match winning performance, that, from the leggie.

Then came the best batting of the Lankan innings, with Dharmasena living up to his usual reputation for sticky obduracy. And Hashan Tillekeratne, always a class act, making one wonder what he was doing on the bench all these days, with an assured performance in course of which he never seemed to put a foot wrong.

The problem was that the loss of those quick wickets meant that Lanka, heading into the turn, were 173/6 in 40. 86 to win in 10 is do-able -- but on the minus side, there weren't enough wickets left in the kitty, every dot ball would thus add enormously to the pressure, and the fall of wickets was predictable. Dharmasena went for 39, Vaas for a while brought back memories of the way Chris Harris had recently taken a won game out of Zimbabwe's pockets with a cameo 19 off just nine balls, but none of it was ever going to be enough, and a run out ended what must rate as the most miserable tournament the Lankans have had in a long long time.

Tillekeratne, the batsman the Lankans didn't want till now, ended up with 72/83 -- perhaps there is a message in there for someone, somewhere, though at this point I am darned if I know what it is.

With Zimbabwe into the final, tomorrow's match against India becomes something in the nature of a dress rehearsal.

It need not be, though. At least, not for India. For this seems a good opportunity to rest a few of the regulars and at the same time, have a good look at the form of those on the bench.

Venkatesh Prasad for Javagal Srinath is one change that suggests itself -- Srinath bowled flat out and furious in the last game, and another day or two of rest and light exercise should ready him for a reprise in the final on Friday. Meanwhile, Prasad gets a chance to show himself and the management whether he is fully over his injury and back to mid-season form.

Resting Jadeja and Robin Singh for V V S Laxman and Dravid is the other option. Dravid, to come in at three and for once, either prove his critics wrong, or rule himself out of the reckoning for the immediate future. As for Laxman, we've been carrying the guy around for a bit, it seems about time we found out if he can cut it out there in a middle -- and since he bowls flattish offspin, he could be another hole card in a match to be played on the pitch on which India and Sri Lanka played out a low scoring thriller yesterday.

One thing, though -- keeping in mind the Lankan experience yesterday, Azharuddin has got to be a very brave man to bat second happen he wins the toss.

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