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Zimbabwe put one over on India

With both India and Zimbabwe through to the final, this was something in the nature of a sparring match.

And Zimbabwe won, with a clean knockout -- or, given the nature of the blows Henry Olonga dealt the Indian batting, would sucker punch be a better descriptor?

This game, you have to remember, was being played on the pitch on which Lanka, the other day, had dithered in the second innings. In fact, this tournament has had an extra, unexpected element of interest injected into it because teams find themselves playing on two totally different surfaces -- one even in bounce with the ball coming on nicely. And the other slower, with a tendency to keep slightly lower. So teams are having to readjust for every successive match, which makes things doubly interesting.

Both teams made changes. India opted to rest Azharuddin, Kumble and Srinath, and play Prasad, Laxman and Dravid. Zimbabwe rested Strang, Streak and Brandes, and brought in Henry Olonga, Adam Huckle and Mbwangwa.

Ajay Jadeja, leading India, won the toss and opted for, hold your breath, insertion. When the guys get back home, I hope to get hold of one or more members of the brains trust and find out, hopefully, just what this insertion kick is all about -- I mean, this after Arjuna Ranatunga, with a batting lineup every bit as good or better than India's, inserted with disastrous consequences the other day?

"Good toss to lose," says Campbell in the post-toss briefing. "We would have opted to bat first on this one, it tends to get slower and lower later in the day."

Did it, just!

Zimbabwe opened with Craig Wishart and Grant Flower. And in the second over of the innings, a fortuitous dismissal saw the back of Wishart. Flower drove, Wishart was backing up, Prasad stuck a hand out and deflected the ball onto the stumps and the non-striker was well out of his ground.

Both Agarkar and Prasad were bowling well within themselves, running in easily, not really pushing for pace but concentrating on putting the ball there or thereabouts, holding a tight line and letting the ball do the work, in the seam and off the wicket. Prasad, getting to bowl a ball in anger after a long time, looked nice and relaxed and had his entire repertory on display -- a sight that should have the team management happy.

And Prasad it was who struck again, a very well disguised slower ball foxing Flower, who was intending to hit over mid on, played the shot too early and ended up hitting direct to the fielder in that position -- a nice, simple catch.

Neil Johnson had a very good outing the day before, against Sri Lanka. But here, on a pitch where the ball wasn't coming on, the batsman was curbed in his pinch-hitting avtaar, and given the tight line and length, there weren't too many singles on offer either. So when Robin Singh was introduced into the attack in the 13th over, the left hander decided to go for a few big hits. He got nicely under a good length ball and powered it over midwicket for the six, tried a repeat off the next ball, this one though was slightly fuller in length, Johnson ended up hitting over the ball and lost his off stump.

Murray Goodwin as always looked nice and easy at the wicket, his feet were moving well -- too well, as it turned out. Off the first ball of the 16th over, Goodwin came dancing down the track, on drove and ran with the shot. Robin Singh at mid on raced around, picked up and threw down the stumps all in one move, and caught the batsman well short of his ground to have Zimbabwe struggling at 46/4.

Andy Flower, another fluent player against spin, didn't last too long either -- on this occasion, sweeping at one from Joshi that looped a bit more than he anticipated. The batsman misread the pitch, got the top edge, the ball ballooned and Chopra, who initially seemed to be beaten in the air by the swerve of the ball, reached both hands out and clung on for dear life at backward short leg.

AT 65/5, Zimbabwe were in big trouble. It was also the cue for Alistair Campbell, who hasn't had a particular good tournament thus far, to produce the kind of knock that reminds you why he, like South Africa's Darryl Cullinan, is rated a chronic underachiever. Oodles of talent this guy, loads of style, the whole offset by a tendency for soft dismissals. This time, though, he was all concentration, shepherding his partners along, setting his sights on batting through, guiding the ball around with very soft hands (an ideal way to play on a track where the ball really doesn't come on) and only going for the full flourish of the bat when the bowlers erred in line and length.

First Rennie, then Whittall played fine supporting roles at the other end. Sachin Tendulkar took out Whittall with a lovely slower ball pitched yorker length that the batsman drove all over, but by then, Zimbabwe had already crossed 200 -- the first time any team had managed to do so on this particular pitch, in this tournament.

Things would have been worse hadn't Sachin chipped in with two tight overs in the 47th and 49th, and Agarkar bowled a stream of yorker-length deliveries outside off in the final over. Campbell ended up unbeaten -- a captain's innings, and fully deserving of the sustained applause that greeted him as he walked off the field.

For India, the good performances with the ball came from Nikhil Chopra, economical as always, Venkatesh Prasad (who, barring his final over which went for 17, bowled close to the best we have seen him) and Tendulkar, with two key overs at the very end. The fielding was good, without touching the outstanding levels they had touched the other evening.

A good opening partnership was a pre-requisite for a dicey chase of this kind, and that is exactly what the Indians didn't get. Henry Olonga's first ball of the innings was bowled flat out, on a full length, straightening after swinging away through the air, Ganguly misread the pace completely and played across the line, missed with the tentative flick, and was trapped plumb in front.

Dravid came in at three. This was one time when he could have played the kind of innings he normally does -- going at around the 50-60% strike rate, given that the asking rate was just over 4 an over. However, the need to prove himself as capable of hitting the ball around appeared to be weighing on his mind -- the result, an uncharacteristic attempt to drive on the up, to an Olonga express (this guy must be, by a good yard or three, the fastest bowler in the Zimbabwe ranks at the moment) pitching just outside off, seaming away and lifting. The bounce and movement got the outer edge, and Dravid was gone.

Jadeja almost followed his number three, Olonga -- who around this point seemed to be bowling in a sort of roseate dream -- got one to swing in a long way from outside off, the ball was homing in, full toss, on middle stump and dipping and Jadeja didnn't have a clue where it was going when it feathered the outside edge and flashed past off stump, split the difference between the two diving slip fielders, and went down to third man for the four.

In Olonga's next over, a dream outswinger got Sachin edging, the keeper held with ease, only for the no ball call to give the batsman a reprieve. Which lasted only one delivery -- the very next ball, Olonga banged it in, Sachin looked as though he had for a bit lost sight of the ball, picked it up just as it was climbing up at his chin, poked his bat at it and off the maker's label, up it went and down point's throat.

Laxman looked reasonably solid, but his shots were finding the fielders too often for his own comfort. Unused to running with Jadeja, he was involved in a mix up or three as well as Zimbabwe really tightened the battens in the fielding department. The two problems combined to cause his dimissal -- Laxman drove, ran with the shot which found Grant Flower, batsman and bowler did a little tango and the fielder hit with the direct throw. India, at the 15 over mark, were 52/4.

This kind of track is not really meant for the Jadeja brand of strokeplay. He did grit it out before Olonga, returning in the 20th over, thought him out with a slower ball just outside off. Jadeja drove without spotting the change of pace, hitting on the up, the movement off the seam caught the edge and flew straight to point.

There are some days when a particular player ignites, catches fire and burns all he comes into contact with -- and today, for Olonga, was apparently one of those. He was fielding at short fine leg when Robin was hit on the pad. The ball trickled out to the right of the keeper, towards the vacant slip. Mongia took off for the run and Olonga sprinted round, to the off side, picked up and bang, there went the stumps.

An interesting cameo, that. Time and again, you notice that the Indians are so busy appealing, they forget to field the ball, and backing up also goes by the board. The Zimbabweans, like the South Africans, are on the ball -- literally so -- all the time, and it does make a tremendous difference in the field.

The Indian run chase to this point makes for interesting reading: 25/2 in 5, 34/3 in 10, 52/4 in 15, 72/5 in 20, 94/5 in 25, 108/6 in 30, 118/6 in 35, 142/6 in 40, 169/7 in 45.

In the middle overs, tight bowling by the spinners and occasional bowlers (if, that is, you discount a lavish amount of wides and no-balls that peppered the performance right through), and the usual hair-trigger fielding, combined with the regular fall of wickets to push the asking rate from the 4+ at the start, to a run a ball in the last ten overs.

And some out-of-their-skins fielding meant that at the 45 over mark, 37 more were needed off 30 deliveries.

Henry Olonga came back for the 46th. Earlier, he had gone off with a hamstring problem. He hadn't bowled for a bit. He was, in fact, called upon suddenly by Andy Flower, substituting as skipper for Alistair Campbell who was resting a knee injury. And the stiffness showed, in the course of one disastrous over in which he served up a full toss outside off which Robin gratefully pulled for six over wide long on, another long hop that Agarkar hit with elegance over the long on fielder for the four... the entire over costing 17 runs, and bringing the ask back under a run a ball.

And then the game swung again, in the very next over. Whittall came on, Agarkar wound up for the big one over midwicket, missed and Andy Flower took the bails off before the batsman could push his back foot back into the safety zone. Another good hand with the bat for Agarkar, 14 off just nine balls at a crunch situation.

And two balls later, there was yet another of those comical runouts that have characterised this tournament. Joshi hit to mid on and took off. So did Robin. Then, for no reason anyone could see -- sudden panic, perhaps? -- Robin skidded to a halt and turned back. Why did he stop? He for sure couldn't see the ball, since he had his back to it. Tells you how the coolest heads can lose it under pressure, I guess. Anyway, there was the ludicrous sight of both batsmen racing each other for the bowler's end, the throw went the other way and bye bye Joshi.

That really lost it for India.

Prasad came to the wicket, but a run a ball equation is not exactly the forte of a player who never has aspired to all-rounder status, and the need to put bat to every ball had him driving at Johnson well away from his body, for substitute skipper Andy Flower to dive and hold a good one, to finish the match.

A psychological boost for Zimbabwe, ahead of the crucial final on Friday. They are a team on the upswing, and wins of this nature (coupled with the one yesterday over Sri Lanka) are just the propellant Zimbabwe needs to really move into the 'danger team' category.

The most interesting aspect of the Zimbabwe development in recent months is that increasingly, they are learning to take, to absorb, pressure and keep going -- and that could be bad news to more and more teams in the coming months. Scoreboard