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That man again!

Zimbabwe were into its first major final here -- but on Friday the 13th, that was as far as they could get before the Indian team laid its hands on its third Coca Cola Cup of the year.

When the Indians got to the target, there were 10 wickets still standing. And 20 overs more to go. Which is about as comprehensive as victories get -- thanks yet again to Sachin Tendulkar, with 21 ODI centuries now under his bat and counting.

It will, perhaps, seem churlish to talk of minus points when we should be celebrating a win -- but sometimes, taking note of minuses and rectifying them could be the stepping stone towards even more wins, so it is in that spirit that, in course of the match report that follows, the odd shortcoming is being pointed out.

India went back to the five bowlers, five batsmen, one keeper format with which it started this tournament. Zimbabwe meanwhile made one change -- dropping a batsman to bring in Henry Olonga, destroyer of India in the final league game. Which meant that it was going in with four pace bowlers, a medium pacer, or more accurately a slower seam up bowler, in Murray Goodwin, and two regular spinners in Andy Whittall and Paul Strang.

The match was being played on the better -- 'better' here being synonymous with batsmen's interests -- of the two tracks, the one on which India started its campaign against Sri Lanka. The day's gap between the final league game on Wednesday and the final today meant the pitch could be watered, rolled and made firm and hard yet again, thus providing a good batting pitch with the ball coming on quite nicely to the bat.

Azharuddin yet again won the toss. Yet again, he opted to field. Given that India won, the fact that pretty much all TV commentators (and, if that counts, this reporter as well) were at odds with the decision should not count for much. But to see that critique in perspective, you need to take away the Tendulkar blitz. Sachin is perhaps the one batsman in the world right now on whom conditions, nature of the pitch, quality of the opposition and suchlike factors don't appear to make any difference. If he feels like it, he will thump the ball around, it is as simple as that.

But when making game plans, you would budget, I assume, for the worst case scenario. For India, that is Sachin failing. And if you factor that in to the calculations, I would think that a team that goes in with five regular bowlers, plus three irregulars in Robin Singh, Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, would like to defend, rather than chase.

Anyway, chase was the preferred option. One good thing to be said about Azhar's new found tendency to keep inserting is that a side which, a year ago, couldn't seem to chase any target worth the mention is suddenly getting a lot of practise batting second -- and that will help, at some point, for the team now has been there, done that time out of mind and is less liable to panic on a chase.

On this track, neither Srinath nor Agarkar were likely to be able to reprise that fiery spell of the other day -- when, on the slower of the two wickets, they bent their backs to devastating effect against the Sri Lankans. The key would be to pitch up, hold a full length on a tight line, and let the batsmen make the mistake. Alistair Campbell made the first one off the very first ball of the second over, when Agarkar slanted a loosener across him, wide outside off and the Zimbabwean skipper, with feet a long way away from the pitch, went after it, the bat face opening on the drive and Ganguly having an easy take at cover.

Zimbabwe almost lost another in the next over when Srinath, who was bowling within himself and concentrating on line and length, suddenly bent his back to dig one in, and seamed it away to surprise Johnson and take the thick outer edge. Azharuddin has held far more difficult catches with nonchalant ease in the slips, but he unaccountably spilt a sitter, here. Srinath, thus, had tto wait till his 5th over to strike. Grant Flower, who in the previous over of Agarkar had been looking to come down the track and flick over midwicket, tried it yet again at the other end, that ball from Srinath was angled in to middle stump and swinging away, the movement took the thick edge and flared down to backward square leg, finding Agarkar with ease.

Murray Goodwin has looked their most accomplished batsman after Campbell but here, he became the first of a succession of batsmen to make the mistake of playing across the line to balls of full length. Srinath had bowled that one from very close to the stumps, beat Goodwin on the flick and rapped him on the pad. Up went the umpire's finger but, though the refereeing has, as far as LBWs were concerned, been very good through the tournament, this was one occasion when the umpire got it wrong. That ball was pitching middle, angling to leg and would have missed the stumps.

The next to fall though was perfectly legitimate -- Nikhil Chopra, who started this tournament bowling flat as a pancake and straight as a string, has been experimenting with flight and variation in the last couple of games. Here, he produced a top spinner, looping it a bit higher, holding it back a shade and inducing Johnson to play at it too early, the return catch being very well held by the bowler very low down to his right.

Kumble, who had held a very tight line and length all through, suddenly produced one of two outstanding deliveries seen in the innings (the other was a picture perfect yorker from Srinath late in the innings, which the batsman managed to dig out no one quite knows how). This one was flighted, given some overspin to produce the loop, and bowled bang in the blockhole. Flower was completely foxed, played all round it, the ball hit the toe of the boot and went on to take the off bail. The Indians, not noticing the bail falling off, kept yelling for the LBW, Flower was still in some kind of confusion and finally, we had the sight of an umpire raising a finger to signal a batsman out bowled. And off the very next ball, Streak came half-forward, completely unsure where the Kumble flipper pitched and was heading -- as it happened, it was pitched off and middle, and headed straight for the stumps, and the batsman was plumb in front.

Look at the progression at this point: 34/1 in 5, 44/2 in 10, 59/3 in 15, 82/6 in 20.

The Indian quicks had obviously settled down to a very tight line after the first five overs. And the regular fall of wickets meant that the flow of runs completely dried up, just 48 coming off 15 overs for the loss of 5 additional wickets.

Another reason was that Azharuddin, throughout this period, kept a very aggressive field. There were, always, 8 inside the circle, which meant the singles were hard to find. Most times, there were two close to the bat -- a slip and either silly point or short square leg, at some points all three close in fielders -- which meant the batsmen were unable to play forcing shots for fear of edges finding the close fielders.

Perfect, aggressive captaincy. Now look at the progression from there on. 93/6 in 25. Then, in the 26th over, a six is hit. Immediately, all close in fielders disperse, as do most within the inner ring, and India falls back on the run saving, defensive field. From then on, the innings went: 115/6 in 30, 129/7 in 35, 148/7 in 40, 177/8 in 45.

Look at it another way -- six wickets go down for 81 runs, this mind you when Zimbabwe is already playing a batsman short. And the last three wickets more than double that score -- not the first time it is happening to India in the field. The statistic, seen in isolation, produces the criticism that Indian bowlers are unable to finish off the tail. The untold story though is that inexplicably, when we have the opposition on the mat, we show this tendency to relax the grip, to let them clamber back to their feet again.

It didn't matter in this game -- but the same kind of relaxation against an Australia or a South Africa could be fatal, which is why the tendency needs to be taken note of, and corrected, now -- rather than be pointed out in a post mortem after a defeat.

The Zimbabweans would, despite the early reverses, have managed a much better total but for a strange propensity to keep playing across the line to the spinners. Who, well versed in such ways, for their part bowled a very full length, than sat back and reaped unlooked for rewards. Paul Strang in fact was very lucky to get away when, in the 25th over, he swept a full length ball from Joshi, missed, was struck on the back pad and the umpire, nervous perhaps about upholding too many of these shouts, turned this one down -- if there was any doubt for the batsman to get the benefit of on that one, darned if I saw it.

Joshi, immediately thereafter, flighted a beauty at Strang's off stump, turned it sharply away from the slashing drive, caught the edge then threw his hands up because -- as pointed out earlier -- there was no slip in place for the edge.

Wishart, who opened in the final league game, was batting sensibly at the other end -- but then paid the price for going across the line, sweeping at a fuller length ball from Joshi only to get the top edge for Sachin to hold at short fine leg.

Eddo Brandes was looking good when Sachin was brought on. The occasional bowler, who bowls inswinging full tosses, off breaks, leg breaks, leg cutters and pretty much anything else he fancies, saw Brandes coming down the track to him, promptly pushed it through at speed and on a flat line, the huge swing of the bat swished over the line of the ball and back went off -- and with that, Zimbabwe's chances of topping the 200 mark.

Strang, after his reprieves, had settled down to play a very sensible brand of cricket. Srinath then upset his rhythm in course of a superb final spell, producing a dream yorker the batsman literally had to dig out of his toecaps. A ball later, he fired another one in, like the previous one this too swung in very late, Strang ended up playing all over it and was gone, LBW.

And Zimbabwe, thanks to a fine spell of bowling between overs 45 and 50 by Tendulkar and Srinath, managed just 196 in the allotted overs -- though that score, keeping in mind the 81/6 they were at one point, looks very decent indeed.

For India, the standout performers with the ball were Srinath and Agarkar at the top, Tendulkar at the bottom and Kumble in the middle, with good support from Chopra and Joshi -- put that another way, the Indian bowling fired right down the line. The fielding had its share of bad moments -- the art of backing up to throws from the deep is, apparently, not one we care to master -- but was on the whole tight, and backed the bowling up to a fair degree.

Zimbabwe had only one chance -- and that was to take out Sachin Tendulkar early. With Saurav Ganguly struggling for runs throughout the series, taking Sachin out could have been the opening for the side, packed with bowlers of every description, to turn on the screws -- backed by the psychological advantage of having bowled out India for a low score in the last league game.

That dream was spoilt within four overs at the bowling crease by Henry Olonga, who seemed to be feeling his oats after his spell against the same opponents on Wednesday evening. At the batting crease was Sachin, seemingly carrying some kind of personal grudge against the dread-locked quick.

A fired up Olonga came charging in and slung them down as fast as he could. And the faster he bowled, the faster the ball vanished. The quick bowler tends to get good bounce off a length, so Sachin here changed his tactics. The first time he got one lifting outside off, he got under it and thumped it over point's head, for four. That induced Campbell to put a man at deep backward point, on the boundary. So Sachin got under another one, hit it harder, and cleared the man at backward point by a couple of meters, for a square six.

A long story can be statistically cut short. Olonga went for 4-0-41-0 in his first spell and long before it ended, not only had Sachin batted Zimbabwe out of the match, but he had destroyed the confidence of the bowler, who could be seen walking head down to the start of his run up, shaking his head and talking to himself.

The other bowler Zimbabwe had to rely on, to both check the scoring and to strike, was Paul Strang. 5-0-45-0 was his first spell, as Sachin launched a blistering assault on the leg spinner that reprised his attack, at this same venue, against Shane Warne of Australia. Two fours and a massive six greeted his advent, and Strang was never the same bowler after that.

There was a hysterical undertone to this latest innings from Sachin -- a clear case of adrenalin overdose. 53 came, with the aid of a towering six off Paul Strang, in just 28 balls with five fours and two sixes. He got to 60, then looked to thump Strang back over his head only to overhit the ball, getting the leading edge and putting it straight up in the air. Andy Flower, running round from behind the wicket, had it seemingly covered. So too did Paul Strang. Strangely for such a brilliant fielding side, neither of them called for the catch, nor did the others yell warnings. The two collided, the ball popped in and out of Flower's gloves, and that faint light that showed for the Zimbabweans was snuffed out.

From that point, it was all Tendulkar. The Indian 100 came off 84 balls. At that point, Sachin had made 81, off 44 balls -- Ganguly, at the other end, being reduced to the role of cheerleader, applauding stroke after blistering stroke and occasionally walking down the track to try and calm Sachin down.

That was the 8th century partnership between the two, added to 11 50 partnerships. At this point, only the Greenidge-Haynes combo has more.

Sachin's 21st ODI century came off 71 balls -- after having got to his 93 in 56 balls -- with five sixes and nine fours. Ganguly, at the time, was batting 35.

And to me, the most illuminating statistic here was that 46 of his runs had come in the V on either side of the bowler -- an indication of how very straight he hits the ball.

Around this point, he developed a cramp in his thigh muscle -- and Ganguly, who by then had batted himself back into touch, took over with three soaring sixes off Grant Flower, introduced with his part time leg spin as an act of sheer desperation. Ganguly in fact had got to the late 30s off 92 balls when Flower came on. Two sixes off three balls, and the 50 was up for the southpaw off 95 deliveries.

Sachin, who by then was limping noticeably, decided to finish it off in a hurry -- so bang went six number six, over wide midwicket off Andy Whittall, followed by a fierce pull for four that left the sweeper at midwicket standing, and got India to the target off the last ball of the 30th over.

The Indian progression tells its tale: 28/0 in 5, 76/0 in 10, 112/0 in 15 (far and away the best start by any side in this tournament), 133/0 in 20, 154/0 in 25 and 197/0 in the 30th over.

This effort got him the predictable man of the match award -- number 31, which puts him at par with Vivian Richards for the most in a career. So that would be the next world record in the offing, his next such award will take Sachin to the top spot, solo, in this category.

The real gain here, though, was by Ganguly. He was uncertain coming in. The timing was off, the shots were going straight to the field, the runs just weren't coming. But when you are partnering Sachin in the mood he was in today, the one thing you don't have to worry about is run rates. To his credit, Ganguly saw the opportunity, seized it to the full, availed himself of some pressure-free batting practise and, by the time India went past the target, was timing them at his very sweetest.

India thus has its 7th tournament win of the year -- a creditable record, and one that no one, for now, will be in the mood to examine too minutely.

The exercise, however, needs doing -- but we'll leave that for another day.

In passing, a thought -- India broke another world record, by playing its 41st one dayer in a calendar year. The next highest, if I remember right, is Australia with 25. So much for Lele and Dalmiya, and their repeated avowals that India is not being overscheduled, that the ICC norm is a maximum of 30 ODIs within a calendar year and that India is well inside that figure. Scoreboard