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India take Hero Honda Cup

Two eight wicket wins in two outings, and the Hero Honda Cup is already won and lost, with the last game -- scheduled for Wednesday September 30 at Harare -- now reduced to an academic exercise.

So what is it with Azhar and tosses anyway? This was his 7th straight win in the recent past -- the guy really has to go out and get himself a lottery ticket or something.

While on that, what's with this insertion thing anyway? W G Grace -- admittedly in a different form of the game -- once made a statement that, under the flip exterior, makes a point. "When you call right, bat first. If the wicket is bad, think a bit, and then bat first anyway!"

That might be a bit extreme, but on a nice batting track, like this one was, I'm not sure insertion is a good ploy -- why run the risk of having the opposition pile up a good score and put your own batsmen under pressure?

Anyways. That's been Azhar's recent ploy and he stuck to that here. He stuck, too, to the side that won the first ODI of the Hero Honda series a day earlier.

Zimbabwe made a couple of changes, however, bringing in John Rennie and the 17 year old medium pacer Muleleki Nkala (making his debut, though he did represent Zimbabwe in the recent Commonwealth Games).

The pitch was a beauty, the ball coming on to the bat unlike in the first game. Start of play, however, was delayed a bit by a damp spot, courtesy a thunderstorm last evening, on the bowler's delivery area at one end -- a delay that reduced the game to 45 overs a side.

Srinath, off form on day one and having to bowl from the end where the run up was sticky, was a different bowler today. Unable to really run in, he stuck to ambling through his run up, putting it there or thereabouts and suddenly slipping the leash, using shoulder power to speed one up.

At the other end, Agarkar stuck to a fullish line and got nice movement off the seam -- though he did spoil the good work by occasionally drifting too wide, either on off or leg, giving room for strokeplay.

Madondo and Campbell opened for Zimbabwe and the former didn't bother the scorers much -- Srinath tucked him up, the ball fell at his feet, Campbell called the single, it was his call and the run was on, but Madondo did a hunt-the-slipper with the ball instead and ended up having to sacrifice his wicket to save his captain.

That brought Murray Goodwin to the wicket, and he and Campbell proceeded to put up a lovely little partnership of 125 runs -- an innings that placed the side on a platform for a challenging, even winning, total.

The two played in contrasting fashion. Campbell is a fluent strokeplayer, smooth as silk on both sides of the wicket and by nature, unwilling to let any bowler get on top of him (witness his foray down the track to Harbajan's second ball of the day, clubbing it back over his head for a huge six).

Goodwin started out tentative, his first dozen runs taking a good 42 deliveries to achieve. But he hung in there, let Campbell do all the hard work, ensured there was no reprise of the dramatic collapses of the day before and once he got his eye in, began rotating strike very well, keeping the board ticking over and playing the anchor role to perfection.

The progression tells the story of the partnership, as Zimbabwe went from 23/1 in 5 to 40/1 in 10, 59/1 in 15, 91/1 in 20, 123/1 in 25 and 154/2 in 30.

At that point, with 15 overs left to play and eight wickets, including a couple of reputed big hitters, still to come, Zimbabwe should have been looking at adding another 90, 100 runs to really take the game away.

During this point, the illogic of India's field placing surfaced again. When wickets are falling, the placing is bang on but only let two batsmen settle in and the side seems to lose it completely -- the fielders are pushed right back, there seems to be singles to any part of the ground you care to name, and you sit back and watch the batsmen, irrespective of line and length, stroking it out gently and working singles, ball after ball.

What this does is pressurise the bowler further, producing the odd bad delivery as the bowler tries to stop the relentless drip-drip-drip accumulation of singles. The unwisdom of this ploy is obvious from the fact that after 30 overs, Zimbabwe were still going along at an easy 5-plus per over, a rate they maintained, there or thereabouts, right through.

The alternative? Bring the fielders in and make singles impossible. Let a batsman play four, five dot balls and he is the one feeling the pressure, needing to hit a boundary to redress the balance, and that is when the mistakes come.

This kind of lax stuff may not, in the ultimate analysis, make much of a difference against a team like Zimbabwe that doesn't have the bowling to defend even good totals, but against a better organised bowling side, the singles given away are going to prove the difference -- which makes this something for the Indian management, including consultant coach Bobby Simpson, to keep an eye on.

As it turned out, there was no pressure on either batsman -- Campbell's demise owing to his own penchant for soft dismissals just when he looks to have the bowling completely under control. Kumble, in the previous over, had dropped a sitter of a return catch off Murray Goodwin (the leggie, this series, has been way off his usually immaculate line and length, especially to the left handers, and seems to be feeling some kind of pressure). In the next over, Campbell went down the track, looking to get under the ball, didn't quite make it with the feet, ended up getting the bottom of the bat on the hit -- lots of elevation but not sufficient carry, and Saurav Ganguly judged well to hold right on the boundary line at a very fine long on.

Throughout the innings, the chief characteristic of the Zimbabwe batsmen was their running between wickets -- they pretty much ran for everything and under pressure, the Indian fielding got a bit ragged. And it was not just that they were prepared to run -- even the strokeplay was tailored to produce singles. Thus, if the ball was hittable, they went after it, if it wasn't, then the relaxed grip on bat handle ensured that the pushes went trickling to the fielders, giving the batsmen time to cross.

Goodwin and Andy Flower kept the good work going, but Zimbabwe got a bit of a setback when Srinath, in the middle of a blistering over in his second spell, made one climb up from a length, Goodwin could only try and get out of the way, ended up getting the ball on the splice for the ball to loop high and Srinath, walking down the track, held on the follow through. Goodwin went for a good 62 off 93, an innings that was a reprise of Dravid's effort the previous day.

From then on, with the innings winding to a close, wickets and runs kept pace. In the 38th over, Harbajan floated one in to Craig Wishart, the batsman went on one knee looking to sweep, the flight deceived him, ensured that he got it rather higher on the bat, and Jadeja, sprinting in off the line at midwicket, dived forward to hold a brilliant catch.

In the 40th over, Kumble -- who, the previous day, had become the first spinner to go past the 200-wicket mark in ODIs -- got rid of Andy Flower. The ball was a regulation flipper on off, Flower went on the back foot looking to punch through the covers, the ball stopped a shade on him and Srinath, at cover, dived forward to hold a good low catch.

Agarkar, in his closing spells, almost invariably gets wickets with a combination of yorkers and deliveries that climb and make pace off the pitch. One of the latter sort did for Heath Streak, the batsman looking to cut, the extra bounce finding the edge of the bat and Mongia holding with ease.

After being brilliantly placed at 154/2 in 30, Zimbabwe had gone on to 171/3 in 35 and 196/5 in 40. At which point, with five to go, it did look as though they had lost the plot a bit.

Srinath was brilliant in overs 42 and 44, the former going for just two singles and a wide, the latter producing a fast inswinging yorker that did for Evans. The batsman, time and again, was looking to step to leg and club through cover, Srinath produced the classic fast bowler's response and the ball thudded into the base of middle stump.

At the other end, though, Agarkar tried a shade too hard to break through when simply keeping it wicket to wicket on a three quarter length would have had the batsmen in trouble -- the result being he undid a lot of the good work that Srinath was doing at the other end, and with Paul Strang and Andy Whittall pushing the envelope both in strokeplay and in running between wickets, Zimbabwe finished with a very challenging 235/7 in the allotted 45.

For India, the only really consistent performer with the ball was Srinath, who despite the handicap of an iffy run up produced figures of 9-0-35-2. Kumble was expensive, Harbajan's attacking line and prodigious flight went for runs at times despite the fact that he troubled most batsmen. And the others were, well, like the curate's egg -- good in parts.

Good in parts also describes the Indian fielding -- some lovely stops (by the usual suspects, Azhar, Jadeja, Robin, Tendulkar and once each by Dravid and Ganguly), and some very ordinary work as well, letting the pressure off.

For India on the chase, it was just a question of getting off to a good start -- given the inherent weaknesses in this Zimbabwe bowling side (compounded, in this innings, by injuries to Paul Strang and Murray Goodwin, which meant that Campbell, stretched beyond his limits, needed to call on the part time trundling of Craig Wishart and himself to fill the quota), the win would then become pretty mathematical.

And a good start was what they got, courtesy John Rennie in particular. While Streak kept to a good line and length in his first three overs, Rennie tended to give that fraction extra room outside off to both batsmen -- and both Tendulkar and Ganguly need no second invitation in that direction.

Rennie's first three overs went for 27 -- Sachin, seemingly in one of those moods wherein he wants to hit every ball, rather than concentrate on the long innings, being especially severe on the bowler.

That brought the Nkala to the bowling crease -- and a dream debut. Ball two of his first over was short and wide outside off. A gimme -- so much of a one that had Tendulkar not got a touch, it would have been called a wide. The batsman however chased it with a slashing cut, got the bottom of the bat on it and Craig Wishart, at gully, produced a superlative diving catch.

Nkala can dine out on this one for months -- the story of how, all of 17 years old, he got Tendulkar out to his second ball in international cricket. Come to think of it, though, neither Nkala, a rather nippy medium pacer without too much variety (3-0-21-1 in his first spell), nor any of the other bowlers on view, had much else to write home about.

Azharuddin -- pursuing a policy of ensuring that all his batsmen get a decent outing in the middle ahead of the Test -- promoted himself ahead of Dravid. And on a track where the ball was coming on quite nicely, began middling it from ball one.

At the other end, Ganguly, who looked a shade tentative at the outset till Rennie and Streak fed him a few outside off, in the slot for his favourite drive, quickly got his confidence back and opened out into free-flowing strokeplay.

And despite the high octane Zimbabwe fielding, the bowling really had nothing in its arsenal to give the two batsmen any kind of food for thought.

So they stroked it around, Ganguly as usual silken on the off, Azhar unique in his wristplay, the two varying their boredom with the odd defensive push, the 100 of the partnership coming in 109 balls, and India moving smoothly along from 18/0 in 5 to 65/1 in 10 (courtesy the sudden, dramatic assault on Rennie by Tendulkar), 89/1 in 15, 116/1 in 20, 141/1 in 25, 168/1 in 30. At each successive stage, despite the relative dip in scoring in the middle overs, ahead both of the Zimbabwe scoring pattern and also of the required run rate. Achieved by the expedient of stroking the ball to the outfielders, keeping the board moving along and, every other over, coming up with the boundaries as they took advantage of even fractional variations from line or length.

Azhar, in a bid to clean the game up in a hurry, went down the track to a nice, friendly full toss from Campbell, tried to swing it around and Craig Wishart held his second well judged catch of the match -- the wicket falling in the 35th over, at the end of which India were 199/2 and coasting, thanks for the second time in two days to a great second wicket partnership of 153.

Jadeja, figuring that Campbell shouldn't be allowed to get above himself, launched one over long off for a six in his next over -- causing some worry in partner Ganguly's mind.

Saurav Ganguly, once sure that the win was on, concentrated on going for the big one, and got to his 5th ODI in his 76th appearance in India colours. Jadeja, with the score on 217/2 and Ganguly batting 93, was clearly picked up on the stump mike, from the non-striker's end, telling Ganguly in Hindi: Dada, fikar math karo, main nahin maroonga okay, thumhara banake hi jayenge (Don't worry, I won't hit, we'll get you to the 100).

And from then on, the vice captain restrained himself to little nudges, taking the singles and giving Ganguly the strike. And when the left hander flashed on one occasion, there was Jadeja vocalising again: Arre dada, jaldi bhi kya hai, jamke khel!. Of course, he then went on to clip Streak through midwicket for four and flashed a grin at his partner, but there were 11 runs still to get (off 40 balls), so Ganguly was on solid ground there.

Actually, this bit of the innings was quite funny with Jadeja's rapidfire commentary -- a dab to point, Jadeja calls for the single, Ganguly yells no and the VC is at the mike again: Arre thu wohi khade reh jaaoge tho kaise century banaoge, babu?

There was lots more in that vein, with the Zimbabwe bowlers refusing to give the left hander a juicy long hop to put away and Ganguly refusing to take the slightest risk -- a period of play during which Jadeja was in his elements, joking with the Zimbabwe fielders, gesturing a 'what to do, my partner needs three more', playing some immaculate forward defensive strokes... fun and games all round, as the game meandered to its inevitable end.

Streak finally put one in the slot, outside off, and Ganguly promptly slammed him for the four he needed to get to his 5th ODI century in his 76th appearance (average 39.98), the 100 coming off 120 deliveries. And another inside out drive through cover for four more was by way of celebration.

It's an interesting aspect of the Indian performance that once Ganguly and Tendulkar got together at the top, the batting acquired tremendous solidity. Either Tendulkar or Ganguly gets runs in pretty much every game, the two complement each other well, one throttling back when the other is firing.

And like Tendulkar yesterday, Ganguly saw things through to the end, scoring the winning run for India to register another eight wicket win with plenty in hand.

For Zimbabwe, major worries. Not about the third ODI, which now is just a formality, but about the upcoming Test series. Strang's injury will, hopefully, clear in time, but they are going to need this bowling outfit, which has managed to get four Indian wickets in close to 100 overs, to go at 200 per cent to stretch the Indians in the one off Test to follow.

At a personal level again, the Indian assault on Desmond Haynes' records continued. Azhar, playing his 297th ODI, got himself closer to Haynes' world record 8648 runs (238 matches) -- he now has 8552, and needs just 97 more to become the highest scorer of all time in ODIs.

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