NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Kiwis run themselves out in second ODI

A win with one ball, and two wickets, to spare for India -- does that look like an incredibly close contest? Of the kind that figure in the 'classic matches' category?

Forget it -- what we got, in the second India-New Zealand ODI, was more Comedy of Errors than Cliffhanger. New Zealand spent the first part of the match doing its level best to make the Indian fielding appear better than its real, schoolboyish, level. And in a heartwarming display of reciprocity the Indians spent the second half of the game attempting to make the Kiwi bowling much better than it was in fact.

India brought back Anil Kumble in place of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, while the Kiwis had Bryan Young doing duty for their injured skipper Stephen Fleming, and left arm seam bowler Allott coming in for Simon Doull.

Azharuddin won the toss -- the way the guy is going, it will become headline news if he ever loses one -- and got it right when he opted to field on a wicket with plenty of help for swing and seam bowlers. Only to be badly let down by his bowlers -- most notably Srinath, having a bad day in the office and pitching everywhere but on a length around off stump.

The first wicket was a precursor of things to come. Bryan Young, making a comeback to the squad, played square on the on side, the ball went straight to the fielder, Young's "NO" was audible to everyone but his partner Mathew Horne, and in the end, it was Young who had to give up his tenure, having committed the crime of taking a half step out of his crease.

That brought Craig McMillan to the crease. A real hustler, this bloke -- and right from the outset, his object, to hit the bowlers of line and length, was achieved through daring waltzes down the wicket, and improvised strokeplay of the cheekiest kind. First Srinath, then Anil Kumble, felt the pressure as an increasingly confident Horne too joined in the plunder. 28 off 46 may seem like a modest strike rate for McMillan, but it needs remembering that run-making was never going to be a breeze on this track.

Robin Singh, brought in for the 16th over, brought about the breakthrough when he had McMillan misjudging an attempted glide to third man, the away seaming ball taking the outer edge through to Mongia. And almost immediately thereafter, it was Roger Twose's turn to walk back, with run out against his name. Again, Horne proved the culprit, Robin's second over producing an inside edge from Roger Twose that Mongia floored. Horne ran on the muffed chance, though the ball had dropped right at the keeper's feet -- and Twose found himself hopelessly stranded going to the other end.

In the very next over, Tendulkar at mid on got both hands to a Cairns stroke off Kumble, only to let off the hard-hitting all rounder at a time when he was yet to get off the mark. That miss proved crucial, with Cairns and Horne batting the Kiwis back into the game in a crucial 4th wicket partnership before Horne fell yet again to his nemisis, Tendulkar -- the off break curling in just enough to take the batsman on the back pad as he tried to play across the line.

Parore's dismissal was perhaps the most comical in a shoddy display of running between wickets by the Kiwis. Tendulkar speared one down the leg side, Parore flicked and missed, Mongia gathered. All fine, thus far. Parore glanced back at the keeper holding the ball, then stepped out of his crease -- with what intent, remains a mystery -- and Mongia gleefully made a mess of the timber.

The rash of run outs continued. Nikhil Chopra, brought on for the first time in the 32nd over, bowled a run-restricting line that put pressure on the batsmen. Dion Nash, in desperation, pushed to point and took off, ignoring the negative from his partner. The result was foregone, Kumble's throw was wide but the batsman was so far out of his ground that Mongia had the time to pull it back and wreck the stumps.

Cairns relieved the monotony of run outs by attempting to loft Kumble over long on, failing however to get the requisite distance, hitting the ball too much off the bottom of the bat to put Prasad in business at long on. However, between his let off at zero and his eventual dismissal, Cairns had played a key hand of 44 off 56 deliveries -- crucial in a low scoring game.

Back to the run outs, and Daniel Vettori was next to go, taking the first run very fast for a Harris drive through mid off, turning and racing the second. His partner, however, appeared more intent following the progress of the ball, and Vettori found himself unable to make his ground as Mongia collected another wild throw and threw down the stumps.

Harris then emulated his erstwhile colleague, racing down the track for no apparent reason after Gavin Larsen had hit the ball straight to Azhar square on the onside -- the Indian skipper making no mistake wiht his throw to Chopra, the bowler. And Tendulkar again went wide, this time of off, to draw Larsen down the track and stumped by a mile.

That made two stumpings and five run outs in the innings -- a statistic as startling as the 28 extras the Indians gave away as visible indicator of some untidy bowling.

Tendulkar bowled with intelligence to help pull the Kiwis back after they looked to have the measure of the earlier bowlers; Chopra, introduced late, produced an outstanding spell of niggardly spin bowling and Kumble, after going big in his first spell, turned it round again to tighten things down at the very end.

The progression is indicative enough of the fits and starts nature of the innings: 14/1 in 5, 45/1 in 10, 76/1 in 15, 94/3 in 20, 121/3 in 25, 148/3 in 30, 165/5 in 35, 176/5 in 40, 195/8 in 45 and 213 all out with three balls of the allotted 50 overs to spare.

Much of the credit for the decline in scoring from the 30-over mark goes, in fact, to the troika of Chopra, Tendulkar and Kumble, who really turned the screws on the Kiwi batsmen with a fine spell.

Though the wicket was not conducive to cavalier strokeplay, 214 seemed too small a target to challenge the Indians, particularly with Tendulkar in a rampaging mood. The Kiwis' task was made harder when, after the first two balls of Allott's 3rd over were whacked through midwicket by Tendulkar, the left arm seamer strained a hamstring bowling his third delivery and limped off the field in tears.

Tendulkar was threatening to run away with the game when he fell to the softest of dismissals. Kiwi skipper Dion Nash, whose first international wicket was in fact that of Tendulkar himself, put one just outside off, the batsman attempted to guide to third man, and Bryan Young held a superb catch low down at slip.

That brought Dravid and Ganguly to the wicket. Run making was a struggle in the face of some electric fielding and tight line and length bowling, but the two young stars played with calm confidence, moving the score along towards what, at the time, looked like a very easy target indeed.

And then began the fun and games. Nash made one kick off a length, to take Ganguly's bat handle on its way through to keeper Parore, ending his innings just when the southpaw appeared to have the measure of the bowling.

Mohammad Azharuddin, after his century in the first innings of the second Test, has had a forgettable tour -- and his bad run continued as he aimed a swishy kind of drive at Larsen without moving his feet, for Parore to hold very well standing close to the stumps.

Dravid, given the difficulties of free-flowing strokeplay on this track, had slipped back into the role of anchor. The applause had hardlyl died down for an elegant clip off the pads off Vettori when he pushed forward at one that pitched middle, turned and bounced to take the outer edge for Parore to get back in business.

Jadeja, not batting with his usual freedom but managing to hang in there, and the more fluent Robin Singh appeared to have the task -- 92 more to get off 18.2 overs at Dravid's dismissal -- covered when the former got out to a piece of running between the wickets that overshadowed the efforts of the Kiwis in the morning. When the bowler took the bails off, Jadeja was a full foot and a half inside his crease -- only, one of the best runners in the Indian side had forgotten to ground his bat!

On par with Jadeja's lapse was the manner of Robin's dismissal. The ask was 50 from 54, the need was for him, as the last recognised batsman, to stay there and see the team through -- but as it turned out, Robin attempted, needlessly, to launch Vettori over long on, only to pick the fielder there with unerring aim.

With runs and balls remaining keeping pace, first Javagal Srinath, then Nikhil Chopra, emulated the Kiwis with some incredibly inept running that brought the tally of runouts in the game to an incredible 8 (not forgetting 2 stumpings). But all along, Nayan Mongia batted with admirable composure, and with 7 to get off the last over, Anil Kumble's wild heave at Dion Nash got the bottom edge to the third man fence, to put India into the winning position. Kumble himself finished off the job with an off driven 2 that took India past the target with one ball to spare.

For the Kiwis, the most notable of the bowlers was Chris Harris, whose assorted all sorts fetched him an amazing 10-3-27-0 analysis. Cairns was good in support, but it needs bearing in mind that the Kiwis were without the services of the injured Allott.

Check out the Indian progression, check the smooth early progress followed by the almost fatal stutter in the middle stages: 25/0 in 5, 54/1 in 10, 74/1 in 15, 88/2 in 20, 99/3 in 25, 118/3 in 30, 139/4 in 35, 159/5 in 40 and 189/7 in 45.

The better team won, is a normal end-of-match cliche. In this instance, the most charitable summation would be to say that the side that made that one mistake too many lost.

Scoreboard