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Windies blast Zimbabwe out of the park

Zimbabwe, with their bits and pieces all rounders and razor-edged fielding, had upset several applecarts earlier this year during the World Cup.

In Singapore, the conditions were dramatically different from those prevailing in England -- flat batting track, smallish boundaries, quick outfield... and suddenly, Zimbabwe's attack looked less than the full monty, more so given the absence of both Heath Streak and Eddo Brandes. The West Indies, unlike the Zimbabweans, had a bad World Cup, but you wouldn't think so considering the demolition job they performed here to take an early lead in the three-nation Singapore Challenge.

It did seem a bit strange for Alistair Campbell to opt to bat first on winning the toss. There was some early moisture on the ground and on the pitch, which meant some lift and seam movement early on, with the expectation that it would settle down to good batting conditions as the day wore on. And while on conditions, curator Grant Stanley has done a great job preparing the Kallang Ground in Singapore, the 133rd international venue, ready for business. It's on the shortish side (stand by for lots of fours and sixes as this tournament warms up), the outfield is quick and the two pitches that will be used here seem absolute belters.

Before getting into the actual game, a bit of trivia provides food for thought. The last time these two met was in 1996 -- and in all, they have managed just 5 ODIs against each other, and not a single Test. That kind of statistic makes you wonder -- isn't it time the scheduling of games was taken over by the ICC, in order to avoid this kind of imbalance? It might be argued that Zimbabwe are not yet an exciting enough side to fill stadia, and therefore the big boys are not too keen on playing them with any regularity -- but that argument makes a mockery of giving them full international standing; besides, if you wont play them, how are they expected to develop their standards anyway?

The game itself got off to the worst possible start for a side that had opted to take first strike. Neil Johnson, whose batting heroics lit up the World Cup stage, left early, slashing at a wide ball from Dillon in that bowler's opening over to put Ridley Jacobs in business. During the WC, it was Johnson's application that impressed as much as his strokeplay -- here, he seemed more than a touch below that ideal.

Grant Flower at the other end was seemingly content to take his time - but the one shot he plays with some regularity, the cut, proved his undoing as he got one from Hendy Bryan that lifted more than he anticipated, which meant that the batsman couldn't keep the shot down and Brian Lara, at a slightly backward point, dived to his left to hold a good one.

Murray Goodwin followed the opener back to the hut in short order -- Rekon King pitched one short and seamed it in, Goodwin first shaped to swing it around, but got cramped as the ball kicked and came in sharply off the seam, leaving him no option but to fend away at it in front of his face, giving second slip an easy take to reduce Zimbabwe to 38/3 -- disaster zone, for a side batting first after winning the toss.

Then came a partnership that threatened to take the game away from the West Indians, as skipper Alistair Campbell and keeper Andy Flower got down to the repair job. Campbell in particular was on song from the first ball he faced, producing the kind of clean hitting in the V against the spinners in particular that tended to remind you of Ganguly at his best -- very free-flowing, very clean hits through the line and seemingly effortless, yet carrying the ball a long way, which is always indicative of immaculate footwork and timing.

Andy Flower at the other end did the right thing, settling down to rapid strike rotation, letting his captain do the bulk of the scoring and freeing his arms only when there was any real error in line and length on the part of the bowlers. The 114-run partnership off just under 19 overs seemed set to take the game right away from the fielding side, when Campbell suffered one of those rushes of blood that has been his undoing in the past, shaping to flick King high over midwicket and only managing a thick edge that put the ball high in the air for keeper Jacobs to get busy again.

Andy Blignaut, a tall left handed batsman who bowls right arm medium, was playing his first game -- and that inexperience showed in the way he threw his bat at one outside off from Dillon, a nothing ball that ended up giving Jacobs his third take of the day.

Stuart Carlisle looked to be struggling for touch, but Andy Flower, who during his skipper's tenure at the crease had played within himself, opened out into free-form strokeplay, and another reviving partnership of 71 runs got Zimbabwe nicely poised to make a big push for a score around the 265, 270 mark that seemed the minimum ask in these kind of conditions.

But this Zimbabwe innings appeared to be played out on a predetermined pattern -- a collapse, a recovery that raises hopes, then another collapse... Carlisle triggering off the next one in the sequence when he went for a needless hit at ball that was angled down to leg. Had the batsman stayed in place, that was wide to leg -- instead, he stepped away from the stumps, made an awful meal of the shot and only managed to touch the ball through, between his body and leg stump, for Jacobs to cover well and take number four.

Craig Evans is reputed to be something of a big hitter -- but the biggest of them don't tr to hit yorker-length balls out of the ground, especially if they have just come in. Apparently no one told Evans this, though -- he went for the shot, and lost leg peg as he played all over one from Bryan. Bryan, incidentally, was the slowest of the Windies bowlers on view, but also the most accurate, bowling within himself and to his field to hold down one end and allow Lara to apply pressure at the other. Ironically, while the strike bowlers applied the pressure, it was Bryan who cashed in, taking out three wickets with some exemplary bowling.

Dillon, who opened with Walsh, had looked good in each of his spells, bowling a three quarter length most of the time and really pushing for pace. Andy Flower got one of the better ones from the bowler as he went back to one pitched just outside off -- the forcing shot did seem indicated by the line, but the ball seamed back in sharply, went under the flailing bat and rearranged the legside furniture to terminate an innings that had till that point moved smoothly up the gears and seemed to be progressing, on cruise control, towards a certain century.

Walsh -- who in the evening of his career may have lost a lot of his pace but none of his guile and accuracy -- then cleaned Strang up with a perfect yorker as the batsman shaped to step to leg and slash through off, and Zimbabwe fetched up on 244/9 in the allotted 50 overs.

Overall, you can't help but feel that the Zimbabwe batsmen gave it away after seemingly having it covered. Look at it this way -- after being 38/3 at one point, the team was in great shape at 136/3 in the 30th over. Then came the slump, but they pulled back to go from 176/5 in 40, to 225/5 in 45 -- which meant that rank bad batting saw them lose 4 wickets in the last five overs for just 19 runs, not quite what you expect at the death with five in hand.

For the Windies, all the quicks impressed, Walsh's 4 maidens in particular being a standout performance (two of those maidens in fact were bowled at the height of the Campbell-Flower partnership, when Lara brought him back to try and stem the mayhem). However, one little point merits mention -- at the end, King had two overs to go and Dillon had one, which makes it rather difficult to understand why, between overs 40-45, Lara persisted with spin. The spinners bowled 13 overs and gave away 99 runs, and a lot of those came during that first half of the slog.

One possible reason could be the scoreboard -- the one at the ground doesn't show the bowling figures, which means the fielding captain is a bit handicapped when it comes to calculating how much each bowler has left in his kitty.

Zimbabwe, after that batting performance, had only one hope -- given that the West Indies tail begins at number 7, the defending side needed quick wickets early on to turn the screws and hope that the famously brittle Windies temperament would crack.

Any such dreams, though, were soon banished as Sherwin Campbell and Ridley Jacobs got off the blocks like startled rabbits. Reviewing the early part of the Windies chase, you'd think the Zimbabwean bowlers contributed with some bad bowling -- but I suspect the more correct explanation is that the Windies openers dynamited them before they had time to hit their straps. Jacobs, for instance, stood about three feet outside his crease to the first ball he faced from Johnson, and blasted it back past the bowler for four to start the fun -- and Johnson was never the same again. In a bid to keep the ball out of reach of the batsmen, both Johnson and Whittall made the mistake of trying too many things rather than sticking to one preferred line and length, and the Windies openers creamed them for plenty.

Campbell is the kind of batsman you need to pitch a three quarter line to, around off. He is very good off the back foot, but seems a shade suspect driving at the ball on the up off the front foot -- and that was the one area they didn't attack him. Jacobs, meanwhile, is one of those elemental forces of nature -- he plays as the mood takes him, and when he is going good, seems equally assured on both front foot and back. You'd want an off spinner flighting to him, looking for errors caused by overexuberance and/or extravagance in strokeplay. Whittall kept it flat, and Jacobs revelled. But the party really began when Strang too over, Jacobs hitting him over long on for a huge six, then rocking back to pull with incredible power for another six off the next ball. That signalled the exit of Strang and the entry of Olonga -- and by the time the quick bowler with a penchant for singing Western classical had got three overs in, he had gone for 26 and was singing in a very subdued key indeed.

It was all quite stirring stuff, and the Windies went to exactly 100 for none in 15 overs and the game was over right there.

A bit of artificial excitement was introduced when Campbell mishit a drive, the thick inner edge squirting the ball to fine leg. Jacobs pushed for the third and was nowhere in the frame when the throw came back from the deep -- a tame end to an innings surcharged with electricity.

Campbell apparently lost his concentration, and an over later, came down a long way trying to hit Grant Flower over long on, played all over the line and lost his off peg. And Jimmy Adams, who appears to have acquired a rather thick coating of rust during the layoff period, did a reprise and gave Grant Flower, the part time spinner, another wicket off a wild hit that missed, for the ball to rearrange the furniture.

And then Brian Lara came to the party. And produced an exhibition of graceful big-hitting -- there's something of the dancer about Lara at the crease, in the way he comes down the track, in the imperial flourish of the bat, the self-satisfied nod as he finishes with the stroke and leans back to watch the ball travel... Lara in flow is a sight for the gods.

But Lara being Lara, he wasn't satisfied going at 100+. Looking to hit everything and its uncle out of the ground, he took a heave at one from Strang going down leg, managed only to top edge and Campbell, fielding at short backward point, ran in quickly to tumble and hold behind the keeper's back.

Shivnaraine Chanderpaul played with sound sense, if not with the surest of touch -- like Adams, he appears in need of rust-remover. But Ricardo Powell was another story -- this guy is going to be a misery for some big bowling names, the way he hits them. Powell is a tall, strong bloke with a very easy, well balanced stance. His movement to either front foot or back is early and decisive, he reads the length and line very fast, and when he hits the ball, it comes back to the ground with bus tickets on it.

What is going to cause problems for bowlers is the quickness with which he makes up his mind -- once he has picked his shot, he hits with enormous power, and that means that even if he occasionally picks the wrong shot, the ball's still gone bye-bye. On today's evidence, he also seems prepared to wait for the right ball to hit, and that is bad news for opposing sides.

Newbie Blignaut, who had aimed an ambitious hit when he was at the batting end, was shown how it's all done as Powell smashed him for two sixes on the trot to give the Windies a comfortable six wicket win.

The day produced a total of 16 sixes, besides a flurry of fours. And that is one thing you can predict about the three remaining games -- that batsmen will make merry on a smallish ground and nice batting track.

You can also bet, safely, that the team chasing is apt to do better almost always -- as the day goes on, the conditions become a batsman's paradise.

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