India enter final with dramatic win

Prem Panicker

Okay, how do you say this?

Do you say that India has a knack of lifting its game for the big occasion?

Or that India has a knack for sleep-walking through tournaments till that point when the organisers book their return tickets, and then pulling out all the stops?

Do you say, as has been said ad infinitum, that the Indian team will be at its peak only when Sachin Tendulkar goes back to his earlier style of batting, and goes for the bowling in the first 15 irregardless of the risk involved?

All of them are true - and yet no one thing explains the result in toto, as India, needing to make 241 runs in 40.5 overs to make it to the final on superior run rate, did the job with 9 balls to spare.

One thing needed saying, though - Zimbabwe was brilliant throughout the tournament, and though the pressure on the day produced misfields and one dropped catch, they played very well again and have, through their performance, ensured that sides won't write them off too easily in future.

Meanwhile, on to the match report...

The pitch, and teams

The wicket at Willowmoore Park, Benoni, was a bit tricky. Firm, with a layer of grass - but unlike what normally happens when grass is left on the wicket, this was not one of those where the ball would bounce alarmingly. Rather, thanks to a soft core, the ball actually did not come onto the bat, which meant that, in tandem with the lush grass in the outfield which slowed the ball down, run-making was going to be rather difficult. Given the conditions, 250 would be a good score for the side batting first to defend.

India made two changes in lineup, and one change in batting order, and both in the event proved very crucial indeed. In the lineup, Nayan Mongia came back into the side for Saba Karim, the Indian management obviously deciding that Karim's batsmanship wasn't sufficient to risk fumbles behind the stumps. The other change was Joshi coming back for Ankola, despite this not being a spinner's track - again, the decision obviously was to infuse variety into the attack. In the lineup, meanwhile, Tendulkar replaced Dravid at the top of the order and given that ask rates would play a crucial role here, that was a wise move as Tendulkar, if he played his normal game, was best fitted to take advantage of the first 15 overs.

Zimbabwe meanwhile made one change, the off form Andrew Waller being replaced at the top of the order by Stuart Carlisle.

Tendulkar won the toss and, despite India's record as poor chasers, opted for second strike. Tendulkar's reasoning was that by batting second, India would know precisely what it had to do to get into the final. A bold decision, that, as in the event of an India defeat, or even a failure to make the final, it would have been blamed by pundits, press and fans alike.

The Zimbabwe innings

Geoffrey Boycott, in the Star Sports commentary box, talked of how he rates Javagal Srinath one of the best in the world, and how, everytime Boycs meets Srinath, he tells the latter that when he keeps the ball right up to the bat, he is an almost unplayable bowler.

On the day, though, Srinath got a bit carried away in his first spell, and sprayed it around so much that he ended up giving away 6 wides and a no ball in his first spell - important runs and, more to the point, extra deliveries for Zimbabwe.

However, he made amends pretty quickly when he brought one in from outside off, the ball coming in very fast, opening Carlisle (3 off 18) up and taking the inner edge of the bat for Mongia, diving low to his left, to justify his recall with a superb catch to reduce the batting side to 18/1.

Alistair Campbell upped himself in the batting order, and looked in great nick right from the get-go. Grant Flower, meanwhile, was not timing quite as well as he has in the past, but rode his experience to work the singles and, with the Zimbabwe batsmen running as brilliantly as they were wont to, the rate picked up from 28/1 in 10 overs to 50/1 in 15, 69/1 in 20.

Flower then decided to go after Joshi, who from his introduction into the attack was tossing the ball right up, risking the odd big hit and putting pressure on the batsmen with good flight, loop and variation of length. Most spinners in ODI situations wilt when they are hit, but Joshi after being spanked for four tossed one up even higher, Flower (40 off 69 with two fours) went for a big one over the vacant midwicket region, was foxed by the flight and turn and ended up outer-edging an easy looping catch to Jadeja at point. Zimbabwe 79/2.

Guy Whittall was promoted in the order again - and I am not quite sure why, because he has really done little to justify that promotion thus far. In the event, he looked out of sorts against Joshi and Kumble, both bowling a tight line and length, and after several horrible attempts to paddle or sweep, ended up trying to hit Kumble out of the ground and spooning to Dravid at square leg. Zimbabwe 128/3 with that wicket, in the 31st over, and Whittall gone for 20 off 29 with one four.

Andy Flower came in at this stage, and with some clean hitting and brisk running between the wickets while Campbell, with perfect calculation, went for two big hits over midwicket off Joshi, the run rate picked up and Zim went on to 152 by the 35th over and 188/3 in 40 - a great platform for a slog in the last few and a total totally out of India's reach.

And then, with the Zimbabwe batsmen looking to up the momentum, the Indians finally got their bowling act right. First up, Joshi floated one into the blockhole, Andy Flower (35 off 34 with two fours) went for a reverse sweep and was bowled round his legs, to reduce Zimbabwe to 191/4.

The dangerous Dave Houghton came in next and Joshi, by now bowling at peak form, kept him tied down to such an extent that the experienced batsman, getting only one run off nine balls faced, tried to break the shackles but hitting the spinner up and over. In the event, he only managed to give Kumble a chance to hold a well-judged one at mid off, and Zimbabwe were 195/5.

That brought Craig Evans to the wicket. Meanwhile Alistair Campbell, batting with a brilliant mix of perfectly timed big hits and intelligent pushes and glides for ones and twos to get 86 off 108 with two fours and the two huge sixes, made the mistake of trying to flick a yorker length delivery from Javagal Srinath who, coming back for his last spell, bowled at his fastest and on a very full length on the stumps, almost as if he had been talking to Boycott in the interim. The stumps went all over the place as Campbell was beaten by pace and movement, and Zimbabwe went to 212/6 in 46.2 overs and already, the good platform was being wasted somewhat.

Paul Strang hit hard and ran aggressively to get six off just four balls faced, but an attempt to hit Kumble against the turn ended in Azharuddin diving forward to pull off a good catch at short midwicket, and Zimbabwe were 219/7. And 225/8 shortly thereafter, when Srinath again bowled one just outside off, cutting in sharply and Streak (3 off 4), cramped for room, inner-edging onto his stumps to give the pace bowler his third wicket (3/35 in ten) and have him join Joshi (3/40 in 10) as the real architects of India's fightback.

The much slower pace of Prasad has in earlier games proved disastrous in the last over - it will be recalled that in the previous game, with Zimbabwe needing 9 off the last over to win, Streak got there with two twos and a four off the first three balls. Again, he was given the last over and Brandes (8 off 8) and Evans (17 off 20), going neck or nothing, took 15 off it to take Zimbabwe from 225/8 to 240 for 8 in 50 overs.

For India, Joshi and Srinath were outstanding, Kumble bowled well enough to take 2/53 off his ten, the figures spoilt somewhat by Campbell and later, Evans, Tendulkar went for 16 off his three, Ganguly 11 off two and Robin, the hero of the previous match between these two sides, 31 off his five overs. All figures that, on a track where the ball didn't do anything alarming, made sense.

India fielded reasonably well, but with first Prasad, then Tendulkar putting down sitters, one suspected that - especially when taken in tandem with the 21 extras, 10 wides and two no balls among them - India had allowed Zimbabwe a good 20, 25 runs more than it should have got.

And what that meant was that for India to make it to the final, it was not enough to score 241 in 50 overs. To pip Zimbabwe on run rate, India had to make those runs in 40.5 overs or less, which meant scoring at over 5 an over from the very beginning.

The Indian innings

For India to do the deed, the only hope was for the openers to go for the bowling in the first 15 overs, and this is precisely what they did. Initially, it was Ganguly who went after the bowling and got to 12 off 14 balls before pulling John Rennie hard but straight to Carlisle on the square leg fence, no blame attaching to Ganguly there as he did have to bat positively and the ball was short enough for the stroke. India in the event, 19/1.

Azharuddin came to the crease at one drop. Again, a good ploy as Azhar, if he got his eye in, would have been the right person to up the run rate even further. In the event, though, the Indian batsman tried to hit the cover off everything he faced and after some miscues, ended up moving too far down leg stump to make room for an inside out cover drive, and actually played a ball outside leg stump onto his middle stump from Rennie, to reduce India to 34/2.

Tendulkar, meanwhile, was coming down for everything. Brandes was smashed out of the attack in just two overs that went for 21, Streak who took over was treated with even less respect and, with Dravid calmly taking a single off every ball he faced to give Tendulkar the strike, the Indian skipper played the sort of innings he hasn't come up with in ages. Laying back to square drive, going down the track even to the pace of Brandes and Streak to drive on the up through cover, pulling over midwicket, flicking over the infield on the leg side and once, standing tall and picking Streak straight back over his head for a huge six, Tendulkar raced to his 50 off just 34 balls, and India's run rate rocketed along. 28/1 in five overs, 47/2 in 10, 97/2 in 15, and at that stage, it was just a question of whether Tendulkar would stay there long enough to make this a cakewalk.

To the credit of the Indian captain who has been having a prolonged lean spell, he changed from the berserker mode the minute the field restrictions were off, and began taking the singles and guiding well for twos, keeping the scoring going without ever taking the slightest risk. Interestingly, his first 64 runs contained eight fours and the one six - and after that, he never hit a single boundary, but still kept going at over a run a ball.

Dravid, meanwhile, flicked at one from Whittall that stopped on him, then crashed into his stumps - attempting, there, to take the single to midwicket, and perished for 17 off 27 which, despite the stats, was as good an effort as Ganguly's for he ensured that he stayed there and gave Tendulkar the strike to put on 85 good runs for the third wicket. India 119/3. At the halfway stage of 20 overs (remembering that India had only five balls beyond the 40 over mark to do the job), India then were well placed at 121/3, having got exactly half of what was required and having seven wickets in hand.

Jadeja came in, to put on an exhibition of breakneck running that had Sachin Tendulkar, already tiring from his exertions, gasping for breath and holding his sides. In the event, the two took the score to 151/3 in 25 without any dramatic hitting until, with the score on 158, Sachin Tendulkar (104 off 97 with eight fours and one six) finally played a tired flick at Craig Evans to find his opposite number, Campbell, at midwicket.

The fall of a wicket like Tendulkar's always does put pressure on the batsmen following even as it helps the fielding side lift its game, and that is pretty much what happened as Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja lost their way at this stage. Between overs 25 and 30, just 17 runs were added, and when India went into over number 35 needing a run rate of 7.5 per over it looked all over bar the shouting.

But the trick to the one day game is that one or two big overs turns the equation around, and Robin Singh demonstrated how when, in one calculated assault on the hapless Brandes, he hit a huge six over long on, then hammered three twos. And two overs later, Jadeja made matters even easier, opening the bat face to a faster ball from Streak, hitting it up and over cover for six, as he does so often, then followed up with a four through mid off and, in the end, India coasted to a win with just the singles before Robin finished it off, in the second ball of the 40th over, with a clubbed four over mid on off Brandes.

The bowling figures tell half the story: Brandes 0/50 in 5.2, Rennie 2/36 in 9 and easily the most impressive, Streak 62/0 in 9, Whittall 1/36 in 6, Strang 0/30 in 5 and Evans 1/25 in 5. No bowler barring Rennie could keep the Indian batsmen quiet, and that tells the second half of the story - on the day, the Indians ran between wickets better than it ever has before in this tournament, and forced misfields, overthrows and even a dropped sitter (by Whittall off Jadeja) from a side rated almost on par with SA in the field.

India, thus, coasts into the final after looking to be out of the competition going into this game. One wonders, though, why India has this habit of either winning or losing by miles - given the ability in the ranks, would a bit of consistency be too much to ask for?

In the event, a re-run of the Titan Cup, where India beat Australia in a crunch game in the league to face RSA again. This time, though, the home side - which here, as there, got into the final with an unbeaten record - will be keyed up for the big one. So the stage set for an interesting outing at Durban - where India's misfortunes began when, in the first Test, it was bowled out for 66 and a 100.

The wheel does come full circle at times, doesn't it?

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