Date-stamped : 18 Aug2000 - 14:23
6 March 1996

29th ODI: India v Zimbabwe, Match Report

Mark Nicholas

<b>World Cup: Zimbabwe spurn chance</b>

The Indian World Cup dream lives on. Any  remote  possibility  of
embarrassment  was  removed  by  yesterday`s  comfortable  40-run
win over  hapless  Zimbabwe  at  the  well-appointed  Green  Park
Stadium.

Zimbabwe are a shadow of the team that  they   can   be.   India,
recently  so  consistent on their own patch, are showing signs of
tactical uncertainty and diminished self-belief.

Having won the toss, Andy Flower betrayed his  team`s   lack   of
form  by  choosing to field first.  In  the  past  Zimbabwe would
have scorned such thinking, but  so  meekly   have   they  batted
throughout   the  tournament  that  the captain thought better of
taking  the  bull  by  the horns.

Mohammad Azharuddin would have chosen to bat so he was pleased to
accept  the  generosity,  but  by the start of the  13th  over he
must have wondered what was going on.

First the prolific Sachin Tendulkar,  with  422   runs   in   the
World Cup already, lost his middle and off stumps to a break-back
from Heath Streak, then Sanjay Manjrekar  drove  early  to  short
midwicket.   Ten  balls later his captain did much the same.  The
catches  were good, Alastair Campbell snatching Manjrekar`s  firm
hit  from  above his head and moving forward to grab Azharuddin`s
casual flick.

From that point on, with India  nervously  placed   at   32   for
three,  Zimbabwe  inexplicably  lost control. It was not that the
pitch improved, in fact it stayed low and slow for the  day,  nor
that India improved much either. Vinod Kambli was missed by Bryan
Strang off his own bowling as Zimbabwe fumbled and  missed  their
moment.

Kambli branched out in his extravagant way  and   his   opponents
continued  to  spill straightforward offerings, but his  110-ball
hundred was a personal triumph after  a  wretched  start  to  the
World Cup.

Of equal merit was the steady, accumulating  innings  played   by
Navjot  Sidhu,  who has  been  unwell  of  late  but  who  batted
with  responsibility  yesterday  and   gave   Aday   Jadeja   the
platform  for  a  late flourish of classy strokes.

Andrew Waller and Grant Flower had some strokes of  their  own in
store  for  the inconsistent Venkatesh Prasad and they reached 50
from 10 overs, to threaten an upset. But the excellent  spinners,
Anil  Kumble  and  Venkatapathy  Raju, and Azharuddin`s attacking
field,  took the sting from Zimbabwe`s chase. Flower  was  nicely
taken  at   silly point and Waller was held by Tendulkar at silly
mid-on. From then on the African pack of cards collapsed.

Zimbabwe fly home chastened by their  indifferent  cricket  while
India  go to Bangalore for a quarter-final against Pakistan. They
are still unsure of their ideal bowling combination but   can  be
pretty  certain that Jadeja, who stole the man-of-the-match award
from Kambli, will not  fill  the  all-round   boots   vacated  by
out-of-form  Manoj Prabhakar.

Roland Lefebvre, of Holland, is included by  Glamorgan  in  their
13-man  party  to  tour  South  Africa this month. However, Ottis
Gibson, of the West Indies, is not expected to  join  the  county
until  the  end of April as he may be involved in the Test series
against New Zealand.

<b>Man of the match:</b> AD Jadeja

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

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