Match report India v Zimbabwe VB Series 20 Jan 2004 by John Ward

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Scorecard:

India v Zimbabwe

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Forgive me a touch of cynicism as I assess Zimbabwe’s performance in their latest VB Series match against Australia at Brisbane. This was the Zimbabwe that crowds love to watch around the world: thoroughly competitive, putting up a tremendous fight, keeping the result in doubt until the very end, and just going down to defeat all the same.

 

It was the same result, but at least Zimbabwe were competitive this time. When all seemed lost, they fought back superbly in the lower order, and there were at least signs of hope for sanity in the top batting order line-up. Had the match not been marred by a very nasty injury to opener Mark Vermeulen, who is out of cricket for some time now, they might even have won.

 

India were without the injured Sachin Tendulkar and also Virender Sehwag, so they had a new opening pair when they chose to bat: wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel and the captain Saurav Ganguly himself, who has often opened in one-day cricket. They made a useful 41 together in nine overs before Heath Streak bowled Patel for a nippy 19, doing his job well and then getting out so the big guns could take over.

 

Zimbabwe had overcome their fielding lapses of the previous unhappy match, and made some superb stops. Douglas Hondo, often a culprit in the field if anybody is, had obviously put a lot of hard work into his fielding, and not only made some good stops but also a fine leaping catch at backward square leg to remove Ganguly for 33 off the bowling of Ervine.

 

Next to go was V V S Laxman, tempted into driving at a widish ball from Ervine outside the off stump and edging to the keeper for 12; India were now 74 for three in the 17th over. Ervine again did a fine job with the ball, and later with the bat as well, despite being shunted down ridiculously to number eight in the order.

 

Now came the decisive partnership of the match, as Yuvraj Singh joined Rahul Dravid at the crease and they worked hard to add 114 together in 24 overs. The Zimbabwe tactics against these two were dubious, as they took the defensive position of guarding the boundaries at all costs and so allowed the batsmen to take singles almost at will. Even the normally big-hitting Yuvraj managed only three fours in his innings of 69, but it took him only 76 balls, thus proving he found little difficulty in running the ball around for ones and twos.

 

Raymond Price was the most economical bowler, conceding only 43 runs off his 10 overs, and with his last possible ball he broke this partnership, beating and bowling Yuvraj through the left-hander’s gate, the ball just removing the off bail. Rohan Gavaskar, son of Indian batting legend Sunil and a useful all-rounder, took his place, making 22 off 22 deliveries before being bowled by Streak, back for his final spell, hitting across the line.

 

All this time Dravid had been playing a typically sound innings, but in the final over, entrusted to Ervine, he drove a full toss to mid-off and departed for 84. The Indian total was 255 for six, not an intimidating target for Zimbabwe and a tribute to their better bowling and greatly improved fielding. Ervine returned the best figures of three for 47. The cynics could say it remained to be seen what sort of mess their top order would make of it this time.

 

Wisely it had been decided to restore the experienced Grant Flower to open the innings with the more volatile Vermeulen, who had had a dismal tournament so far. The pair settled in, beginning by playing out two maiden overs, and were looking sound at 28 without loss when Vermeulen, with 14 of those and looking much more comfortable than hitherto, tried to hook Irfan Pathan, only to get a top edge to the ball. It flew into his visor, freakishly finding the gap and struck him an awful blow just above the right eye. He had to be helped from the field, and it was later discovered that he had suffered a depressed fracture – his second such injury in a year, as he had been hit in the nets during the World Cup. He was to have an operation in Australia before flying home.

 

Travis Friend had been restored to the team as a specialist batsman; wisely Streak did not trust his spray-gun pace bowling in a one-day game. He has had experience and some success at number three in one-day cricket, but made only 7 this time due to his own fault. He pushed a ball near to Ganguly and ambled through for an easy single – only to find that the Indian captain had been fooling the cricket world for many a long year about his supposedly feeble fielding. Ganguly swooped on the ball and threw down the stumps with a shocked Friend just short of his crease, turning his jog into a sprint far too late.

 

Flower was finding scoring difficult, though, and unwisely decided on a big hit to the wrong ball. He skyed a catch from Ashish Nehra into the covers and departed for 36. Andy Blignaut, who has not used a bat in anger for some time after being kept down at number nine, was promoted in an attempt to break the deadlock, good thinking, but only scored a single before steering a ball into the gully. The bowler was the inexperienced Lakshmipathy Balaji, who bowled very well and was to be India’s most economical bowler.

 

Streak cannot be expected to succeed on every occasion, and this time he made only 3, the medium-paced Ganguly moving a ball into him and bowling him through the gate. Zimbabwe were 81 for four in the 23rd over – effectively five wickets, with Vermeulen unfit to resume - in trouble again, but this time misfortune had a major hand.

 

Unfortunately, with more than six an over, the wrong batsman was sent in next. Tatenda Taibu is a good runner between wickets, but the more powerful batting of Ervine was needed. While the doughty but uninspired Stuart Carlisle dropped anchor, Taibu scored 15 off 36 balls before being caught on the boundary off Ganguly attempting a six. At 128 for five, Zimbabwe now needed eight an over and had fallen further behind. It may just have been the decision that cost Zimbabwe the match.

 

Carlisle (34) also fell to a degree of ill luck, caught by the keeper standing up to Ganguly – but only because a low edge had caught tight in Patel’s pads before he had a chance to get his gloves down. Dion Ebrahim has rarely done well at the top of the order for Zimbabwe one-day cricket – except against Bangladesh – but this time, at number nine, he and Ervine played the bowling superbly.

 

Both were to score 39 – Ervine off 27 balls, Ebrahim off 30 – and added a heroic 49 in less than seven overs. Ervine went for his strokes in his usual superb style, but chasing eight an over needs a near miracle against such a quality attack. Ervine finally drove a catch straight at the ubiquitous Ganguly in the covers.

 

Price, not normally noted for aggressive batting, swung his bat courageously and with Ebrahim added a hectic 34 off just 20 balls. Then Ebrahim received a thigh-high full toss from Balaji, tried to pull it over midwicket and only managed to sky a catch to – Ganguly at midwicket. The last pair needed 25 off the final three overs, but Hondo tried a risky single to Kumble in the covers first ball and it was all over, Ganguly taking the bails off that the bowler’s end. Ganguly had a remarkable day in the field, with three wickets, two catches, one run-out and a hand in another.

 

So India won by 24 runs, but at least Zimbabwe had given the crowd value for money this time. They are heading in the right direction, but still need to get their top-order batting fully together and use their most productive batsmen to best effect.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 John Ward)