Skipper Ganguly leads by example

By G. Viswanath

AHMEDABAD, DEC. 5. It was a peach of a knock by India's captain Sourav Ganguly. Long before he had left the field and let his deputy Rahul Dravid to deal with the mundane happenings in the afternoon session, he had made the Pepsi second one-day international against Zimbabwe a veritable one-sided contest at the Motera stadium.

Though he played his part in the first Test win and also in the first one-day international at Cuttack, he had not put his mind behind making a big individual campaign, which is what he did in three and a quarter hours to make his 16th century in 156 one-day internationals. The upshot of his smart batting was the home team, after electing to bat, posting a total of 306, in which was written a sure Indian win which was achieved by 61 runs.

India's performance on Tuesday was in keeping with its form. It is hard to imagine this Indian team being beaten in perfect home conditions. The Zimbabwe bowling is more likely to fail in Indian conditions because it's medium pace oriented and does not have quality spinners. In the circumstances, the probability of Zimbabwe facing a 0-5 rout looks likely.

On the eve of the match both captains had expressed similar statements on the possibility of the pitch assisting the spinners. The fact that the Indian captain batted freely during the course of his long innings and forged a big stand with Dravid for the second wicket was ample proof that there was no demon in the pitch.

It was just his tendency to commit himself to a certain shot in the early phase of the innings that led to Sachin Tendulkar's cheap dismissal. An injury on his left ankle had kept him away from the big stage of Test cricket, but Travis Friend, who had already made a fine impression in the one-day internationals at home and in Sharjah, managed to extract lift around the off stump, getting the ball to carry to wicketkeeper Andrew Flower off Tendulkar's bottom hand glove.

Friend bowled a good first spell and returned to finish his quota of 10 overs with fine figures. Tendulkar's wicket had fallen inside the first half hour, but thereafter it was a long, long wait for Zimbabwe before it could make further inroads and not before Ganguly and Dravid had cut and carved their bowling for a partnership of 175 runs off 217 balls. Dravid was a trifle subdued, hitting his first boundary only on the 21st ball he faced off Streak.

Ganguly had begun as is his wont, he cut a short and wide ball from Henry Olonga. The next two 4s were more elegant, he glanced fine to the right of the wicketkeeper and to long-leg. The match had commenced 30 minutes behind schedule, the groundstaff being given that much time to mop up the area where there was heavy dew.

A run rate of 3.7 was what India could achieve in the first 10 overs, but this was the time Ganguly and Dravid were trying to play themselves in. By the 20th over there was a marked improvement, with Ganguly raising the tempo with three sizzling shots off Streak, the third of which travelled to the sightscreen, gun barrel straight. His sixth 4, a cover drive off leg-spinner Brian Murphy took him to his half century.

Ganguly had batted patiently for nearabout 100 minutes to make his half century, but soon he showed glimpses of why he is rated a great batsman in limited-over cricket. His next three boundary shots were all 6s, two off Murphy and one off the left- arm spinner Dirk Viljoen. Dravid turned out to be an ideal foil for helped his captain, helping him build the big partnership. The later Indian batsmen developed this into a match winning one, adding 110 in the last 10 overs. Dravid had batted for over two hours and looked solid before a direct hit from Streak from mid- off provided Zimbabwe its second wicket. This was another instance when Streak showed his alacrity and Dravid began to walk knowing that he was a few inches short of the crease. The third umpire Sameer Bandekar only confirmed that Streak's throw was precise.

It was now that the Indian captain began to unleash the kind of shots he has become famous for. He had reached his century in a little over two and a half hours and 128 balls and he did not show intentions of preserving his wicket till the end. Streak introduced Douglas Marillier and Ganguly without wasting time smashed him for three 4s and then stepped out to hit his sixth 6.

It was now a question of how many runs India would make at the end of the 50th over and though Ganguly was dismissed off the fourth ball of the 45th over, the lower order batsmen made 66 runs. Yuveraj Singh was lucky not to be given out caught by Andrew Flower off Marillier when he was on seven. He struck a six off Murphy, Sunil Joshi drove an extraordinary six over long- off off Olonga and then Hemang Badani made more than run a ball. From 131 for one at the end of the 30th over, India scored 175 off the last 120 balls, a tremendous effort in the vanguard of which was the captain himself.

Zimbabwe did not challenge the target. Alistair Campbell began with a flourish, but his partner, Marillier, who has had a dreadful run in one-day internationals was all at sea against Zaheer Khan, who beat him so often with deliveries that was angled across. The right-hander was then bowled by Venkatesh Prasad whose incoming delivery took the off stump with the batsman playing across the line. Stuart Carlisle who made an undefeated 91 at Cuttack spent 25 minutes to make one run before Khan beat him for pace. The Zimbabweans gave up after Tendulkar found the edge of Campbell's bat.

Ganguly left the field at this point leaving the captaincy chores to Dravid, who was in charge for 35 overs. It gave an opportunity for Dravid, who is the vice-captain, to apply his mind to a task because Zimbabwe still had batsmen of the calibre of Andrew Flower and Grant Flower. Dravid gave a spell to Sridharan Sriram (he had come in for Ajit Agarkar who was down with a side strain) and the left-arm spinner, though clouted by Guy Whittall, had him caught in the deep by Prasad. The next wicket he captured was all of his own, taking a return catch off Andrew Flower, who reverse hit Tendulkar once and made a half century, which has now become customary for him.

But this match had faded from the level of a contest after Ganguly went on a scoring spree and India made 306. There are only a handful of instances of the team batting second chasing such a big target successfully. Zimbabwe made only 245 with its captain Streak remaining undefeated on 51. From 2-0, India can only dominate the series now from the third one-day international at a new venue in Jodhpur.

In spite of the two teams having scored 550 runs Ganguly (Man of the Match) said the pitch was not ideal for a one -day match and also that his century was a good effort, but not the best.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA

S. Tendulkar c A. Flower b Friend     8
(27m, 20b)
S. Ganguly c Marillier b Viljoen    144
(194m, 152b, 8x4, 6x6)
R. Dravid (run out) (Streak)         62
(125m, 88b, 3x4)
Yuveraj Singh c Streak b Murphy      17
(23m, 15b, 1x4, 1x6)
S. Joshi c Campbell b Olonga         22
(13m, 12b, 2x4, 1x6)
H. Badani (not out)                  17
(20m, 10b, 2x4)
R. S. Sodhi (not out)                 4
(5m, 4b)
Extras (b-5, lb-8, nb-3, w-16)       32
                                    ---
Total (for 5 wkts in 50 overs)      306
                                    ---

Fall   of  wickets:  1-22  (Tendulkar),  2-197  (Dravid),   3-242 
(Ganguly), 4-255 (Yuveraj), 5-295 (Joshi).

Zimbabwe  bowling:  Olonga 10-0-59-1,  Friend  10-1-37-1,  Streak 
10-0-63-0,  Murphy 8-1-51-1, Viljoen 7-0-39-1, Marillier  5-0-44- 
0. 


ZIMBABWE

A. Campbell c Dravid b Tendulkar     32
(71m, 38b, 4x4)
D. Marillier b Prasad                 2
(24m, 12b)
S. Carlisle b Khan                    1
(25m, 25b)
A. Flower c & b Sriram               51
(96m, 58b, 3x4)
G. Flower c Yuveraj b Joshi           8
(30m, 31b)
G. Whittall c Prasad b Sriram        26
(33m, 33b, 1x4, 1x6) 
D. Viljoen c sub (Das) b Joshi       26
(41m, 36b, 3x4)
H. Streak (not out)                  51
(56m, 58b, 4x4, 1x6)
T. Friend c Khan b Sriram             8
(8m, 8b, 1x4)
B. Murphy (not out)                   4
(10m, 5b)
Extras (b-5, lb-11, nb-2, w-18)      36
                                    ---
Total (for 8 wkts in 50 overs)      245
                                    ---

Fall   of  wickets:  1-21  (Marillier),  2-35  (Carlisle),   3-55 
(Campbell),  4-96  (G. Flower), 5-141 (G.  Whittall),  6-147  (A. 
Flower), 7-205 (Viljoen), 8-220 (Friend).

India bowling: Khan 6-0-24-1, Prasad 6-0-15-1, Tendulkar 10-0-53-
1,  Sodhi  8-0-31-0,  Joshi  8-0-30-2,  Sriram  8-0-47-3,  Badani 
2-0-15-0, Yuveraj 2-0-14-0.

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