Ganguly fires on all cylinders

By Vijay Lokapally

KANPUR, DEC. 11. They came in droves, and some of them spent the night outside the venue to beat the policemen in the race for grabbing vantage points. If they wanted an Indian win, they got it as the home team romped home by nine wickets. If they had prayed for a cracker of a contest, it remained a dream. The Zimbabweans, electing to bat, caved in meekly and India wrapped up the series with its third victory in four matches.

It was a most forgettable one-day encounter. Of course not for `man of the match' Sourav Ganguly, who reaped his second five- wicket harvest of his career and then came good with the bat to leave his stamp of authority.

There was little in terms of competitive value as Zimbabwe ran out of steam after promising so much at Jodhpur. This was a typical surrender by Zimbabwe which had nothing, absolutely nothing working in its favour.

What stood out sorely was the show of temper by both the camps, with Ganguly, Guy Whittall and Bryan Strang at the centre of the storm. Some excessive appealing by the Indians to pressurise umpire C.K. Sathe led to the Zimbabweans aping the opposition in the second half.

Wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya did little to help his cause by running down the pitch and demanding a decision from Sathe while Ganguly too set a bad example by allowing emotions to dominate.

But the Indian skipper was not at fault when he retaliated after being subjected to some needling by seamer Strang, the best Zimbabwe bowler on view, and the two exchanging words should rank as a low point in the otherwise excellent relationship between the teams. The sight of even Rahul Dravid getting involved with Whittall went to prove the extent to which the Indians were provoked by the opposition.

The Zimbabwean debacle was unprovoked though. Its batting lacked culture and the grit to make the Indian attack work hard. The pitch supported the seamers and the pair of Ajit Agarkar and Ganguly made merry, especially the latter who had a wonderful spell. Only on Sunday evening had Ganguly talked of giving himself more bowling and realised this morning that this was the best stage for him to indulge in some all-round show.

All Ganguly did was stick to a line with emphasis on jagging the ball in and the Zimbabweans obliged him with some reckless batting. The start may have been cautious with Alistair Campbell and Trevor Madondo producing what was to be the best phase of Zimbabwean batting. Agarkar made the best use of the conditions, beat Campbell by pace, was lucky to get Madondo and returned later to add two more scalps.

But Ganguly enjoyed his stint, giving himself the freedom to bowl more in the absence of Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who was dropped along with Yuveraj Singh and Sunil Joshi. Of the newcomers, Virender Sehwag had little role to play while Aashish Kapoor bowled with control, if not spin.

Ganguly deceived the batsmen off the pitch - the ball coming in to surprise Stuart Carlisle while Grant Flower played the wrong line. Whittall was run out by an agile Dahiya, who had earlier snapped Heath Streak. The Indian skipper could get nothing wrong and his fifth victim, Travis Friend, was distinctly unlucky to be adjudged leg-before.

The Indians were never under any pressure to go after the Zimbabwe bowling. The first boundary came only in the fifth over and gradually the flurry of shots left the Zimbabweans with no hopes of a miracle as Tendulkar, after a sluggish start, belted the ball as he is known to and Ganguly found the gaps to score most of his runs through drives and pulls.

In one over from Friend, the Indian skipper lashed out with three pulls as the bowler erred in length and then it was Tendulkar's turn to hold the limelight with a few entertaining shots off Streak before he played across and was trapped plumb. The best stroke of the day was the punch by Ganguly off Streak, the ball streaking to hit the fence in a flash.

Tendulkar and Ganguly, however, were not at their best, as they mistimed the shots often and the number of edges too reflected poorly on their concentration. It was not what the discerning among the crowd would have expected from probably the world's best opening pair in one-day cricket as Tendulkar and Ganguly notched their 12th 100-plus partnership, four less than the all- time record of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

The spectators may have filled up every inch of space in the stadium but they got little marks for their behaviour, pelting missiles at the players and not sparing even a small group of photographers in front of the press box.

With cricket too below average, it was a most forgettable day at the Green Park indeed even as the teams left behind the onbitterness of the field and shook hands warmly to meet again at Rajkot on Thursday.

Scoreboard

ZIMBABWE

A. Campbell b Agarkar                   32
(44b, 4x4)
T. Madondo lbw b Agarkar                32 

(61b, 5x4)
A. Flower c Agarkar b Ganguly           19
(25b, 2x4)
S. Carlisle b Ganguly                   20
(54b, 1x4)
G. Flower b Ganguly                      6
(13b)
G. Whittall (run out)                   13
(19b)
H. Streak c Dahiya b Ganguly             3
(5b)
M. Nkala b Agarkar                       4
(18b)
T. Friend lbw b Ganguly                  6
(16b)
B. Strang (not out)                      0
(11b)
H. Olonga c and b Agarkar                2
(10b)
Extras (b-2, lb-8, nb-2, w-16)          28
                                       ---
Total (all out in 45.4 overs)          165
                                       ---

Fall  of  wickets:  1-60 (Campbell),  2-71  (Madondo),  3-91  (A. 
Flower), 4-106 (G. Flower), 5-134 (Carlisle), 6-141 (Streak),  7-
143 (Whittall), 8-159 (Nkala), 9-159 (Friend).

India  bowling: Zaheer Khan 8-0-19-0, Venkatesh Prasad  8-0-32-0, 
Ajit Agarkar 9.4-0-25-4, Aashish Kapoor 7-0-28-0, Sourav  Ganguly 
10-1-34-5, S. Sriram 3-0-17-0.

INDIA

S. Ganguly (not out)                     71
(68b, 12x4, 1x6)
S. Tendulkar lbw b Friend                62
(86b, 9x4)
S. Sriram (not out)                       1
(1b)
Extras (b-9, lb-9, nb-5, w-9)            32
                                        ---
Total (for one wkt in 25 overs)         166
                                        ---

Fall of wicket: 1-157 (Tendulkar).

Zimbabwe bowling: Friend 5-0-40-1, Strang 10-2-29-0, Streak  3-0-
26-0, Olonga 5-0-41-0, Nkala 2-0-12-0.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Asia Cup may be rescheduled
Next     : Lara back to blazing best