India pip Zimbabwe, squeak into final

India needed a wakeup call. Ever since its Nairobi outing, the team seems to have mistaken confidence for cockiness, and acted under the assumption that they could walk out there and expect the opposition to roll over.

A scare was needed, and they got one today, as Zimbabwe came within a wicket or so of toppling India and forcing them into a do-or-die position tomorrow. Joshi held his nerve, first Dahiya and then Agarkar supported him admirably, and the final result was in India's favour. Just.

Zimbabwe got off on the wrong foot when it lost the toss and left itself open to bowling second, with the dew making things harder for bowlers and fielders. Zimbabwe and India made a change apiece, the former dropping Dougie Marillier and bringing in Paul Strang, while India rested the injured Dravid and brought in Sriram.

Grant Flower, an opener who had been pushed down the order for lack of form, was pushed back to open, and looked out of sorts right from the first ball he faced. His misery ended in the 8th over, when Prasad held one back a bit, Flower came down the wicket looking to swing over the on side and managed only to put it in the air for Robin to hold at midwicket.

Zimbabwe sent out Paul Strang as a pinch hitter. To understand this, you have to remember that going into the match, Zimbabwe needed not only to win, but win big, in order to try and pip India on the run rate. This meant putting a lot of runs on the board. Strang, though, wasn't really timing them, the Indians bowled a tight line to him, and the frustration finally showed when he tried to swing Joshi away on the on side, but managed only to hit flat and hard towards mid on. Zahir Khan, lunging to his left, held well with both hands at full stretch.

There followed a recovery of sorts. Alistair Campbell looked in good touch from the first ball he faced, Stuart Carlisle looked below top form but showed a lot of grit to hang in there, and with the 100 up inside the 25th over, Zimbabwe was looking good when Yuvraj produced an outstanding display of fielding. Carlisle cut one and took off, Yuvraj at point dived to his wrong side, the right, fielded, and at full stretch, flicked it back to the keeper to catch Carlisle hopelessly out of his ground.

Andy Flower, the man in form, combining with Alistair Campbell could have been the danger for India, but Zahir Khan, coming back after a somewhat indifferent first spell, nipped that threat in the bud. Zahir in his first spell seemed surprised when the ball swung around a lot, and cut down on pace in an attempt to control the movement. This meant that he was not bowling in free-flow mode, and resulted in Campbell in particular taking runs off him. In his second spell, though, he got it back on when he made one swing late at Flower, on line of off to middle. Flower flicked, the swing and fuller length did for him, and the batsman picked out Kambli at square leg.

India then turned on probably the best display of late-overs bowling I've seen from them in a long time. It all started with Robin Singh, coming in after Zahir's wicket taking over and producing a maiden. Joshi took over from Zahir, and produced a one-run over. Then came Robin with another one-run over. And suddenly, Zimbabwe was feeling the squeeze.

The runs dried up completely, and the Indian fielding picked up a couple of notches to back up the bowling. Whittall and Campbell hung on in the middle, but the runs weren't coming and this was beginning to hurt. Around this time, Zimbabwe made the mistake of not attacking at one end while Campbell anchored at the other. Campbell had obviously made up his mind to bat through, and was content to chip the singles around. But when Whittall at the other end showed a similar disinclination to take charge, the Indian bowling got right on top, and kept up a constant pressure.

The next wicket fell by happenstance. Campbell drove Prasad back down the track, the bowler got a finger to it, the ball went on to hit the stumps, and Whittall was trapped out of his ground.

That wicket fell in the 42nd over. In the 44th, the in-form Viljoen was walking back as well. Needing to up the run rate, he aimed an across-the-line heave at Prasad who kept it full and straight, the shot was played all around the line, and the off stump went back.

Campbell made it to his 100, off 129 balls, but it was the 48th over by then, and there wasn't enough deliveries left for the opener to really take charge. A problem with the Zimbabwe batting was evident even in that statistic -- obviously, the others hadn't concentrated on giving Campbell the bulk of the strike.

Zahir Khan returned to the bowling crease at the death, and produced a dream spell. Bowling to the big-hitting streak, Zahir produced the perfect reverse-swinging yorker to crash the ball onto the base of middle stump as Streak stepped to leg to try and clear cover.

Back for the final over of the innings, Zahir started off with yet another yorker, identical to the one that took out Streak. This time, the victim was Travis Friend. Off the fourth ball of the final over, Zahir ran in, spotted Bryan Strang moving a long way to off to change the line, exposing middle and leg in the process, and fired a fast full toss bang onto middle stump.

When the dust settled, Zimbabwe had made just 216/9 in its 50 overs, after being 111/3 in 25. Zahir was the wrecker in chief, but mention needs to be made of Robin Singh, Venkatesh Prasad, and Ajit Agarkar, all of whom bowled with intelligence and purpose and ensured that the pressure was constantly on the batting side.

Campbell carried his bat, and, in the ultimate analysis, got the man of the match award for his trouble. Which puts me in mind of a grouse. It was Zahir who, with the catch and the four wickets, really made the difference -- but apparently, MoM adjudicators can't see beyond century-makers when judging such awards. Funny, then, how they then talk of the need to encourage bowlers -- by any yardstick, Zahir deserved the award today.

India had what should have been an easy task. By the time it was all over, though, the more faint-hearted of Indian fans should have found themselves perilously close to heart attacks. The fun started in the 5th over when Sachin Tendulkar played the wierdest of shots. To a nothing ball from Friend (given the new ball for his good showing in previous games), Sachin just pushed at it without moving any part of his anatomy, and gave fielding practise to first slip. Was he trying to run it down? Even that rationale wouldn't work -- there were two slips in place, so the shot just wasn't on. Could he have been affected by recent controversies surrounding the reported remarks of his captain? If so, then it is time captain and player got together and straightened things out. Whatever the reason, this was the strangest -- and most pathetic -- dismissal Sachin has been guilty of ever since I've seen him bat.

In came Sriram, and out he went immediately. Friend pitched one short, on middle, and Sriram without getting into any kind of position, pulled it down the throat of deep backward square leg. First up, he wasn't placed right for the shot. And secondly, that shot so early in the innings spoke of rank inexperience. In passing, I wonder -- are we forever fated to miss Dravid's commonsense only when he is not around, and curse him when he is?

Ganguly's face, as the second wicket fell in succession, was a study in fury and frustration. To his credit, he put his head down and focussed on batting India back of the hole. With him was Vinod Kambli -- tentative at the start, then gradually settling down to rotate the strike and keep his captain company.

Ganguly in fact was looking good, as was India on 124/2, when he seemed to lose his patience. Twice in one over, he kept trying to go down the wicket and slash over the off field -- the first time, he missed, the second time, he connected. The ball flared off the toe of his bat, down to third man, for a well-judged catch by Marillier fielding as substitute.

Yuvraj Singh was involved in a bizarre run as soon as he came in. A ball went down the leg side, Kambli got got enough pad to take it to fine leg. Yuvraj ambled down for the single, then found to his surprise that Kambli hadn't moved a step, but had his face turned to fine leg, watching the ball. A bit of yelling got him moving, finally, and mishap was averted. Whether Yuvraj was shaken by that, or whether he just hasn't learnt to curb his aggression, is moot -- in the event, though, he flat batted a pull at a short ball, failing to roll his wrists on the shot to keep it down, and Mbwangwa got an unlooked for wicket to a bad ball.

India was in jail, and it almost became a life sentence when Robin aimed an uncharacteristic slog at a short ball. Hit high off the top edge, the ball hung in the air for a long time but deep backward square reacted late, and just couldn't make ground in time to pull it off. After the reprieve, Robin settled down, and both batsmen got back to the job of run-accumulation, when a very bad mixup produced the run out. Robin played in the V, on the on side, and took off with the shot, calling for the one and running to the danger end. Again, Kambli watched the ball where he should have been watching his partner, and by the time he woke up and sent Robin back, it was way too late.

The mishaps appeared to have affected Kambli's concentration. After Ganguly's departure, he had grown in stature, playing some fine shots and showing an inclination to take the lead and see India home. After Robin's dismissal, though, Kambli just stood on his hind legs and aimed an awkward clout at a short ball and hit it off the toe of the bat to mid on, to reduce India to 158/6.

And then, with all the stars back in the hut, the new boys, and occasional players, came into their own. Vijay Dahiya and Sunil Joshi stitched together a lovely partnership characterised by smooth strokeplay on the part of Joshi, and well calculated tip and run tactics by Dahiya, to keep chipping away at the target. In fact, they seemed to be coasting along, needing 19 more off 24 with the score on 200/6, when Dahiya tried to nudge one down to third man, and managed only to edge Streak through to the keeper.

That brought Agarkar to the crease -- and he capped a fine bowling performance earlier in the day with some nerveless batting, clinically guiding the ball around and making Joshi run faster than he ever has in his life, to see India through with three wickets in hand.

As a win, it was the kind a team wouldn't want to boast of. While it played the first half of the game to near perfection, its batting was a chamber of horrors until the lower middle order came into its own. As Ganguly said, "We made a mess of it, and we need to work out a few things."

Most of those "few things", I suspect, are in the heads of the various players. Hopefully, with a dress rehearsal tomorrow against the Sri Lankans ahead of the finals on Sunday, India has enough time to work out those "few things".

Meanwhile, a passing thought -- the lineup today read Sachin, Ganguly, Sriram, Kambli, Yuvraj, Robin as the main batsmen. Count them -- that is five left handers out of six top order players. Would you want that lineup to go up against the Lankans, with a certain Muralitharan heading the attack? Or would you break it up by bringing in a Mohammad Kaif for a Sriram?

Scoreboard and Graphic analysis

Mail Cricket Editor