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Spun into oblivion

Brilliant spin bowling by Sunil Joshi not only upset Hansie Cronje's decision to bat after winning the toss, it also swept India to a comprehensive win against South Africa.

Looking at the surface, Cronje was quite correct in batting first, as the Indian left-arm spinner backed up by Chopra, Bhardwaj and anyone else who could bowl spin (Ramesh and Dravid as well), showed that the pitch was not only conducive to spin but took an adverse amount of spin for a one-day game.

With the match firmly loaded in favour of turn, one still had to take one's hat off to Joshi. His control of length and line were immaculate, his change of pace sublime, and his control of flight perfect. It was his day and his figures of 10 overs, 6 maidens, 5 wickets for only six runs, not only won the game for India but also gave him the man of the match award - an easy decision.

The countdown to South Africa's first game for three months was marred by the controversy surrounding captain Cronje's reported decision to coach Glamorgan. Playing on a surface that they would not have been able to prepare for adequately made the situation that much tougher. With the exception of Kallis and Benkenstein, the South Africans looked all at sea and were bundled out for a meagre score of 117. If you are an Indian supporter, you would have been ecstatic at the way India bowled and fielded -- a brilliant slip catch from Dravid started the rot and gave Joshi the confidence to settle in.

In fact, to be fair, the first ball that Joshi bowled was a superb delivery that turned and bounced from a good length and Gibbs having seen this immediately adjusted the way he was going to play. However, he injudiciously tried to steer the next delivery down to third man. I say injudiciously because it was a shot with the word 'risk' attached. He had not yet been able to look at the wicket and judge what was happening. What's more, there was also a slip in place.

After Boucher ran himself out, Diepennaar, who made an inauspicious debut, was undone by some beautiful bowling and resorted to a slog sweep misjudging the length of the ball. From this moment on, India kept the stranglehold on the South Africans by brilliant bowling and very aggressive fielding. Only Kallis and Benkenstein, with a partnership of 38 in the middle of the collapse, threatened to take the game South Africa's way. But it was not to be as Chopra and Bhardwaj also got into the act by getting rid of both those obstacles.

Facing a small total, it was important for India to be positive from the start so as to maintain their dominance. To this end, Ganguly and Ramesh swept away the South African bowlers who looked rusty and bowled both sides of the wicket. Ganguly looks better and better every time I see him, and he punished any width or poor length. Within 10 overs the openers had made sure that the game was well and truly over. Only Ramesh's unnecessary shot and an inexplicable rush of blood by Ganguly gave SA some consolation. While Crookes picked up the two wickets, Steven Elworthy was the pick of the SA seamers. <>P> India look the form team and if the pitches remain the same, will be favourites to win the tournament since they have the correct armoury for these types of surfaces. South Africa will regroup and will not play as badly as this again. They will, I still believe, face India in the final and it will be interesting to see how much they will have learnt from this game.

It will also be interesting to see if the ground staff can get the surfaces a little firmer (I doubt it). The South African performance was as disappointing and embarrassing as India's was brilliant and positive. South Africa have two days to pick themselves up while India can look forward to a break and what should be a fairly comfortable game against Kenya. Of the two debutants, I thought Bhardwaj was the pick, but he was perhaps a little fortunate to be playing on a surface that resembled those that he was brought up on!

There was no holding India and as I said before they were comfortably the better team on the day. Well-done India. (Gameplan)