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India survives a scare

Sunday, January 25 2004

Zimbabwe came close to recording a maiden VB series victory on the back of a record 202-run partnership between Calisle and Ervine, but couldn't quite finish the job, in Adelaide.

VB Series Game 8
India vs. Zimbabwe
The Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
24th January, 2004.
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Team changes:

India: Sanjay Bangar replaced Yuvraj Singh, who suffered a minor shoulder injury in the previous match against Australia.

Zimbabwe: Visumusi Sibanda replaced Mark Vermuelen, who underwent surgery for a depressed skull fracture suffered from a Irfan Pathan bouncer in Zimbabwe's previous encounter with India.
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India won the toss, and elected to bat first. Surprisingly, Sanjar Bangar opened the batting with Parthiv Patel, instead of Sourav Ganguly. This could have something to do with Ganguly's problem against the short balls directed to his rib cage by the new ball bowlers. But any hope Ganguly would have had of the openers seeing out the new ball for him went in vain when Bangar edged a drive to Stuart Carlisle at first slip off Heath Streak in the very first over, without a run on the scoreboard.

Parthiv Patel followed in Streak's next over, once again edging to the slips, with the Indian score at 3-2. Ganguly joined VVS Laxman at this point, but didn't last long, once again falling to a short delivery. Ganguly top-edged a pull to Dion Ebrahim off the bowling of Andy Blignaut, who shared the new ball with Streak, leaving the Indians in trouble at 4-3 in the 4th over.

Rahul Dravid joined Laxman next, and together they helped India recover, through a 131-run partnership. Laxman particularly, was impressive in the first 15 overs, punishing the Zimbabwean bowlers on any off-line bowls. His pulls, cuts, and drives were all not only severe on the bowlers, but also treat to the spectators. While Laxman was displaying elegance on one end, Dravid was his own composed and classy self, compiling a half century. After an initial flurry of boundaries, he concentrated on building a big partnership with Laxman, and allowed Laxman to do all the hitting, while himself staying steady. Both of them managed to keep the run rate around about 5.

Raymond Price was the pick of the bowlers, bowling his usual flighted deliveries with varying pace. He, however, was a part of a missed chance on Laxman, when he was on 60. Price failed to collect a brilliant throw from Blignaut, which would have caught Laxman miles out of his crease.

Price, however, did pick up the wicket of Dravid, by a ball which held back a bit, and resulted in Dravid mis-hitting a pull to Blignaut at short-midwicket. India, at this stage, were 137-4, still not entirely safe. This brought in Rohan Gavaskar, who for the first time in his 4 matches, would have had enough overs to get himself him, and score some runs. And indeed he did. Gavaskar was particularly good running between the wickets. But slowly, and surely, he got into his groove, and started hitting big shots too. Together with Laxman he added 118 runs. Both of them didn't take any risks, but through shots of brilliant quality, were able to accelerate the scoring consistently.

India scored 143 runs off the last 20 overs, thanks largely to Laxman and Gavaskar's partnership. Laxman duly reached his third century of the series, while at the other end Gavaskar completed his maiden ODI half century. India lost Laxman for 131, Gavaskar for 54 and Badani in the slow overs. But they still ended up getting 280-7 at the end of 50 overs.

Zimbabwe's chase never got off to a start when during the first 15 overs they lost 3 wickets, those of Grant Flower, Travis Friend and Vusimusi Sinbada. Ajit Agarkar was very good with the new ball, bowling with accuracy and hostility, in the corridor and moving the ball away from the right-hander. He picked up the wickets of Flower and Friend, leaving the Zimbabweans 25-2. Laxman followed up his batting with an excellent catch in the slips, that of Friend.

Carlisle and Sibanda tried to fightback after the early setback, especially Carlisle, who struck some vicious blows when given width. Sibanda, however, looked very ordinary. He fell to Lakshmipathy Balaji for 12, with the team score at 46-3.

At the end of 15 overs, Zimbabwe needed 228 off 35 overs, more than a run-a-ball, with their backs definitely to the wall. But Ervine and Carlise had others ideas. Carlisle was lucky to survive a very close LBW shout from Bangar, which the television replays showed should definitely have gone in the bowler's favor. But apart from that, there were no hiccups, as both the batsmen didn't panic, even with the required rate over 6. Ervine also played cautiously, but dealed mostly in boundaries off bad deliveries. In one Kartik over, he played five consecutive dot balls before hoisting the last ball over mid-wicket for six.

India looked very ordinary in the middle overs, especially when Bangar was knocked out of the attack by Ervine, and Ganguly started bowling in tandem with Kartik. It was during this period that Zimbabweans were allowed easy runs, without any pressure applied. By the end of the 40th over, Zimbabwe crossed the 200 run mark, with a victory very much in sight.

While Carlise was steady at one end, Ervine was severe at the other. Both Kartik and Ganguly went for well over 6 an over. It was surprising that Ganguly didn't bring on Gavaskar to bowl. Gavaskar had bowled 9 overs in a match against Australia, picking up a wicket, and not going for too much. Carlisle and Ervine kept the score ticking, with Zimbabweans reaching a stage where they needed only 37 runs off 5 overs. At this stage, Indians were under the pressure.

Ganguly re-called Agarkar to bowl his final 2 overs, after a very good opening spell by him. Agarkar's over, the 46th of the innings cost only 4 runs. Pathan was also re-introduced, his over, the 47th costing only 3 runs. However, during this period, three milestones were reached (Ervine's 100, Carlisle's 100 and the 200-run partnership.) However off the last bowl of Pathan's over, the batsmen were involved in a mix-up. Ervine drove a yorker-length bowl straight to Ganguly, and called "no." Carlisle didn't respond to the "no" and kept on running, which would have resulted in both the batsmen getting stuck at one end. But Ervine sacrificed his wicket, making a hopeless attempt to reach the non-striker's end.

At this stage, Zimbabwe could have faultered. But Carlisle came back strongly, hitting two boundaries off Agarkar's next over, bringing the equation to 20 off 2 overs. Carlisle fell on the last bowl of the over, giving a simple catch to Kartik. He had done his job by then, but it would have helped if he would have stayed till the end.

With only 2 overs to go, Ganguly was faced with another critical decision to make. Agarkar and Balaji both had bowled out and Pathan had only one over left up his sleeve. Kartik had bowled miserably. So he had to have 2 overs bowled between Pathan and himself/Bangar, and also the dilemma of who to pick for the final over. He went with Pathan for the 2nd last over. However, a 2 and a boundary by Blignaut in the first 3 deliveries, must have made Ganguly wonder if he had done the wrong thing. Pathan came back, with two dot balls. But Streak, who had come in after the fall of Carlisle's wicket, edged the last ball past the wicket-keeper Patel for a four.

This left the Zimbabweans with 9 runs to get off the last over. Ganguly chose Bangar to bowl the over above him. Bangar responded well, keeping the ball up, not allowing the batsmen to free their arms. The first ball of the over went for 2. The next one was a dot ball. Off the third ball, Blignaut tried to heave over the mid-wicket boundary, but ended up hitting a sky-er, which Laxman managed to just grab. With 7 required off 3 balls, and Streak on strike, India would have had last match's memories come back to their mind. But Bangar managed to bowl a dot ball, varying his pace a little, just enough for Streak to completely miss a slog over mid-wicket. With 7 required of 2 balls, Streak need atleast a boundary to keep Zimbabwe in the hunt, but he was able to get only a single off the penultimate ball. Needing a six off the last ball, new batsman to the crease, Ebrahim managed only a couple off a slog shot, which went straight to the ground, and to the mid-wicket area.

Zimbabwe came very close to a victory, but in the end couldn't quite finish the task. VVS Laxman was awarded the Man of the Match for his brilliant 131. The 4th-wicket stand in the Zimbabwe innings of 202 runs between Carlisle and Ervine was the highest for any wicket by Zimbabweans ever in ODI cricket.
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Brief Scorecard:

India: 280-7 in 50 overs.

VVS Laxman 131(138)
Rahul Dravid 56(72)
Rohan Gavaskar 54(62)

Heath Streak 53-3(10)
Douglas Hondo 59-2(10)

Zimbabwe: 277-6 in 50 overs.

Stuart Carlisle 109(128)
Sean Ervine 100(100)

Ajit Agarkar 39-3(10)
Sanjay Bangar 42-1(8)

Result: India won by 3 runs.

Man of the Match: VVS Laxman (Ind)

Points: India 5, Zimbabwe 1

Posted by Sudeep