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Zimbabwe lose

Wednesday, February 19 2003

After Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first at the Harare Sports Club, the home team were made to rue that decision, as Both Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar got India off to a great start. The two openers hit 99 runs in only 16.3 overs, before Guy Whittall took Zimbabwe's first wicket, by getting Sehwag caught behind for 36 runs. Dinesh Mongia was pushed up the order as a pinch hitter, but did not do his job well, as he only made 12 runs in 37 balls, with the total on 142 off 27.3 overs. two balls later Grant Flower struck again by getting the prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar for 81 runs. After this, there were not many good scores apart from Rahul Dravid who got a gutsy 43 not out off 55 balls, which helped India pass the 250 mark and eventually knock up 255 for 7 off their 50 overs. Best Bowler has to go to Grant Flower who took 2 wickets for 14 runs in 6 overs, before he cut his finger and required 3 stitches, and therefore did not finish his 10 overs.

In Zimbabwe's innings, nothing spectacular occurred by any of their batsmen, as they could only manage a total of 172 all out in the 45th over. Top scorer was Tatenda Taibu who made 29 runs, while 4 other team mates also got into the 20's but could not go on to a larger score. The bowling was good with the best bowler going to the captain Saurav Ganguly who got 3 wickets for 22 runs in 5 overs, while Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh all contributed with 2 wickets a piece.

Result: India win by 83 runs

Posted by Saul