TRENT BRIDGE, May 25: The English proved to be great hosts to the Indians when they beat the pants off upstart Zimbabwe on Tuesday. The win was greeted with enthusiasm by not only the English supporters, but also the hordes of Indians here. (The Tebbit test had nothing to do with it in any case).Forget Zimbabwe's plight. Forget England's jubilation. The reason for celebration was that it did India a great favour. England's third win in four matches forks them in to the second spot, behind South Africa, who also have six points.More importantly for India, it opens up possibilities for them. If the Indians win the next two games, against Sri Lanka and England, they would finish on identical points with England and be placed ahead of the hosts on the strength of the group win. This would prove invaluable in the Super Six. Sri Lanka, provided they lose to India and beat Kenya, will be on even points with Zimbabwe, who are expected to lose their final match to South Africa. In this case the last place fromthe group will be a three-way tie between Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and England.However, in the event of India losing to Sri Lanka, they still have a hope of qualifying by winning the last match and advancing on Net Run Rate (provided Lanka lose to Kenya!). These permutations were made possible by England's victory today. Thus, although India did not play today, it still was a good day for them! A Zimbabwe win would have demanded too much of the Indians in their remaining matches.This morning, skipper Alec Stewart did his team England a service by winning the toss on a pitch that looked green and had some moisture underneath. It helped the medium pacers to such an extent that the Zimbabwe batsmen had no chance whatsoever.The medium-pacers were able to procure tremendous seam movement. The ball also stopped on the batsmen in the morning and swung around quite a bit to defeat the best of Zimbabwe's intentions. In the conditions obtaining in the morning, the English bowled like the professionals they are.They made a Mickey of a bewildered Zimbabwe batting line-up, none of whom had a clue as to the approach on this surface.Opener Grant Flower, however, continued his fine run. He is the only opening batsman in this tournament to get a good start in every match. Today too he shaped up well and got off to 35 runs through judicious grafting before he got adventurous against slow medium pace bowler Mark Ealham and succumbed at slip.England, in fact, enjoyed the luxury of employing a slip fielder for most of the match. Zimbabwe struggled right through, even as their tail wagged a bit. But their final total of 167 for eight was never going to threaten England in conditions that improved tremendously as the day progressed.England lost a couple of early wickets. But with Nasser Hussain, who fielded and batted superbly, and Graham Thorpe in fine fettle, the result was never in doubt. England will take on India in their last league match on Saturday while Zimbabwe have the unenviable task of taking on SouthAfrica on the same day for a berth in the Super Six.Group B: England vs Zimbabwe at Trent BridgeZIMBABWENeil Johnson b Gough 6 12 0/0Grant Flower c Thorpe b Ealham 35 90 4/0Paul Strang c Hick b Mullally 0 17 0/0Murray Goodwin c Thorpe b Mullally 4 18 0/0Andy Flower run out (Hussain) 10 24 0/0Alistair Campbell c Stewart b Fraser 24 35 2/0Guy Whittall lbw b Ealham 28 51 3/0SV Carlisle c Fraser b Gough 14 38 2/0Heath Streak not out 11 13 1/0Henry Olonga not out 1 3 0/0Extras (lb 16, w 17, nb 1) 34Total (8 wickets, 50 overs): 167Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Johnson, 6.1 overs), 2-29 (Strang, 11.5), 3-47 (Goodwin, 17.3), 4-79 (Andy Flower, 26.2), 5-86 (Grant Flower, 28.1), 6-124 (Campbell, 38.1), 7-141 (Guy Whittall, 44.3), 8-159 (Carlisle, 48.5 ov)Bowling: Gough 10-2-24-2 (w3); Fraser 10-0-27- 1 (nb1, w2); Mullally 10-4-16-2 (w4); Ealham 10-1-35-2 (w1); Flintoff 3-0-14- 0 (w5); Hollioake 7-0-35-0. (w2).England (Target: 168 in 50 overs) N Hussain not out 57 93 7/0 AJ Stewart c Goodwin b Johnson 12 31 1/0 GA Hick c A Flower b Mbangwa 4 11 0/0GP Thorpe c Campbell b Mbangwa 62 80 7/0NH Fairbrother not out 7 23 0/0Extras (lb 3, w 16, nb 7): 26 Total (3 wickets, 38.3 overs) 168 DNB: A Flintoff, AJ Hollioake, MA Ealham, D Gough, ARC Fraser, AD Mullally.Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Stewart, 8.3), 2-36 (Hick, 11.2), 3-159 (Thorpe, 33.3).Bowling: Johnson 7-2-20-1 (3nb); Streak 8-0-37-0 (8w); Mbangwa 7-1-28-2 (2w); GJ Whittall 4-0-23-0 (2w); Olonga 3-0-27-0 (4nb, 4w); Strang 9.3-1-30-0.
