Ganguly Fiat mows New Zealand

Ganguly, the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series, the latter earning him a Fiat Siena, was unlucky to miss out on his 10th one-day hundred by 14 runs. The successive dismissals ofGanguly and Tendulkar at 156, in the 34th over, however, made little impact on the proceedings. The Karnataka pair of Rahul Dravid and Vijay Bharadwaj provided the finishing touches.

Srinath made his presence felt by having Nathan Astle leg before in his third over. Kumaran troubled the other opener Spearman, beating him in each of his first five deliveries. The Tamil Nadu bowler had him caught at second slip by Dravid. Skipper Fleming tried to retrieve the situation with a 35-run stand but Ganguly trapped the Kiwi skipper in front as the left-hander shaped to push him to the leg side.

With wickets falling at regular intervals and the run-rate under three an over, it was left to Cairns to give the innings some impetus. The Kiwi all-rounder first chose Ganguly for punishment, taking a six (over square-leg) and two boundaries off three successive balls in the 24th over. He later turned his venom on Sunil Joshi, cracking two fours and a six over long-off.

Cairns and Roger Twose put on 66 in 14 overs beforeCairns departed, Robin Singh getting an lbw decision. Cairns tried to hit across on the leg side and found umpire Vinit Gupte raising the dreaded finger.

Twose’s uppish sweep off Joshi was taken at backward short-leg by Bharadwaj and Parore played an atrocious shot to be bowled middle stump by Kumaran in his second spell. The fielding complemented the bowling and a couple of run outs had the Kiwi innings in disarray. Kumaran, improving with each game, finished with three for 24.

Ganguly was the dominant partner in the opening stand, striking Drum for 17 runs (including four successive fours) in the bowler’s second over to set the pace. Gandhi, on the other hand, was sedate although he blossomed later and struck five boundaries, four of them coming between the 15th and 17th over of the innings before falling leg before to Drum in the 27th over.

Dravid seemed in a hurry to finish the game, with a flurry of fours and two sixes off Vettori. Realising that Ganguly was close to the century mark, Dravidslowed down. But it did not help as the southpaw departed, stumped he jumped out to lift Vettori.

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND
Spearman c Dravid b Kumaran 3 (43m, 27b)
Astle lbw Srinath (18m, 10b, 1×4) 7
Fleming lbw Ganguly (81m, 60b, 1×4) 22
Twose c Bhardwaj b Joshi 47 (142m, 94b, 2×4)
Cairns lbw Robin Singh 41 (56m, 57b, 4×4, 2×6)
Parore b Kumaran (40m, 32b) 13
Harris not out (28m, 14b, 1×4) 12
Styris run out (5m, 6b) 2
Tait c Robin Singh b Kumaran 4 (3m, 4b, 1×4)
Vettori run out (2m, 1b) 2
Extras (lb 13, w 9, nb 4) 26
Total (for 9 wkts in 50 overs) 179
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Astle), 2-23 (Spearman), 3-58 (Fleming), 4-124 (Cairns), 5-152 (Twose), 6-161 (Parore), 7-165 (Styris), 8-172 (Tait), 9-179 (Vettori)
Bowling: Srinath 10-1-31-1 (2 w), Kumaran 9-3-24-3 (1 w), Nikhil Chopra 5-1-16-0 (6 w), S Ganguly 6-1-29-1 (4 nb), Robin Singh 10-0-28-1, S Joshi 10-0-38-1.

INDIA
Gandhi lbw Drum (116m, 67b, 5×4) 30
Gangulyst Parore b Vettori 86 (146m, 110b, 12×4, 1×6)
Dravid not out 29 (57m, 53b, 3×4, 2×6)
Tendulkar c & b Vettori (2m, 3b) 0
Bharadwaj not out (33m, 35b, 3×4) 17
Extras (lb 2, nb 5, w 12) 19
Total (for 3 wkts in 44 overs) 181
Fall of wickets: 1-117 (Gandhi), 2-156 (Ganguly), 3-156 (Tendulkar).Bowling: Cairns 7-4-10-0 (nb 1, w 1), Drum 5-0-41-1 (w 5), Styris 10-2-23-0 (w 4), Astle 4-0-19-0, Harris 6-0-30-0 (nb 3), Vettori 10-2-46-2, Tait 2-0-10-0.

Result: India won by seven wickets with six overs to spare
Series result: India won 3-2
Man of the match: Saurav Ganguly
Man of the series: Saurav Ganguly.