Ganguly guides India’s fortunes

Andy Flower once again led the Zimbabwe fightback but his 51-run contribution was not enough when a real big innings was required from him and captain Heath Streak’s fighting 51 not out was too little and too late. Sriram, who replaced Ajit Agarkar from the side that played at Cuttack on December 2, produced his career-best figures and his victims included big gun Andy Flower.

Set to score at 6.41 after India had decided to bat first, Zimbabwe were in trouble from the start losing wickets at regular intervals.

Opener Douglas Marillier (2) and Stuart Carlisle (1) were out with the score on 35. Marillier was bowled by Venkatesh Prasad while Carlisle was dismissed by Zaheer Khan.

This brought the two left-handers Alistair Campbell and Andy Flower together at the crease and one expected a repeat performance of the Nagpur Test where the two former Zimbabwe skippers had managed to save the match.

However, this time they failed as Campbell, who was middling the ball well, was caught in slips by Rahul Dravid off Sachin Tendulkar for 32 off 38 balls including four fours.

Andy Flower hung around for some time to make 51 off 58 balls including three hits to the fence before becoming Sriram’s second victim.

Sriram had earlier claimed vice-captain Guy Whittall for 26 and with Grant Flower also back in the pavillion for eight, Zimbabwe were in dire straits.

It was left to Heath Streak and Dirk Viljoen to score at an ever-increasing asking rate. Viljoen (26) added 48 runs for the seventh wicket with Streak before falling to Joshi.

Streak went after the bowling hitting four fours and a six but with the asking rate well over 15 runs an over, the effort went in vain. Travis Friend (4) also tried to use the long handle but perished to Joshi while going for a big hit.

Earlier, Saurav Ganguly hit a brilliant century and added 5 runs for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (62) to set India on course to a huge total.

Ganguly’s scintillating knock came off just 152 balls and contained eight fours and six sixes as India dominated Zimbabwean attack despite early loss of Tendulkar (8), who edged a Travis Freind delivery to wicket-keeper Andy Flower with India’s score on 22.

Ganguly was very severe on the spinners and set aside off-spinner Douglas Marillier for special treatment lofting him for three sixes and took 44 runs from his five overs to force him out of the attack.

Dravid played second fiddle to his skipper, who was going great guns. After reaching his 50 off 74 balls with three fours, the stylish Karnataka batsman opened out.

To his misfortune, when on 62 Ganguly pushed Viljoen to mid-on and set off for an easy single before Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak had a shy at the non-strikers end and hit the stumps with Dravid’s bat high in the air.

The good work they did was continued by Yuvraj Singh (17), Sunil Joshi (22) and Hemang Badani (17 not out) as India raced past the 300 mark to set a difficult victory target of 307.

Scoreboard
INDIA: S Tendulkar c A Flower b T Friend 8; S Ganguly c D Marillier b D Viljoen 144; R Dravid run out 62; Y Singh c Streak b B Murphy 17; S Joshi c A Campbell b H Olonga 22; H Badani Not Out 17; R S Sodhi Not Out 4; Extras: (b-5, lb-8, w-16, nb-3) 32
TOTAL: (for 5 wkts in 50 overs) 306
Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-197, 3-242, 4-255, 5-295
Bowling: H Olonga 10-0-59-1, T Friend 10-1-37-1, H Streak 10-0-63-0, B Murphy 8-1-51-1, D Viljoen 7-0-39-1, D Marillier 5-0-44-0
ZIMBABWE: A Campblell c Dravid b Tendulkar 32; D Marillier b Prasad 2; S Carlisle b Zaheer Khan 1; A Flower c & b Sriram 51; G Flower c Yuvraj b Joshi 8; G Whittal c Prasad b Sriram 26; D Viljoen c substitute (Das) b Joshi 26; H Streak Not Out 51; T Friend c Zaheer Khan b Sriram 8; B Murphy Not Out 4 Extras: (w-18, nb-2, b-5, lb-11) 36
TOTAL: (for 8 wkts, 50 overs) 245
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-35, 3-55, 4-96, 5-141, 6-147, 7-205, 8-218
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 6-0-24-1, Prasad 6-0-15-1, Tendulkar 10-0-53-1, Sodhi 8-0-31-0, Joshi 8-0-30-2, Sriram 8-0-47-3, Badani 2-0-15-0, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-14-0.