India at full throttle on route to Super six

When Deon Kotze’s puzzling decision to bowl first was made public, the crowd was abuzz with anticipation expecting fireworks. The first burst came from Virender Sehwag, who provided yet another cameo with 24. He is desperately in need of a starring role on the biggest stage of all, but for today he yielded to a revival of the Tendulkar-Ganguly show.

In a way both batsmen had a similar approach to the game: Circumspect at first, savage thereafter. After the opening attack of Rudi Van Vuuren and Gerrie Snyman had lost their steam — in full flow, they had troubled Tendulkar — it was one-way traffic.

While Ganguly’s four sixes had the birds in the shady trees around the stadium flying for cover, Tendulkar preferred to play his shots along the ground. Except for one, a straight drive that almost decapitated umpire Aleem Sarwar Dar.

The Indians were helped largely by uncharacteristically poor Namibian fielding and kept their run rate around a healthy six all through the game.

The Namibians walked in to chase 312 with their tails down, knowng this was one mountain too high. To make matters worse for them, Zaheer Khan showed no signs of easing up on the form he showed against Zimbabwe. His first spell was full of deadly toe-crushing yorkers, the unerring accuracy reminiscent of David Beckham’s pin-point crosses.

As Zaheer bent it like Beckham, the Namibians lost early wickets and the game was as good as over. The hero against England, Jan-Berry Burger, did play a few shots before Dinesh Mongia foxed with a straighter one. From than on it was just a matter of when the Namibian agony would end.

After Harbhajan and Mongia bowled their complete spells, Yuvraj stepped in to wipe off the tail. His four wickets in four overs had Namibia all out for 130.

India, with 12 points, can now afford to dream of the Super Six. But for Namibia it was a forgettable day under the sun. Or perhaps they learnt a bitter lesson today, when Tendulkar was dropped by Jan Burger when on only 32: If you give the stars an inch they take a mile.