Indian young brigade8217;s grit was exemplary

Tendulkar seemed a little annoyed with Saurav Ganguly for not responding to his call, but it did appear to be a rather ambitious run. May be, Ganguly had other things on his mind as he struggled to put willow to leather, with his footwork being little tardy after the one-match suspension.

Streak bowled cleverly, swinging the ball both ways and beating the batregularly. He was well supported by Mpumelelo Mbangwa who also beat the bat on a number of occasions and had a loud appeal for caught behind turned down. However, having got two early breakthroughs Zimbabwe then fell into the trap of looking to contain and this allowed Ganguly to run into some decent form.

Eventually, Zimbabwe were presented with a third wicket when Vinod Kambli whose good strokeplay had got the Indian innings moving, senselessly ran himself out. I8217;ve seen Kambli do this before, but on this occasion it made no sense as he had just hit a powerful six and was in terrific form. Vinod needs to make the most of it when he8217;s hitting the ball well to compensate for the low periods that come to all batsmen.

One Indian batsman who is making the most of his good form is Ajay Jadeja. He is striking the ball well, displaying a lot of common sense and immense staying power. Steve Waugh recently referred to Michael Bevan as the best batsman in the world.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tendulkar iscurrently the best batsman in all forms of cricket. I8217;m assuming Steve meant one-day cricket only, but even then I8217;m not sure that Jadeja in his current form isn8217;t worth as much to India as Bevan is to Australia, because he reaches and clears the boundary more often than the left-hander. India8217;s storming finish left Zimbabwe with a daunting chase of 275 off only 49 overs as they were penalised for thier tardy bowling. However, there was nothing slow about the start they were given by in-form skipper and Grant Flower.

They were parted when an exhausted Campbell was left stranded by a Hrishikesh Kanitkar top-spinner. As it so often happens with Zimbabwe, one departure led to a couple of more dismissals. Murray Goodwin perished via an exceptional catch to the talented Kanitkar and Flower died on the vine when Tendulkar made one spin and bounce. Despite these setbacks burly Craig Evans set about the bowling like a blacksmith intent on shaping things his way.

The boundaries flowed freely until Evans wasdeceived by some fine flight bowling from Rahul Sanghvi. A fine young competitor, Sanghvi impressed with his thoughtful and cool bowling in a tough situation. He and Kanitkar and Ajit Agarkar all had responsibility thrust on their shoulders and answered the skipper8217;s call with clever and aggressive cricket.