Zimbabwe 197 for 3 (Taylor 74, Masakadza 66) beat India 194 for 9 (Jadeja 51, Lamb 3-45) by seven wickets
In what should be a telling blow to Indian cricket team's morale just before the Asia Cup, Zimbabwe once again proved a point to the ICC of it's long gone existence as a Test team by resounding a thumping win over India by seven wickets at Harare. The win not only solidifies Zimbabwe's position at the top of the table but also means that India may face an unceremonious exit from the tournament unless and until they beat Sri-Lanka hands down with a bonus point which seems as unlikely as a bridge player receiving an all spade 13-card hand.
Indian fans on the other hand may well be alarmed by the signs of the re-emergence of the '1980's slow start' during the opening overs of the match. A classic wait 'n' watch battle ensued between the openers and the bowlers which would have got some rave reviews from the old hardcore WCW fans.Both the openers waited for the non-existent 'loose deliveries' and hence even after 16 overs they managed to put up a score of only 58 runs having said that no credits are to be taken from the Zimbabweans they did the basics right, even without a frontline pace bowler they were able to tighten the noose on the Indian batsmen with their highly disciplined spin attack.The pitch resembled a facile 1990 Kanpur track,however the Indian batsmen treated it like it belonged to Durban and the Indian bowlers like Sialkot.
If the batsmen failed to do their job then the bowlers replied by saying-'We can do it even better'. The opening pair of Taylor and Masakadza grabbed them by their necks and made them pay for some pretty ordinary stuff.The openers raced away to a 128 run opening stand in 26 overs killing the run chase before even it started.Eventually Taibu and skipper Chigumbura finished the job with 70 deliveries to spare and in the process earned their side a crucial bonus point which may well just be the deciding factor.
In short poor batting coupled by even poorer bowling,throw in two more run outs in the mix and suddenly it seems like Deja vous for the Indians.
Did someone one say----World Cup 2011??????
Soham Sarkhel
