da bet esporte： After the cricketing pendulum swung this way and that, sensiblecricket and a well paced chase saw Zimbabwe register their first winof the series
Anand Vasu15-Nov-2000After the cricketing pendulum swung this way and that, sensiblecricket and a well paced chase saw Zimbabwe register their first winof the series. Beating Board President’s XI by 4 wickets, Zimbabwehave had the ideal warm up to what should be a tough Test seriesagainst India. Needless to say, their victory was made possible by abig innings from Andy Flower – a man who did not bat in the Zimbabwefirst innings. The win is certain to boost the confidence of theZimbabweans, and put them in a relaxed frame of mind as they take thefield at the Ferozeshah Kotla on the 18th.Zimbabwe sent out mixed signals in their quest to go into the Testmatch at Delhi with a win under their belts. Needing to score at arate of just less than five runs an over for a period of fifty-fiveovers, they sent out openers Gavin Rennie and Grant Flower. Theystarted their quest badly, when Grant Flower was cleaned up by a quickdelivery from Mumbai speedster Santosh Saxena. Stuart Carlisle tookGrant Flower’s place and it seemed like he was going to play the roleof sheet anchor. While Rennie played himself in, all Carlisle did wasconsolidate.However, the temptation to score a few quick runs and set up a victoryplatform might have been too much to resist for Carlisle. Havingstruck three fours in his essay of 18, he fell, caught close to thebat. At 50/2 there were serious doubts about Zimbabwe’s willingness totry and overhaul this total. Would they go back into a shell and playout the day? The dilemma of answering that question was postponed byAndy Flower and Gavin Rennie. In a 115 run partnership that came offexactly 21 overs, the pair of left handers kept Zimbabwe very much inthe hunt. Rennie played a particularly responsible knock,interspersing hits to the fence with well run singles and twos.Although he could not match Flower when it came to strokemaking, his71 came off just 102 balls and did the Zimbabwean cause no harm atall. He was finally snapped up by stand-in stumper Abhijit Kale offKapoor.While Flower strode confidently on at a run a ball, sweepingeverything that was sent in his direction, Trevor Madondo made a briefappearance out in the middle. A 22 ball 17 ensued before he attemptedto work a Sanghvi delivery to the onside against the spin. The ballwent off the leading edge towards short cover and a diving Kanitkarpouched the ball.Skipper Guy Whittall replaced Madondo and he too witnessed theKanitkar-Sanghvi combination in action. Andy Flower came down thewicket and tried to work the ball past short midwicket. In an actionreplay to the last time, Kanitkar dived across and sent Flower on hisway. Flower’s 94 off 103 balls included 12 fours, two sixes and wasonce more the backbone of the Zimbabwe innings.Having done all the hard work, Andy Flower had the pleasure ofwatching his team win from the comfortable confines of the pavilion ascameos from Mluleki Nkala (22) and Guy Whittall (26 not out) sawZimbabwe through to a four wicket victory with six balls to spare.Earlier in the day, resuming on 52 for no loss, Board President’s XIbatted with panache till they decided to give Zimbabwe a fair shot atwinning their first game on tour. Vijay Dahiya nursing a sore palmdecided to cool his heels in anticipation of the forthcoming Testmatch. He did not walk out to the middle with Ravneet Ricky andinstead Abhijit Kale got a knock higher up in the order. Dahiya hadplayed cautiously the evening before to notch up 23 (63 balls, 4fours).Kale was careful in approaching the Zimbabwe bowling in the company ofRicky. On a flat track, with Zimbabwe not having any seriousfirepower, one wondered if the excessive caution was warranted. Kale’s52 ball essay of 14 certainly suggested that it wasn’t. Falling to thebowling of Nkala, caught well by Andy Flower behind the stumps, Kaleended a wholly unsatisfying match. This brought to the crease a manwho had fared a trifle better in Board President’s XI’s first essay -Hrishikesh Kanitkar. The skipper had been restrained in the firstinnings, but did not hesitate to open his shoulders. Chancing his armon more than one occasion, Kanitkar made his intentions amply clear.This made Ravneet Ricky at the other end try and accelerate a bit.Ricky had demonstrated an ability to stand tall and play the ball withthe full face of the bat. Although he never looked like he was goingto launch himself at the opposition, he certainly looked good for morethan the 44 he made. Having spent almost three hours at the crease hereally should have gone on to make more. The Zimbabweans celebratedthe fall of Ravneet Ricky as they had Board President’s XI faltering abit at 92/2. Losing quick wickets is not always the best way to keepthe scoring rate high. On the day, Board President’s XI couldn’t havedone better. The in-form, flamboyant Virender Sehwag swaggered to themiddle to join his captain.Having played an exciting cameo in the first innings, much wasexpected of Sehwag. Whatever the Zimbabweans expected, they certainlydid not anticipate the kind of hammering Sehwag dished out. Startingwith a cover drive off Nkala, Sehwag launched a magnificent broadsidethat the Zimbabweans could not counter. If the cover drive thatskidded off the turf to the fence was played with the precision of abrain surgeon the next shot betrayed that there was a bit of a butcherin the young man. Picking a full delivery from the offstump, Sehwagwhipped the ball ferociously past mid on. Sehwag’s arms and bat camedown so quickly that Olonga at mid on could not even take a stepbefore the ball thudded into the advertising hoardings. But Nkala wasnot the only bowler to suffer at the hands of Sehwag. Leg spinner PaulStrang was the next to be taken to task, having thirteen taken off himin a single over, including three consecutive boundaries.While Sehwag was blazing away, Kanitkar too began to step on the gaspedal. Heaving two balls over the ropes, the captain reached 33 (37balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) before he decided that enough was enough.Sehwag had blazed his way to an unbeaten 58 (44 balls, 13 fours) andBoard President’s XI had amassed 183 off 54 overs. Their first inningslead of 78 left Zimbabwe with a target of 262. Given 55 overs toachieve the task, there was no reason why they could not pull off awin on the eve of the Test match.