India continued their run of success in the Coca-Cola Cup, with a six-wicket victory over the West Indies on Saturday, who found themselves two wickets down afterthree overs on a flat but sluggish pitch, and were never in the game thereafter.
On another clear Bulawayo morning, India won the tossagain and put the West Indies in. Perhaps the movewas due to some suspicion of early life in the pitch,although in the present dry conditions that was likely to be minimal, and also because they were playing a predominantly seamattack, resting Harbhajan Singh.
The West Indies lost Chris Gayle (0) in the secondover, trapped back on the crease without footworkand lbw to seamer Harvinder Singh, recalled to the Indianteam after a long absence. Daren Ganga (2) followed, caught in the covers off a leading edge to Debashish Mohanty, and the WestIndies were reeling at 2 for two wickets, with thebowlers finding a good amount of swing, even if the pitchgave them little help.
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Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul struggledagainst good bowling, most of their runs coming inquick singles. Eventually Hinds (9), frustrated, lashed outat Mohanty and gave Reetinder Sodhi his second catch in the covers. Chanderpaul(10) followed a ball from Harvinder that moved away, edged to the keeper,and at 26 for four the West Indies appeared virtually out of the match. Mohanty'sopening spell of seven overs cost just 8 runs for two wickets. Sharp Indianfielding also kept the runs to the minimum.
After 20 overs the West Indies were only 33 for four,but then Carl Hooper decided to open up more. Hehit Zaheer Khan high over his head for four but, tieddown, hit the same bowler to mid-on to be caught for 14. In the 25th over, the West Indies were in desperate need of a miracle at 47for five.
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They didn't get one, but at least Marlon Samuels playeda calm, responsible innings, ably assisted byRidley Jacobs. The pair added 72 most commendably in 92balls before Mohanty returned to break the stand, having Samuels (44) caught at deepish mid-on. Mahendra Nagamootoo (17) continued thegood work until he was out to a fine full-stretchreturn catch by Khan, just before Jacobs reached an invaluablefifty off 69 balls.
Mohanty finished with three for 18 off his ten overs,and India never really lost their control, hardthough the West Indian lower order tried. Jacobs, as he hasdone so often, held it all together, this time with 53 not out, and the West Indiesfinished on 169 for seven.
India began their reply quietly, almost somnolently,scoring just 24 without loss in the first ten overs.The West Indian bowling was not particularly threateningbut it was accurate enough to restrict the scoring, especially CameronCuffy. Sachin Tendulkar was again surprisingly restrained; he did not reachdouble figures until the 14th over but had less than his share of the bowling.
Saurav Ganguly (20) was the first to go,controversially given out caught down the leg side.Cuffy completed his ten overs for just 20 runs, taking one wicket,the next one falling ironically to the erratic Wavell Hinds, who had DineshMongia (8) caught at the wicket. Rahul Dravid began with a sweetly timed drivethrough midwicket for three, but had added only a single when he unexpectedlycame down the pitch to Mahendra Nagamootoo to be 'gated' and stumped.
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Tendulkar on 46 appeared to have a fortunate escapefrom being given outcaught at the wicket offHooper. Soon afterwards he reached his fifty off 86 balls.He then began to open up and the remaining West Indian hopes disappeared rapidly.Hemang Badani scored 27 before he skied a return catch to Mervyn Dillon,but Virender Shewag (11) stayed with Tendulkar (81) until victory was completedwithout pressure and with more than six overs to spare.
