India Let Kiwis Off The Hook

A jittery India allowed New Zealand to wriggle out of a precarious position to clinch a stunningfour-wicket victory over the hosts and bounce back into reckoning in the TVS Cup triangular seriesat Cuttack today.

Chasing a competitive target 247 for victory, the Kiwis found themselves on the mat to give the hosts an early controlof the game but Scott Styris and Craig McMillan showed remarkable resilience to steer the team to victory with 2.3overs to spare.

After leaving the visitors gasping at 68 for four at one stage, the Indians hadthemselves to blame for letting the Kiwis fly out of the nest under the BarabatiStadium floodlights as they ran out of steam when it mattered most on a slow track.

New Zealand, who desperately needed a win to keep themselves afloat in the series, have caught up India on thepoints table with both the teams having garnered nine points from four outings so far.

Australia, the third team in the fray, have already romped into the final with 18 points from four matches.

The majestic clock tower at the far end of the picturesque Barabati Stadium, hosting its first-ever floodlight encounter, stood witness to the Indian debacle as McMillan (82 not out) and Styris (68) led the spirited Kiwisfightback with a 127-run fifth wicket association to tame the hosts in their own den.

The New Zealand run chase began with a flourish as their captain Stephen Fleming turned on the heat with a barrage ofboundaries but the innings plunged into disarray after his dismissal with the fall of four quick wickets.

The Kiwis rattled up 39 runs in just over five overs but the home side bounced back to reduce the visitors to 68 forfour with speedster Zaheer Khan doing the bulk of the damage.

Fleming, who seemed to be in a punitive mood slamming five boundaries during his 14-ball 24, was the first to departleading to a top order collapse as Chris Nevin (29), Chris Harris (0) and Lou Vincent (1) joined him in the dressing roomin quick succession.

Paceman Ajit Agarkar got rid of the dangerous Fleming trapping him leg before wicket much to the delight of theIndians while Zaheer, who proved very expensive in the first two overs, accounted for Harris.

Harris was also adjudged leg before wicket to a sharp incoming delivery from Zaheer but was distinctly unhappy withthe decision.

Zaheer, who seemed to get his rhythm right after taking his first wicket, struck another blow by evicting Lou Vincent, who has been having a rather disappointing triangular series.

Vincent became the third leg before victim for the Black Caps who suddenly found themselves in a precarious positionwith Nevin also gifting away his wicket for a 45-ball 29.

Nevin, who appeared to be quite comfortable, went for a sweep shot but Yuvraj Singh held on to a brilliant catch atshort mid-wicket in Harbhajan Singh's second over.

Styris and McMillan performed the salvage job to pull the Kiwis out of the pit with a resolute 127-run partnership to put the run chase back on track.

Both Styris and McMillan did not take too many risks and were quite content to keep the scoreboard moving with gentlenudges and pushes against the Indians spinners who managed to stem the run flow to some extent.

With the ball tending to skid, the two batsmen played out Harbhajan and Murali Kartik cautiously but were promptto despatch the loose deliveries to the boundary.

But the home team could not sustain the pressure for a long time after the two spinners completed their first spellwith leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule, returning to competitive cricket after a long gap, failing to make much of an impact.

While Styris was quite content in playing the sheet anchor's role, McMillan opened up to execute some gloriousshots on both sides of the wicket to ensure that the run rate did not climb too much.

Styris flicked Sachin Tendulkar to the boundary to notch up his half century while his partner also reached the landmark bytaking a single off the same bowler to frustrate the Indians who seemed to run out of ideas after the fifth-wicket pair gotinto the groove.

The pair put on a valuable 127-run partnership before Kartik removed Styris from the scene for a 89-ball 68 whichcontained five hits to the boundary.

Earlier, Zaheer provided the sparks with a blistering unbeaten 14-ball 33 as the hosts overcame amid-innings slump to score a respectable 246 for nine in their allotted 50 overs.

After struggling at 207 for eight in the dying stages of the innings, Zaheer launched the late assault to take the hosts to a decent total which also included a determined 64-run contribution from MohammadKaif.

Hemang Badani, returning to the national team after a gap of nearly 21 months, chipped in with a useful 41 while V.V.S.Laxman (31) and captain Rahul Dravid (31) were the other notable scorers.

The last over from Jacob Oram fetched as many as 20 runs as Zaheer launched a brave counter-attack which included twosixes on a slow track which was hardly conducive for strokeplay.

The Indians went into the match with a brand new opening pair of Tendulkar and Laxman, who took up the new rolein the absence of an injured Virender Sehwag.

The new opening pair launched the innings with a flourish by maintaining a reasonably brisk run rate before Tendulkar'sbelligerence was cut short by a rather dubious decision by umpire A.V.Jayaprakash.

The pair had put on 27 runs on the board when Tendulkar was suprisingly adjudged leg before wicket by the umpire off aKyle Mills delivery which appeared to be going down the leg stump.

PTI