da dobrowin： © CricInfo It was indeed refreshing to see Zimbabwe bat first for the firsttime in the one-day series
Erapalli Prasanna17-Mar-2002
© CricInfoIt was indeed refreshing to see Zimbabwe bat first for the firsttime in the one-day series. The wicket was one that had somethingin it for the fast bowlers. The bounce and pace was there to beexploited, and Ajit Agarkar did a good job with the new ball.Agarkar, with his slanting delivery action, gives the batsman animpression that the ball is going to reverse swing. In reality,the ball drifts in and thereby leaves the batsmen in an awkwardposition.At Hyderabad, the Mumbai quick gave India a great start byremoving Alistair Campbell and Travis Friend, making good use ofthe prevailing conditions. The other Indian bowlers seemed to bestriving hard yet they looked none too impressive.The very fact that Zimbabwe could easily rebuild their inningsthrough Dion Ebrahim and Andy Flower shows the rest of the Indianbowling in a poor light. The batsmen looked quite comfortableagainst Harbhajan Singh too. Clearly there is a lack of depth inthe bowling department as far as the Indians are concerned. TheFlower brothers and captain Stuart Carlisle played exceedinglywell to take the Zimbabwe score to 240 in 50 overs, which Ithought was a daunting score to chase.Once again the India top order looked fragile, three wicketsfalling in a hurry. I thought Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaifplayed very well while rebuilding the innings, going about theirtask in a methodical manner. It was heartening to see the singlesand twos being taken with an appreciable sense of urgency.If there is a chink in Dravid’s armour, it is the fact that thepressure gets to him sooner or later. Not for the first time inhis career, he allowed the pressure to get the better of him andgot out at a crucial stage. With the partnership broken, Zimbabwehad a chance of forcing a win.But Yuvraj Singh, making a comeback into the international arena,played a breathtaking innings. He blew the Zimbabwe attack apartwith some amazing strokeplay. The timing was brilliant and theplacement immaculate. With Kaif playing the support role, Yuvrajtook the game away from the visitors. It was a sheer joy to watchthe youngster in full flow, cracking shots on both sides of thepitch.Stuart Carlisle seemed to have problems setting the field for theleft-hander. Strangely, the visitors did not have a plan forYuvraj and paid a heavy price as a consequence. Having said thatit was the high quality of Zimbabwe fielding that made the matcha closely fought encounter despite the Yuvraj blitzkrieg.
© CricInfoTalking about Yuvraj, it is nice to see youngsters like him makesuch a powerful comeback. It augurs well for Indian cricket thatthere are other youngsters too who are pushing for a place in thesquad. When Tendulkar and Sehwag return to the side, India wouldhave a decent pool of batsmen to choose from. This shall ensurethat someone like VVS Laxman, who failed in his own backyard onSaturday, will now have to perform constantly to hold his placein the squad. It goes without saying that this can only provebeneficial to both him and India.I am very much impressed with this kid, Ajay Ratra. Even thoughwe haven’t seen much of him with the bat, he has proved that heis improving as a wicket-keeper every time he goes out to themiddle. I feel Ratra could relieve Indian cricket of one of itsbiggest headaches in recent times – the lack of a good wicketkeeper.With the squad for the West Indies to be named on the 21st, therewould be a few Indian players trying to impress the selectors inthe final encounter in Guwahati, which is going to be the decidertoo. Nothing has really separated these two teams in this one-dayseries. The team that holds its nerve should emerge victorious.May the best team win.