Zaheer dazzles as India make winning start

NAIROBI, October 3: It could just have been one of those days, when India have had to labour for a win but one man is still talking about ...

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NAIROBI, October 3: It could just have been one of those days, when India have had to labour for a win but one man is still talking about it. He is young, bold and slightly cocky but that’s something the Indians have been lacking for long, something which the Australians, the Pakistanis and the South Africans have among them in plenty.

Probably, now the Indians will know what aggression is all about, even if it’s raw and unbridled, and what wonders it can do. That’s Zaheer Khan for you. A team member suggested that Zaheer had requested the organisers if he could carry home the stump as souvenir, he had sent cartwheeling twice inside three deliveries. But it mattered little to him, his ears still ringing with the sweet sound of timber.

He will never forget how, on his international debut, he worked up good pace and bowled two accurate yorkers, crashing them in well before the Kenyans Mohammed Sheikh and Hitesh Modi could even bat their eyelid. As evening dawned and the players had to pull out their sweaters at the Nairobi Gymkhana, there was a sense of warmth in the Indian dressing room. Okay, Kenya are no superpowers and the eight-wicket win doesn’t mean India go over the moon, skipper Saurav Ganguly was telling everyone how impressed he was with the three new faces in the team. Of course, Zaheer was the hero but even the wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya didn’t let anything go past him besides pouching all the snicks, while Yuvraj Singh, though not needed to bat today, was sharp and alert in the field. “If this is anything to go by, our biggest worry is over. The future is bright,” Ganguly said after the match.

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He knows this was just a small battle, the war is to come when India play Australia in the quarterfinal on October 7 so he is coaxing his soldiers to go on. “Good that we did well today. But, that’s not all. We have to concentrate for the next match. It will be a good test.”

Ganguly himself led the way with a planned assualt and despite the early fall of Sachin Tendulkar, the skipper’s 66 and Rahul Dravid’s unbeaten 68 ensured the target of 209 was achieved without much ado. The `Comeback Man’ Vinod Kambli closed down the game with a fluent unbeaten 40 though it came at a time when the Kenyans were merely going through the motions.

The Kenyans lost but not before they put up a good fight. On a wicket which was seaming throughout, they capitalised on whatever loose stuff the Indian bowlers dished out at them. Remember, the Indians were coming into this game with little match practice and the only one who had been bowling during the Indian off-season was leg spinner Anil Kumble, whose recent English County form helped him get line and length straightaway.

The Kenyans couldn’t read Kumble at all whose figures of 2 for 22 earned him the Man-of-the-Match award. He first had Jimmy Kamande snicking an attempted drive to Dravid in the slips but the wrong’un with which he beat the most dependable Kenyan batsman Steve Tikolo was well executed.

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Venkatesh Prasad and Ajit Agarkar too picked up two wickets each, and Zaheer had 3 for 48, but they were slightly inconsistent. Maybe, the helpful conditions and bounce in the wicket tempted them to go for pace but there were times when they pitched short. Ravindu Shah, who scored a stylish 60, cut and pulled with ease while Maurice Odumbe, who gave fillip to the Kenyan run rate picked up the gaps and ran between the wickets well to give Kenya some chance, howsoever outside it may have been.

Scoreboard
KENYA
Kennedy Otieno c Ganguly b Agarkar (8b, 1×4) 6
Ravindu Shah c Dahiya b Prasad (93b, 6×4, 1×6) 60
Jimmy Kamande c Dravid b Kumble (40b, 3×4) 18
Steve Tikolo lbw Kumble (10b) 5
Maurice Odumbe lbw Prasad (87b, 3×4) 51
Thomas Odoyo Not Out (34b, 3×4, 1×6) 35
Mohammed Sheikh b Zaheer (3b) 0
Hitesh Modi b Zaher (2b) 0
Tony Suji c Dahiya b Agarkar (7b) 2
Martin Suji c Ganguly b Zaher (17b, 1×4) 14
Lameck Onyango Not Out (1b) 0
Extras: (lb 10, nb 3, w 4) 17
TOTAL: (for nine wkts in 50 overs) 208
Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Otieno), 2-54 (Kamande), 3-64 (Tikolo), 4-145 (Shah), 5-158 (Odumbe), 6-159 (Sheikh), 7-159 (Modi), 8-174 (T Suji), 9-206 (M Suji).
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 10-0-48-3, Ajit Agarkar 10-1-40-2, Venkatesh Prasad 10-0-47-2, Anil Kumble 10-1-22-2, Sachin Tendulkar 6-0-25-0, Yuvraj Singh 4-1-16-0
INDIA
Saurav Ganguly st Otieno b Odumbe (101, 4×4, 2×6) 66
Sachin Tendulkar lbw T Suji (34, 4×4) 25
Rahul Dravid Not Out (87, 7×4) 68
Vinod Kambli Not Out (32b, 7×4) 40
Extras: (w7, b1, nb1, lb2) 11
TOTAL: (for two wkts in 42.3 overs) 209
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Tendulkar), 2-135 (Ganguly).
Bowling: Martin Suji 10-2-30-0, Thomas Odoyo 6-1-18-0, Tony Suji 10-0-56-1, Lameck Onyango 4.3-0-34-0, Mohammed Sheikh 4-0-27-0, Steve Tikolo 2-0-13-0, Maurice Odumbe 4-0-18-1, Ravindu Shah 2-0-10-0.
Result: India bt Kenya by eight wickets.
Man-of-the-Match: Anil Kumble Wednesday’s Match: Sri Lanka vs West Indies.