Zaheer’s turn to give pace a chance

The seven-wicket win, which saw the Kiwis fail to defend a total of mere 146, meant the losers now hope for a Sri Lankan loss to Zimbabwe for a place in the last four. Like the Nick Knight’s run-out at Kingsmead or Marvan Atapattu’s uppish extracover drive at the Wanderers opened the floodgates, it was an unforced error by opener Craig McMillan today.

His tame flick off a harmless Zaheer ball into the hands of Harbhajan Singh at short squareleg gave the Indians the first sniff. And, of late, rarely have the Indians failed to spot the trail after that.

The wicket on the second ball of the match was followed by another one on the third. The ducks at the Centurion Lake nearby suddenly were waiting for two from the park to give them company. From then on it was the usual fullcourt press by the Indian pacers.

Never one to miss a party, Ashish Nehra chipped in by having the dangerous-looking Scott Styris caught behind. Zaheer then came back for his second spell to break wicket-keeper Brendan McCullum’s stumps — a wicked in-cutter, which did not give the batsman any chance.

But skipper Fleming, at the other end, was showing signs of playing one of his graceful, dreadful and purposeful knocks, which send shivers up the rivals’ spines.

But Javagal Srinath ended the Fleming cameo and with it all Kiwi hopes of a fightback. He spooned a simple catch to mid-on, while attempting a pull.

Harbhajan too did his good deed on the day, claiming the ever-dangerous Chris Cairns and Daniel Vettori.

It is here that the Kiwis faltered. With India struggling for the fifth bowler or a fourth seamer, the Kiwis had a chance to compile something in the region of at least 170.

Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly’s decision to bowl after the coin fell his way on a wicket which had some juice was perfectly justified.

While the Indian seamers enjoyed the moisture and life on the pitch at the start, by the time the Kiwis got the ball in their hands, the afternoon sun ensured a dry spell.

But bowlers like Shane Bond don’t care about pitch conditions. When a tracer bullet like ball travels straight towards the base of the stump the pitch conditions suddenly becomes redundant. And so does the batsman as Ganguly realised today. After opener Virender Sehwag was out to yet another rank bad shot, Ganguly had no clue to what hit him. But with Sachin Tendulkar hitting the ball well, things looked set for India.

But his three consecutive fours off Darryl Tuffey was followed by a cut straight to Jacob Oram at point. At that stage, a few Indian hearts must have missed a beat or two. This was followed by a period of uncertainty when catches flew but the Kiwis were completely butterfingered.

At this stage, from somewhere in the grandstand, there came the sound of drumbeats. Shivamani had managed a metal waste bin and borrowed some stainless steel cutlery from the caterer. The Indian crowd, which had gone silent at the quick fall of wickets, suddenly came to life.

Call it great timing by a great musician or quirk of fate, not a wicket fell after that as Mohammad Kaif and Rahul Dravid played knocks, which once again proved that India are no longer a team of individuals but a unit with great collective strength.

While Kaif was the faster of the two — between wickets as well in sending balls to the fence — Dravid once again showed that when he is around, things are under control. Heard that story about sticks — breakable individually and exceptionally strong when together? That was the moral of the March 14 story.

Certainly not the best bedtime reading for countries like Kenya and Australia.