da bwin： India, with Sourav Ganguly in blistering form, coasted to a six wicketvictory over South Africa with 17 deliveries to spare in the secondone day international at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur onSunday
da 888： Sankhya Krishnan12-Mar-2000India, with Sourav Ganguly in blistering form, coasted to a six wicketvictory over South Africa with 17 deliveries to spare in the secondone day international at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur onSunday. With this, India took a 2-0 lead in the five match series.South Africa were restricted to 199 in 47.2 overs and India made lightof a comfortable target. It was India’s first successful campaign atthe Keenan stadium, surely the only international cricket stadium inthe world named after an American, JL Keenan, former GM of Tisco. Theyhad lost all the five previous games.Kirsten and Gibbs had put on 235 at Kochi but here they made preciselynought as Ajit Agarkar, swinging it in to the left hander, knockedback Kirsten’s off stump off his pads as the batsman tried to turn himonto the on side.Agarkar got a second wicket a little later. Kallis, played away fromhis body, edged an outswinger to Dighe for 18. Lance Klusener got offthe mark quickly with a single to midwicket but played a streaky shotto the third man fence, just wide of the keeper, from the last ball ofthe the over.Gibbs continued to follow his aggressive instincts and cut Joshiferociously off the back foot through the covers for four. But heperished in the same over playing forward and getting an edge throughto Dighe. Gibbs’ 27 came off 28 balls and South Africa were down to59-3. The Indians were on the offensive now with the fielding alsoperking up to give support to the bowlers.Agarkar was taken off after a seven over spell (2-28) and Anil Kumblecame on in the 15th over. He was not very convincing to begin with asKlusener helped himself to couples on either side of the wicket.Joshi was getting the ball to turn but he occasionally pitched oneshort outside off stump and was punished as Cronje did by punching himoff the backfoot for four. For a man who hasn’t had a good run withthe bat for some time Cronje was gaining in confidence and steppeddown to the pitch of the ball to hoist Joshi over long off.The result was that Joshi was removed from the firing line andTendulkar with his flattish off breaks took hold of the ball. Withhis fourth ball he packed off the dangerman Klusener as the batsmanfished outside the off stump only to give Dighe his third catch of theinnings. Klusener had been remarkably circumspect in his stay at thecrease with his 19 coming off 32 balls as the score settled at 88/4from 20 overs.Nicky Boje was promoted up the order to join his captain who hadplayed himself in and, always a good player of spin, was thriving onthe Indian spin attack. Cronje stepped down and lofted Kumble over hishead for four to bring up the hundred of the innings off 138 balls, inthe 23rd over. Gathering in confidence, the South African captain dulyreached his 50 off 62 balls.Boje broke the shackles, mainly self imposed, pulling a short one fromTendulkar to the square leg fence and then leaning to cut Kumaran pastAzharuddin at point for another boundary. When Boje tried to repeatthe shot in the same over, he only succeeded in slashing it behind thewicket to Dighe for 28 (44 balls). The keeper was having a much bettergame today. Apart from the catching his collection of the ball alsolooked much more assured.Pollock and Cronje kept the scoreboard ticking in preparation for thefinal assault.Joshi was back in the attack and gave away a boundary to midwicket toCronje but then enticed the batsman with a flighted one which heobligingly lofted into the hands of Robin Singh at long on. Cronje hadmade an invaluable 71 (86 balls) and at 178/6 it would take someeffort from the lower order to set India a competitive total.Kumble suffered the disappointment of having a good lbw shout againstPollock turned down but Joshi was not to be denied the samefate. Pollock, having made seven, played inside the line of anotherflighted one which turned and crashed through off and middle. Twoballs later Derek Crookes was back in the pavilion for a duck, aleading edge going straight to Ganguly at midoff. The innings was nowin terminal decline at 182/8 and Joshi was on a roll as his spell cameto an end at 4-38 from 10 overs.Kumble finally reaped the reward for his wicket to wicket line bygetting the umpire to raise his finger against Pieter Strydom to a notso accurate delivery that was drifting outside off stump to make it185-9.The Indians were getting behind their overrate as a result of somevery meticulous field setting during the innings. But they did nothave to rue it as Agarkar mopped up the innings in the 48th over, witha couple of minutes to go, by getting Elworthy caught and bowled forhis third wicket. Mark Boucher was left high and dry on 14 as theinnings terminated at what seemed to be a highly inadequate 199.At an asking rate of four an over the Indian batsmen may have had thegrouse that the target did not sufficiently respect theirabilities. Tendulkar gave them a sign of what was in store as he drovePollock between cover and mid off for four in the first over. WhenSteve Elworthy bowled at his legs Tendulkar clipped him to square legfor four more.Tendulkar was middling the ball cleanly but not able to pierce theclose field easily. After a sedate start Ganguly joined in with a shotinto the no mans land over the bowlers head that just carried to thelong off boundary. Both batsmen were playing within themselves, nottrying to be too flashy in view of the moderate asking rate.Boje was introduced into the attack in the eighth over and Tendulkartreated him with circumspection, taking just a single off the lastball. Having been tied down for some time, Tendulkar suffered a rushof blood in the next over that was as needless as it was fatal. Hestepped down the pitch to Pollock’s first ball and hoicked him tomidwicket for four. Off the next ball he came down again and lifted hmhigh in the air over midoff where Hansie Cronje running back took awell judged catch. Tendulkar had made 21 off 31 balls and India were33/1.Strangely Sunil Joshi was promoted in the order again when the needwas to consolidate, not experiment. Cronje responded by taking outBoje and bringing on the offspinner Derek Crookes to counter the twoleft handers at the crease. Crookes did not betray the trust of hisskipper and sent Joshi on his way with his second delivery, trappinghim in front of leg stump. It was a maiden to boot as India stayed at33/2 after 10 overs.Ganguly set about repairing the damage with two boundaries off Pollockincluding a straight hit down the ground. Crookes had done the jobentrusted and Boje returned for his second spell. Cronje was onlychanging ends for Crookes and the latter replaced Pollock at the otherend.Dravid started confidently by sending Crookes thudding into theadvertising boards at cover with a cut shot. The runs were comingpretty freely now as Ganguly played the same stroke to the other partof the ground in the same over. Ganguly never kept his intentions ofstepping to the pitch of the ball and attacking the spinners indoubt. He took a four and a six respectively over Boje and Crookes tolong on.Neither batsman was troubled by the spinners although Dravid onceedged Boje just wide of first slip. The field slowly spread out andCronje was forced to acknowledge the batsmen’s dominance by taking outfirst slip and putting in a sweeper cover after several boundaries hadbeen hit to that part of the ground.The game was slipping away from the South Africans now and with bothspinners having taken some pasting, they needed to try somethingdifferent. A double change was effected with Strydom and Kallis beingtried out. But the batsmen carried on in the same vein.Ganguly got to his fifty by picking Kallis off his legs for acouple. And not even a brief invasion by an unmanned balloon into theoutfield could affect the batsmen’s concentration as they went abouttheir job methodically. At the end of 25 overs, India was 106/2 withGanguly on 54 in 74 balls and Dravid on 26 from 45 balls.Just when the partnership between Ganguly and Dravid had assumedmenacing proportions, the South Africans finally effected thebreakthrough in the 30th over. Dravid threw away all the good work hehad done by stepping out recklessly to lift Boje on the onside, onlyto get a leading edge which ballooned to Gibbs at cover. The thirdwicket stand was worth 88 and with the score at 121/3, India could notafford to let down their guard.Azharuddin felt the pressure as Cronje encircled him with two slipsand a silly point in an all out bid to get another wicket. But aslong as Ganguly was at the wicket India could have no worries and theskipper showed his total control over the situation by slammimgStrydom for two sixes in successive overs, over midwicket and long onrespectively. At the end of 35 overs India were 146/3 with another 54needed off 90 balls.Azharuddin decided that he wasn’t going to play second fiddle to theskipper and bludgeoned 12 runs in cavalier fashion off a Boje overincluding boundaries to wide long on and extra cover. The SouthAfricans had all but thrown in the towel now and Ganguly entered hiseighties with a sizzling square drive off Strydom. The fiftypartnership came off just 57 balls when Ganguly cracked Crookes towide long off for four.The Indians had no intention of doing a slow march to victory. Theywere speeding like a highway truck and Ganguly smote his fourth six,and his third off the unfortunate Strydom, to gatecrash into thenineties.The imminent onset of his hundred however imposed a measure ofrestraint on Ganguly’s strokeplay and he played out the next two overswith just a solitary run accruing to his blade. He seemed determinedto take his own time to the mark even putting his head down andplaying defensively on occasion. The elusive run finally came with asweep down to fineleg off Crookes as Ganguly completed his hundred off136 balls (9 fours and 4 sixes).Cronje, who for some reason had conspicuously absented himself fromthe attack, came on in the 46th over and bowled Azharuddin between batand pad with his first ball. The runs were coming in a trickle now butIndia had paced their innings well and the scores were levelled in the47th over through a wide from Kallis. Fittingly the winning runs cameoff the bat of Ganguly as he guided Cronje to the fence at backwardpoint.
