da fezbet： New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming reasoned after his team’s 16-rundefeat by Sri Lanka that, though the Black Caps’ performance wasunacceptable, they had at least drawn a line in the sand
Charlie Austin20-Jul-2001New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming reasoned after his team’s 16-rundefeat by Sri Lanka that, though the Black Caps’ performance wasunacceptable, they had at least drawn a line in the sand. Today, intheir second game of the Coca-Cola Cup, they drew a line inunchartered territories in what Fleming described as the best one-dayperformance of his captaincy.The Black Caps pulled off an expected and absolutely resoundingvictory over India, eventually winning the game by 84 runs afterbowling out India for just 127 under the bright glare of the PremadasaInternational Stadium floodlights, on a reused pitch that deterioratedmarkedly in the Indian innings.India, however, had looked the likely winners at the half way markhaving restricted New Zealand to 211 in their 50 overs. But a fineopening spell by Darryl Tuffey (7-2-7-1) and a devastating threewicket burst from Dion Nash, making a return from injury after tenmonths on the sidelines, reduced India to 50 for five.Tendulkar’s replacement, Yuvraj Singh, started the rot when he wastrapped lbw in the fourth over of the innings. Two overs later, withthe score still on 13, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was well caughtat backward point by Chris Harris as he mistimed a back foot drive.The run scoring slowed and in the first 10 overs India had scored just21 runs. It was Nash that swung the match decisively towards NewZealand. Brought on in the sixteenth over of the innings he dismissedkey batsmen Rahul Dravid in his second over, as the consistent righthander was caught in the covers off a leading edge.Four overs later Hemang Badani slashed at a delivery from Nash and wascaught behind by Adam Parore. Virender Sehwag lasted just threedeliveries before he was surprised by some extra bounce and was caughtin the gully by Chris Harris.Whilst Venkatasai Laxman remained at the crease the Indians stillretained hopes of a victory and he was joined by the audaciousRitender Sodhi, who had fielded superbly earlier in the day andclumped one resounding six in his 18-run innings.Laxman went on to score 60 from 102 balls and added 38 runs withSodhi, but both batsmen struggled to score freely, as Stephen Flemingsensibly rotated his slower bowlers – Daniel Vettori, Chris Harris andNathan Astle. All the while the biscuit dry surface crumbled making itharder and harder to time the ball.Eventually the innings subsided as the pressure finally told. Laxmanwas caught by Harris in Vettori’s second spell and Indian lost theirlast four wickets for eight runs as Harris mopped up the tail.The woeful batting of the Indians highlighted just how good an inningshad been played by Nathan Astle earlier in the day. The compact openerscored 117 and was two balls short of batting out the entire innings.It was a chanceless innings, though he did enjoy one moment ofoutrageous luck when he played the ball on to the base for his stumps.The bails wavered, but didn’t fall and he never looked back.Once he had played himself he was the only batsman to play the Indianspinners confidently, twice lofting them straight down the ground. Hescored nine fours and one six, which was more than in the entireIndian innings.No other Kiwi batsmen settled and Stephen Fleming was the next highestscorer with 25, as Ganguly rotated his slower bowlers too, evenemploying the part-time left arm orthodox of Yuvraj Singh and Badani.The spinners bowled 33 overs in the innings.Harbhajan Singh was the pick of the Indian bowlers, picking up two for25 from his ten overs, including the key wickets of Fleming, caught atslip, ending a 70-run second wicket partnership, and Lou Vincent, whotop edged a sweep to short fine leg.Speaking afterwards Fleming said: "That was a great victory. Some ofthe things done in that game, including that tremendous hundred fromAstle, were outstanding. I would go as far as to say that was the bestperformance by the one-day side whilst I have been captain."I originally thought we might be a bit shy of a winning total, butthe number of the players who struggled to time the ball suggestedthat it would be difficult to score the runs," he said."The pressure all came from the opening bowlers doing their job," hebelieved. "Dion Nash’s spell was then instrumental in winning thematch. He had a huge impact on the side and it’s great to have himback."Ganguly now has just two days to raise the morale of his players. Itwill be difficult after such a comprehensive defeat, especiallywithout the services of Sachin Tendulkar, who was dearly missed today.India’s next game is against Sri Lanka on Sunday. They can at leastlook forward to a new pitch.