Tag Ind-Zim-2010

Two days between South African tour and begining of IPL, five between IPL and World T20 and then a week saparating World T20 and Zimbabwe tour ~ BCCI has turned Indian cricket team into a prostitute who sleeps around way too much and hence is losing her beauty..

Zimbabwe, lowest ranked one day team, have always been a walk in the park for former Indian teams but current one is so exhausted/shameless that in back to back games they've given hosts their 9th & 10th victory after 51 head to heads (India won 39, 2 tied). with yesterday's loss, India are almost out of this Micromax cup triseries 2010.

Openers Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik set the tone for an embarrising defeat with an opening stand of 58, off 16.1 overs (15 of those were power plays). First 10 overs produced just 26 runs and then Vijay was out for 21 off 56 balls without a baundary. Karthik looked in better touch but lack of intent from Virat Kohli or back to back centurion Rohit Sharma had surrendered all momentum to Zimbabweans.

Hosts were playing with just one medium pacer = Andy Blignaut, with 4 spinners. Experienced Raymond Price was the most economical bowler, conceeding just 37 runs for 1 wicket in his 10 overs while Gregory Lamb was most successful, dismissing 3 Indians for just 45 runs in his 10 overs. Former captain Prosper Utseya and leg spinner Graeme Cremer kept pressure on visitors, giving away only 41 & 42 runs in their 10 overs for a wicket each.

Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura didn't bowl himself but played skipper's role perfectly, keeping 5 or even 6 fielders inside 30 yard circle, making it difficult for opposition batters who wanted to break free.

Ravindra Jadeja did bit of recovery, making his one day career's 4th half century, pushing his team closer to 200 run mark, adding crucial 48 off 44 balls with Ashok Dinda.

Zimbabwe openers knew target wasn't a threatening one so started patiently but soon, they figured Harere sports club pitch had flattened out. Brendan Taylor unleashed range of pull shots he's master at and zoomed to 74 in an opening stand of 128 with Hamilton Masakadza who'll be marrying this weekend.

Match was all but over from that point on but Zimbabweans wanted more. They called for early batting powerplay, pushed for bounus point and got it, making points table equation utterly tough for blue team to make a comeback unless they beat Sri Lankans tomorrow with an extremely big margin.

The scores

India 194 for 9 wickets in 50 overs
R Jadeja 51, D Karthik 33, G Lamb 3/45
Zimbabwe 197/3 in 38.2 overs (won by 7 wkts)
B Taylor 74, H Masakadza 66, Charls Coventry 20
Full scorecard : Ind v Zim, triseries match 4 : 3 June 2010.