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Singer World Series: India beat Zimbabwe

India collected their first points in the four-nation Singer world series when they comfortably beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets in a day match played at the SSC grounds on Sunday.

Powered by a half-century from opening bat Ajay Jadeja, who took the 'Man of the Match' award and excellent leg-spin bowling by Anil Kumble, who captured four wickets for 33 runs, India passed Zimbabwe's total of 226 with six overs to spare.

Jadeja attacking leg-spinner Paul Strang hit two sixes off the bowler and also collected six fours in his 80-ball innings.

Jadeja and skipper Sachin Tendulkar provided India with an excel- lent start hitting 91 inside the first 15 overs. The fast out- field at the SSC gave the fielders little chance of stopping the boundaries once it cleared the square, and Zimbabwe's total was made to look small in the face of the run flow from the two Indi- an openers.

Tendulkar driving fluently was out to a bad shot when he attempt- ed to pull Heath Streak from outside off stump, only to see it end up in mid-wicket's hands. Tendulkar made 40 off 46 balls with eight fours.

Saurav Ganguly and Mohammed Azharuddin kept up the momentum with contributions of 36 and 40 not out before left-hander Vinod Kam- bli put the finishing touches to the match with his fourth four.

Azharuddin made a well compiled 40 off 55 balls with six fours.

Zimbabwe put into bat first by Tendulkar failed to last the 50 overs being dismissed two balls short of it for 226.

The Indian seamers found movement in the pitch, and reduced Zim- babwe to 61 for 3 in the 17th over. But Andy Flower with a well struck 78 off 115 balls (3 fours) figured in half-century partnerships with brother grant Flower and Craig Wishart, to push Zimbabwe past the 200-run mark.

Wishart playing in only his second one-day international complet- ed a maiden half-century off 41 balls hitting three sixes and an equal number of fours. Following his dismissal at 201 for 5 in the 43rd over, the rest of the Zimbabwe batting failed to main- tain the run rate and collapsed for 25 runs off 34 balls.

Kumble was the main striker with four wickets and he had excel- lent support from left-arm leg-spinner Sunil Joshi, whose 10 overs gave him fine figures of 2 for 37.

In this modern age it seems the television is trying to dominate the course of a cricket match.

The official scorers of the Indian-Zimbabwe Singer World Series match played at the SSC grounds had the Zimbabwe total as 226 all out.

However, mid-way through the Indian innings it was changed to 225, at the request of the ICC match referee John Reid.

Reid had wanted the change because replays of the Zimbabwean in- nings do not show umpire T. M. Samarasinghe signalling a wide bowled by Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad.

The wide, according to the two official scorers was signalled rather late and apparently the TV cameras had missed it. The scorers to whom the umpires turn and signal did not miss it. Therefore, they maintained that their total of 226 was correct.

India however chased a total of 225, and there would have been total chaos had the winning hit been one run. Vinod Kambli prevented embarrassment to all by hitting a four.