Indian began their bowling effort in disappointing fashion, as Ashish Nehra slipped in bowling stride while attempting to deliver his second ball of the game. Limping off the field, Nehra left it to Zaheer Khan to finish the over.

Stephan Swanepoel was the first to face the music, trapped in front by a Khan yorker.

Louis Burger suffered the same fate soon after and Namibia were 21/2.

Some good clean hitting from Jan-Berrie Burger saw the runs add up. Dannie Keulder keen to get on with things, attempted to heave Harbhajan Singh over midwicket and almost succeeded. The ball sailed towards the ropes as Dinesh Mongia lurched, caught, fumbled, then caught again before sliding to a stop just inches in front of the ropes.

The television umpire was pressed into service and a reluctant Keulder (4) had to be on his way.

On the back of his fantastic catch, Mongia was pressed into the attack in the very next over and rewarded his captain by clean bowling Jan Berrie Burger (29 runs, 30 balls, 4 fours, 1 six). With Keulder and Burger both back in the hut and the score on 47/4, Namibia were in deep trouble.

From that point on, India realised that spin was the best form of attack against a side of honest hitters, who seemed far more comfortable against the mediumpacers and yet out of their depth against spin. The bowlers got through their overs quickly as Namibia reached 71/5 in 25 overs.

India, using this relatively easy fixture against Namibia as a good chance to warm up for sterner tests ahead – against England and Pakistan – played to their strengths, working the Namibian bowlers for all the runs they were worth.

There was none of the loose strokes, the ambitious slashes or the confused batting that has plagued Indian cricket in recent times. The batsmen, led by the captain, have maintained all along that it would take only one good performance to cause a reversal of fortunes.

When Tendulkar carefully nudged a full delivery to the on side to bring up his fourth World Cup century, he also achieved the distinction of notching up one-day hundreds against ten different countries. It was yet another record for Tendulkar that no other batsman could boast of. Of Test playing nations, only Bangladesh have been spared Tendulkar’s assault.

Till Ganguly reached three figures that is. Ganguly too has centuries against ten countries, only missing out against West Indies of the major teams.

Mark Waugh, Herschelle Gibbs and Brian Lara are the three batsmen that come close.

But it was not the records that will warm the heart of coach John Wright. The manner in which India kept the scoreboard ticking over with ones and twos would have heartened him no end. Until Ganguly decided the time was right for acceleration, and Tendulkar was well past his hundred, hardly any big hits were attempted. Even then though, the pair concentrated on hitting in the ‘V’ back down the wicket.

It was only in the 40th over that Tendulkar was dismissed, playing an ungainly across-the-line heave against a ball that kept low off van Vuuren after making a masterly 152 (151 balls, 18 fours).

When Rudie van Vuuren presented Ganguly with a wide full toss in the 46th over, the left-hander slapped a crisp boundary to move within one stroke of the three-figure mark. Soon after, Ganguly reached his 20th ODI century, before forging a last-minute charge, reaching 112 (119 balls, 6 fours, 4 sixes).

Amidst the piling on of runs, Yuvraj Singh chipped in with an unnoticeable seven from as many balls to seal the innings on 311/2.

The Indians now have more to fear from rain clouds than Namibia in this game.

When the day began, the residual moisture in the wicket made sure that batting was not a mere walk in the park even against the minnows of world cricket. Opening the bowling, rugby international Rudie van Vuuren put the batsmen through a stern interrogation, getting the ball to move both ways. Bowling with an exaggeratedly round-arm action van Vuuren was able to bring the ball back into the right-handers, thoroughly flummoxing even Tendulkar on occasions.

Sehwag though seemed characteristically unperturbed, striking four crisp boundaries in a run-a-ball 24 before mis-hitting a pull to Dannie Keulder at short midwicket off the bowling of van Vuuren.

Sourav Ganguly, still not back in good nick, began watchfully, unable to get after the bowling.

Tendulkar, however, got over the early jitters and began to play dead straight. Unveiling the classic on drive on more than one occasion, the little master cut out the fancy shots, settling for a steady rate of scoring instead. At 70 off 84 balls, Tendulkar hardly set the stands alight, but stood firm.

Ganguly, still settling down, had 27 from 43 balls, with one well-struck six over long off Burton van Rooi.

What is of some concern though is the weather at Pietermaritzburg, just outside Durban. Clouds have been hanging ominously over the Maritzburg Oval and the Indians can ill afford to have this game rained off. If India are to progress to the Super Six stage, it is vital that they pick up a full four points from a strong win in this game.

With this in mind, the Indians might be a touch disappointed on being put in to bat after Namibian captain Deon Kotze won the toss. For their part, the Namibians have had several stand out performances already. Medium-pacer and Rugby international Rudie van Vuuren picked up a five-wicket haul against England and the same game saw Jan Berrie Burger smack his merry to 83, giving the English an almighty fright.

Teams:

India: V Sehwag, SR Tendulkar, D Mongia, *SC Ganguly, +R Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, A Nehra, J Srinath.

Namibia: SJ Swanepoel, AJ Burger, LJ Burger, D Keulder, BG Murgatroyd, G Snyman, *DB Kotze, BO van Rooi, +M van Schoor, BL Kotze, RJ van Vuuren.