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World Cup: Zimbabwe spurn chance

The Indian World Cup dream lives on. Any remote possibility of embarrassment was removed by yesterday's comfortable 40-run win over hapless Zimbabwe at the well-appointed Green Park Stadium.

Zimbabwe are a shadow of the team that they can be. India, recently so consistent on their own patch, are showing signs of tactical uncertainty and diminished self-belief.

Having won the toss, Andy Flower betrayed his team's lack of form by choosing to field first. In the past Zimbabwe would have scorned such thinking, but so meekly have they batted throughout the tournament that the captain thought better of taking the bull by the horns.

Mohammad Azharuddin would have chosen to bat so he was pleased to accept the generosity, but by the start of the 13th over he must have wondered what was going on.

First the prolific Sachin Tendulkar, with 422 runs in the World Cup already, lost his middle and off stumps to a break-back from Heath Streak, then Sanjay Manjrekar drove early to short midwicket. Ten balls later his captain did much the same. The catches were good, Alastair Campbell snatching Manjrekar's firm hit from above his head and moving forward to grab Azharuddin's casual flick.

From that point on, with India nervously placed at 32 for three, Zimbabwe inexplicably lost control. It was not that the pitch improved, in fact it stayed low and slow for the day, nor that India improved much either. Vinod Kambli was missed by Bryan Strang off his own bowling as Zimbabwe fumbled and missed their moment.

Kambli branched out in his extravagant way and his opponents continued to spill straightforward offerings, but his 110-ball hundred was a personal triumph after a wretched start to the World Cup.

Of equal merit was the steady, accumulating innings played by Navjot Sidhu, who has been unwell of late but who batted with responsibility yesterday and gave Aday Jadeja the platform for a late flourish of classy strokes.

Andrew Waller and Grant Flower had some strokes of their own in store for the inconsistent Venkatesh Prasad and they reached 50 from 10 overs, to threaten an upset. But the excellent spinners, Anil Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju, and Azharuddin's attacking field, took the sting from Zimbabwe's chase. Flower was nicely taken at silly point and Waller was held by Tendulkar at silly mid-on. From then on the African pack of cards collapsed.

Zimbabwe fly home chastened by their indifferent cricket while India go to Bangalore for a quarter-final against Pakistan. They are still unsure of their ideal bowling combination but can be pretty certain that Jadeja, who stole the man-of-the-match award from Kambli, will not fill the all-round boots vacated by out-of-form Manoj Prabhakar.

Roland Lefebvre, of Holland, is included by Glamorgan in their 13-man party to tour South Africa this month. However, Ottis Gibson, of the West Indies, is not expected to join the county until the end of April as he may be involved in the Test series against New Zealand.

Man of the match: AD Jadeja