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Rains have made Zimbabwe happy, New Zealand unhappy and India sad.

The first match of 1999 World Cup Cricket that ended inconclusively even in 48 hours has so much of impact on the group standing and chances for qualifying for the semifinals. Zimbabwe, outsiders to be fair, find themselves on the threshold of World Cup glory by virtue of nature's interference.

Having said that I must recall their heroic encounter with the tournament favourites South Africa whom they defeated convincingly and also their dramatic win against India - two of the strongest teams in the tourney. They are already acknowledged as 'giant killers' and their achievements at this level of the game is very encouraging. On 9 June 1983, Zimbabwe, as qualifiers, surprised the tournament favourites Australia at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, by 13 runs. It was their debut tournament. This match was a personal milestone for DAG Fletcher of Zimbabwe for his 69 runs and 4 wickets. They came back again in 1992 and again as a qualifier. This time the victim was England. At Albany, a small township north-east of Melbourne, Zimbabwe took on the might of England that included Gooch, Botham, Lamb, Hick and Stewart. But the parttimers were not impressed. On 18 March they were skittled out for a meagre 134 in 46.I overs. Botham and Illingworth did the damage. But nobody knew what was in store for England. What looked like a chicken feed was actually eaten up by a chicken farmer named Eddo Brandes. With his fast medium deliveries he licked the top four English batsman that included the scalps of Gooch, Lamb, Smith and Hick. England slumped to 125 in 49.1 overs leaving Zimbabwe with a sensational victory by 9 runs.

Now coming to the match at Headingley we might as well say that a good contest was spoiled by rain. Zimbabwe's modest total was interfered by rain at least on three occasions. Their batsmen lost concentration. But a gutsy innings by Mervyn Goodwin supported by Johnson and Whittal gave respectability to the total. Geoff Allott once again bowled beautifully to be in the record books of World Cup with Roger Binny of India. Allott will definitely pose quite a few problems for South Africa and India.

Perhaps New Zealand missed out on their chances of full points from this match. They needed 106 in 35 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Or another 10 overs by which it could be taken to be a match and the Duckworth-Lewis system would have come into play. Their chances for a semifinal place will depend on their ability to win at least one of their two matches either against India or South Africa. A difficult proposition indeed, but not impossible. India could at best look for full points from their matches against Pakistan and New Zealand but unless something extraordinary happens their chances of playing in the semifinals will be really difficult.