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It was indeed refreshing to see Zimbabwe bat first for the first time in the one-day series. The wicket was one that had something in it for the fast bowlers. The bounce and pace was there to be exploited, and Ajit Agarkar did a good job with the new ball.

Agarkar, with his slanting delivery action, gives the batsman an impression that the ball is going to reverse swing. In reality, the ball drifts in and thereby leaves the batsmen in an awkward position.

At Hyderabad, the Mumbai quick gave India a great start by removing Alistair Campbell and Travis Friend, making good use of the prevailing conditions. The other Indian bowlers seemed to be striving hard yet they looked none too impressive.

The very fact that Zimbabwe could easily rebuild their innings through Dion Ebrahim and Andy Flower shows the rest of the Indian bowling in a poor light. The batsmen looked quite comfortable against Harbhajan Singh too. Clearly there is a lack of depth in the bowling department as far as the Indians are concerned. The Flower brothers and captain Stuart Carlisle played exceedingly well to take the Zimbabwe score to 240 in 50 overs, which I thought was a daunting score to chase.

Once again the India top order looked fragile, three wickets falling in a hurry. I thought Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif played very well while rebuilding the innings, going about their task in a methodical manner. It was heartening to see the singles and twos being taken with an appreciable sense of urgency.

If there is a chink in Dravid's armour, it is the fact that the pressure gets to him sooner or later. Not for the first time in his career, he allowed the pressure to get the better of him and got out at a crucial stage. With the partnership broken, Zimbabwe had a chance of forcing a win.

But Yuvraj Singh, making a comeback into the international arena, played a breathtaking innings. He blew the Zimbabwe attack apart with some amazing strokeplay. The timing was brilliant and the placement immaculate. With Kaif playing the support role, Yuvraj took the game away from the visitors. It was a sheer joy to watch the youngster in full flow, cracking shots on both sides of the pitch.

Stuart Carlisle seemed to have problems setting the field for the left-hander. Strangely, the visitors did not have a plan for Yuvraj and paid a heavy price as a consequence. Having said that it was the high quality of Zimbabwe fielding that made the match a closely fought encounter despite the Yuvraj blitzkrieg.

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Talking about Yuvraj, it is nice to see youngsters like him make such a powerful comeback. It augurs well for Indian cricket that there are other youngsters too who are pushing for a place in the squad. When Tendulkar and Sehwag return to the side, India would have a decent pool of batsmen to choose from. This shall ensure that someone like VVS Laxman, who failed in his own backyard on Saturday, will now have to perform constantly to hold his place in the squad. It goes without saying that this can only prove beneficial to both him and India.

I am very much impressed with this kid, Ajay Ratra. Even though we haven't seen much of him with the bat, he has proved that he is improving as a wicket-keeper every time he goes out to the middle. I feel Ratra could relieve Indian cricket of one of its biggest headaches in recent times - the lack of a good wicket- keeper.

With the squad for the West Indies to be named on the 21st, there would be a few Indian players trying to impress the selectors in the final encounter in Guwahati, which is going to be the decider too. Nothing has really separated these two teams in this one-day series. The team that holds its nerve should emerge victorious. May the best team win.

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