The Dinesh Mongia-Yuvraj Singh partnership turned what was a fairly even contest into a one-sided romp. At 157 for 4 in the 31st over, Zimbabwe could have wrested the initiative with a few quick wickets. What they got instead was a caning to the tune of 158 runs off the next 107 balls – 150 of those off the bats of Mongia and Yuvraj. Both batsmen contributed exactly 75 runs each to the partnership (though Mongia faced three balls more), hit six fours and ran 25 singles apiece. Mongia played 15 dot balls during the partnership; Yuvraj had 14 runless deliveries. Importantly, they allowed only 29 balls – just 27% of the total deliveries they faced – to escape without scoring off them.

But if the batting was high class, the bowling certainly wasn't. Almost 43% of the deliveries bowled to them were on middle stump or further leg side; 47% were either too full or too short. The Zimbabweans served up a generous 20 half-volleys, and were creamed for 40 runs from them. Travis Friend was the worst offender – more than 60% of his deliveries erred in length. Not surprisingly, 35 runs came off his 18 balls – a strike rate of almost 200%.

Mongia and Yuvraj favoured different parts of the field to score their runs. Almost two-third of Mongia's runs (103 out of 159) came on the off side. He was particularly prolific in the region between backward point and extra-cover – 73 runs came in that area alone, a healthy 46%. Yuvraj got 64% of his on the leg side, 37 of them in the arc from backward square leg to deep midwicket.

Their methods were not always similar, but together, they shut out all escape routes for Zimbabwe. And, along the way, served up some mighty good entertainment for the Guwahati crowd.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd