OWN CORRESPONDENT, Singapore | Sunday 6.00pm.
INDIA beat Zimbabwe by 115 runs on Saturday to clinch their place in the final against the West Indies in the Singapore International Challenge cricket tournament.
Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell put India in to bat after early morning showers delayed the start of the game by more than four hours.
The spin of the coin was all that went Zimbabwe’s way on the overcast day.
The Indians recovered from the early losses of Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to score 245 for six in the stipulated 30 overs.
Sachin Tendulkar led from the front and looked set to become the first batsman to get a century at the new Kallang ground when he holed out to Stuart Carlisle off Andy Whittall.
But by then, the Indian captain had done the damage, having scored 85 off just 72 balls with the help of seven fours and three huge sixes.
And Ajay Jadeja, who had a 143-run stand with his skipper for the third wicket, was not to be left behind.
His 88 took a mere 61 balls and contained two fours and six towering sixes.
Unfortunately for Jadeja and the team, he pulled a calf muscle while attempting a quick single and after trying to bat on with Ganguly as runner, finally decided to retire.
The remaining batsmen perished in search of quick runs, before Sunil Joshi provided the ideal finish. He clouted the last two balls of the innings from Craig Evans for sixes.
Faced with a daunting target, the Zimbabwe chase never took off.
Debashis Mohanty and Venkatesh Prasad reduced them to 15 for three by the fourth over as Grant Flower, Neil Johnson and pinch-hitter Craig Wishart were back in the pavillion.
Skipper Campbell and his deputy Andy Flower once again tried to restore some order. They put on 47 runs for the fifth wicket but by then the task was well beyond their reach.
After that it was just a matter of the Indian bowlers getting among the wickets. Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi picked up two wickets each, while Mohanty finished with three for 28, bowling his quota of six overs on the trot.
Tendulkar and Jadeja shared the spoils for the day. The skipper was declared the man of the match, and Jadeja received the award for the fastest half-century of the match.–AFP