India crumble on Lankan dustbowl

I don't at this point in time know what plans the organisers have for the rest of this tournament -- but if the idea is to keep using this pitch, which is what we hear, then the latter stages of the triseries now on in Sri Lanka will be a players' -- and spectators' -- nightmare.

When batsmen wake up in the middle of the night, the sweat pouring off them in buckets, this is the kind of pitch they have just had nightmares of -- underprepared, with funny patches at various points and with puffs of dust kicking up when the ball hits the deck.

On a track of this kind, the best bet is prayer -- pray like hell that you win the toss and get first strike, and thus can get use of the track when, under the influence of the morning roller, it is behaving itself.

Stephen Fleming must have prayed harder than Sourav Ganguly this morning -- it was the Kiwi skipper who called right, and promptly opted for first strike. The handful of people who turned up to watch a game between India and the holders of the ICC Mini World Cup had barely settled themselves down, when Zaheer Khan struck with his first ball of the match -- an inswinging delivery on a very full length that got Mathew Sinclair plumb in front.

New Zealand could have been 0/2 when, in the second over, Ashish Nehra managed to get Nathan Astle to drag one onto the stumps. The ball actually hit the stumps and richocheted back towards the batsman without disturbing anything -- indicating that perhaps the spot the stumps were erected was the hardest part of the pitch.

From then on, skipper Fleming and Nathan Astle played intelligent cricket. Taking advantage any time they were offered any sort of room at all, concentrating on defence when they were not, the two pushed the Kiwis to 49/1 in 10, 70/1 in 15.

Ganguly got his captaincy bang on. Sizing up the pitch, he opted for his slower spinners -- thus, Sodhi came in for over number 11 but got just one over before Sehwag took over. Harbhajan Singh came on in the 13th. During this period, both batsmen survived close LBW shouts. Finally, in the 17th over, Harbhajan pushed one through quicker and gave it a real rip. The ball hit line of off and turned away for Fleming, aiming to drive, to get the edge for Sehwag at slip to snap up the sharp chance.

The twin spin attack had shut things down. Thus, when the Kiwi innings got to 76/2 at the end of 20 overs, 36 deliveries had produced seven runs, and one wicket. Ganguly kept the momentum going for his team, bringing on Yuvraj to bowl slow leg breaks in the 24th over, and Badani to chip in with his own part time spin in the 25th.

With the Kiwis desperate to get some kind of momentum going, Craig McMillan bustled down the track to Yuvraj Singh in the 26th over, got nowhere near the pitch, and was stumped by a yard or more as the ball spun past the outer edge of his bat (106/3).

From there on, Nathan Astle who, after that near mishap had settled down to sensible, focussed batting, and Vincent knocked off singles when they could, ran like blazes and pushed the board along to 155/3 at the end of 35 overs, in the process putting up a resucitating fourth wicket stand of 51 off 62 deliveries.

Harbhajan was brought back in the 37th over, and promptly struck when he tossed one up inviting the sweep. Vincent bit, the ball kicked and got the top edge to Yuvraj at short backward square (158/4).

At the 35 over mark, the Kiwis had recovered into a position of strength -- always remembering that strength is relative. On this track, 220 is a killer target, and the Kiwis with wickets in hand did seem in a position to get there. Some silly cricket, though, turned the game back India's way.

In the 39th over, Astle played one down on the off and Chris Harris, without waiting for his partner to have even finished the stroke, came charging down. Dighe showed good reflexes in running around, fielding the ball around the silly point region and relaying it to the bowler to have New Zealand down to 163/5.

The batting side went into the straight stretch on 167/5 at the end of 40 overs. And shortly thereafter, Nathan Astle -- whose innings here was marked by a sensible preference for playing as late as he possibly could -- got to his tenth ODI century (131 balls). And its value is best expressed in relation to the fact that if you took out his contribution, the Kiwi score at that point would have read 71/5.

At 186/5 after 45 overs, with five wickets including the centurion still standing, the Kiwis seemed set for a winning score. Hemang Badani, in the 47th over, gave that objective a bit of a check when he drew Parore down the track aiming to chip on the on. The ball zipped through the gate, kept low and Dighe, after a fumble, still had time to recover, glove the ball and get the bails off. An over later, Zaheer Khan -- who, along with Ashish Nehra, appears to have learnt the fine art of bowling tight at the death -- produced a lovely late-swinging yorker that went under Nash's bat and crashed into the base of middle stump.

Astle's vigil finally ended in the final over when he attempted a second run to try and keep strike, and the Kiwis finished up with 211/8 in the allotted 50 overs.

On balance, you had to say that the Kiwis ended up with at least 15-20 runs less than they should have had, given their position at the end of 35 overs.

I can't, off hand, recall when last India went into an ODI without Sachin Tendulkar. Or, for that matter, opened with two left-handers. Yuvraj Singh, who walked out with Ganguly, appeared to have learnt a lesson from the earlier impetuousity that saw him rusticated from the team and, here, played well within himself, seemingly intent on settling down.

His face, when the umpire gave him the finger, was a study. The ball from Carl Mills pitched outside line of leg, which in itself negates an LBW shout. In the event, India was 13/1 in the 4th over.

The odd ball was stopping on the batsman, but Ganguly owed his dismissal more to a seeming lapse in concentration than anything else. The ball was short and climbing outside off, albeit slowly. With no foot movement to speak off, Ganguly attempted to slice it through the point region, and managed only to give a catch to the fielder placed there, to reduce India to 13/2.

Both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman looked unhappy with the vagaries of the wicket, and India after 15 overs had just about managed 35/2 on the board. What was more remarkable was the analysis of the steady, but hardly spectacular, Tuffey: 7-2-7-1.

Dion Nash got the next breakthrough, in the 17th over. The ball was around off stump and, playing to length, Dravid attempted to whip it across to the leg side. The ball, though, caught one of those spots on the pitch, kicked, got the shoulder of the bat and lobbed to point for an easy take (41/3).

Hemang Badani has, time and again, found himself ideally placed to play an impressive knock -- and as often, has lost out. This outing was no exception, as he slashed rather needlessly at an angled deliver from Nash and got the edge through to the keeper. There was nothing in the ball -- but then again, there was nothing in Badani's footwork on that occasion, either.

In the same over, Nash combined rather nicely with the pitch to take out Sehwag. This one hit the deck just back of good length, stopped, then reared up. Sehwag, turned square, saw the ball take the shoulder of the bat through to point, and India's innings was pretty much in tatters following those two quick strikes (60/5 in 25).

Retinder Singh yet again impressed with his attitude. Seemingly unfazed by the conditions he walked out into, the youngster stroked the ball smoothly, en route to an 18/25 inclusive of a cleanly struck six over long on off Daniel Vettori, before Chris Harris took him out with one of those deliveries he seems to be able to produce out of the blue. This one seemed to swing away from line outside off, then bent back in and kept coming off the deck. Retinder, foxed by the initial line into cutting, found the ball coming through to take the inner edge onto off stump.

India's 100 came up off the first ball of the 36th over -- asking rate at that point 7.64. Which in itself is a pretty good post-mortem report right there. What worked for New Zealand was its array of bits and pieces bowlers -- with Harris the leading exponent -- backed up by superb athleticism in the field. Interestingly, on a track with turn on offer, the Kiwis' star spinner Vettori was handled with relative ease, his first seven overs going for 34.

Laxman, after a very tentative beginning, used the opportunity to bat himself into form, though, and in the 38th over eased himself to a 50 (94 balls) after a long drought. An over later, though, Dighe succumbed -- attempting to hit the irritating Harris off line, the keeper wound up and went for the lofted off drive, failed to really get under it, and managed only to pick the man on the line at long off (109/7).

Vettori was brought back in the 39th. To the first ball, Laxman went inside out through cover for a flowing boundary. The next ball was held back just that touch, in a piece of clever bowling, and Laxman, aiming for an encore, managed only to pick out mid off. India 123/8 and needing to get 89 runs off the next 62 deliveries.

Harris completed the penultimate part of the formalities when he had Harbhajan pushing a full toss back down the track for an acrobatic caught and bowled (125/9).

And Vettori finished it off -- and in the process improved his figures somewhat -- when he had Zaheer Khan looking to hit against the turn on the on side, only to pick out McMillan at midwicket to complete an 84 run win.

The Kiwis got their first points on the board after a first outing defeat against Lanka. India, on the other hand, are batting 0 -- and will take on the hosts on Sunday in conditions that are, to put it mildly, dodgy.

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