India restricted Zimbabwe to 205 for 7 from 50 overs in their final league match of the Coca Cola Trophy triangular limited over cricket tournament worked off at the Sharjah Stadium yesterday. Both teams of course have already qualified to play in Friday's final worth US dollars 85,000.
Zimbabwe opening with a new combination of Craig Wishart and Grant Flower did not click well and were struggling at 33 for 3 at one stage. Venkatesh Prasad struck early by removing Grant Flower and also ran out Craig Wishart with a superb piece of fielding. Murray Goodwin too was unfortunately run out and this time it was Robin Singh who did the damage with a direct throw at the stumps.
But skipper Alistair Campbell played a true captains innings and pulled his side out of trouble with a determined performance. He accelerated the scoring rate during the latter stages while hoisting two sixes in addition to five boundaries from 110 deliveries. He also figured in a seventh wicket stand of 81 runs with Andy Whitall who made a useful contribution of 29 runs.
But it was skipper Alistair Campbell who really held the batting together after his side had collapsed to a dangerous 64 for 5 at one stage. Campbell was batting in an unusual position but still he rose to the occasion and certainly had a good work out ahead of the important final encounter. He found a good partner in Andy Whitall and the pair went about their task quite beautifully while picking up the singles, two's and the occasional boundary.
Zimbabwe eventually went past the two hundred run mark and this was mainly due to the efforts of skipper Alistair Campbell who remained unbeaten on 83 at the end. Zimbabwe could be really pleased with this performance considering the fact that at one stage they were struggling to reach even 150 runs. But the Indians probably relaxed mid way during the innings after having performed well at the start.
The Indian medium pacemen Ajith Agarkar and Prasad both were quite impressive and looked like running through the Zimbabwe innings. But the spinners did not perform the same and conceded too many runs during the latter stages. Apart from Campbell all rounder G. J. Rennie also batted well and was associated in a sixth wicket stand of 55 runs.
Ajith Agarkar although going wicketless was really impressive during his opening spell but did not have enough support from the rest. Robin Singh's five overs cost him 33 runs and Joshi conceded 43 runs from his nine overs. The Indians rested skipper Azharuddin and opening bowler Srinath for this game.