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SA defeat India to lift LG Cup

A contest that went dead even till the 45 over mark swung South Africa's way right at the death, to give Cronje and his side a 26 run win in the final of the LG Cup.

About a minute after the game ended, I got the first of what I presume will be a bunch of mails -- this one suggesting that India had done very well in this tournament without a lot of its stars. Fair enough, but let's say upfront that the absence of some regulars is never an excuse after a defeat -- you play the side you have and you take the result as it comes. And for India here, the result was a defeat, and that is all there is to it.

It was a game that at the outset seemed to be a mirror image of the first encounter between the two sides. On the day off, the pitch had been watered again, as it has been throughout this tournament after that first day produced a turning track. On the day of the final, it rolled out damp, but hard and true.

Ajay Jadeja, winning the toss, and leading an unchanged side, chose to field first -- a good decision, since as in the last few days, there was an overcast as well. And the Indian seamers turned in a dream performance -- Debashish Mohanty producing a lovely ball, first up, holding a line of off, swinging in very very late to clip Klusener's pad and crash into the stumps, off the first ball the left-hander was facing.

Prasad though was the one really on song here. An incredible first spell saw him bowl four successive maidens after going for two in the first over. But the real standout was his dismissal of Jacques Kallis. The bowler pinned Kallis down with a stream of deliveries pitching off and seaming in to cramp the batsman, then pitched the same line and took it out, the leg cutter working on song on a full length, Kallis had to play at it, the ball took the edge and Dravid, whose catching in slips has been one of the pluses for India on this tour, dived across from second slip to take a complete blinder. The ball was dying, first slip wouldnt have got it, Dravid by moving a couple of paces ahead had shortened the length, and he took it off the bootlaces of first slip.

Jonty Rhodes was sent ahead of Cronje, who is not your most convincing player of swing and seam, but Prasad again removed him with a classic leg cutter, forcing the edge which Ganguly at first slip held very very low. At that point, SA was 18/3 in 11 overs and SA seemed set for a reprise of its first encounter against India. What was most noticeable at this point was that there were just two singles taken in the first 10 overs, which underlines one noticeable aspect of India on this tour, that its fielding has really picked up a couple of notches. Prasad, meanwhile, finished a first spell of 7-5-6-2 -- which reminded you of what Joshi did in that first game against SA.

If the game swung around, kudos to Hansie Cronje who, batting in the middle of a bad run of form, launched a calculated counter attack on the Indian bowling. Using his feet to seam and spin alike, he blasted the ball around in an impressive display of strokeplay -- more impressive in fact for the fact that he has looked in horrible touch thus far -- and for the first time, the game moved from being one sided, to being a good contest.

Chopra ended that when he bowled an intelligent over to Cronje. He tossed a couple up inviting the batsman down the track, and beat him with the loop. Then he pushed one through very quick, Cronje again came down and the extra pace pushed the ball through the gap onto the stumps, ending Cronje's fighting 39-run innings off 41 balls.

MSK Prasad then got into the act, pulling off a brilliant take when Crookes slashed at Mohanty, outside off, the ball flew high and way wide of the keeper who flung himself sideways in the air and got the ball into the glove at full stretch -- an amazing take, and just one of the many reasons this lad deserves to be a regular member of this Indian team.

At the other end, Gibbs was playing a gritty anchor role. Horribly embarassed in his first spell -- there was one over where he was beaten 5 times around off, then Prasad came back and bowled him a maiden, every single ball of which went past the bat -- Gibbs just gritted it out, hung in there for dear life, took whatever runs were on offer when he could, and in sum played the perfect anchor. If SA went from 6/1 in 5 to 17/2 in 10 and 37/3 in 15, 65/3 in 20, 98/4 in 25, 124/4 in 30 and 154/5 in 35, a huge part of the credit for that steady progress after the disastrous first ten overs goes to Gibbs for a large-hearted effort. It was Vijay Bharadwaj -- rightly named Man of the Series, for an impressive all round performance that has seen him take 10 wickets and score 89 runs, being out just once in this tournament -- who took him out, bowling one from wide of the crease, angling it just outside off then turning it in to send the ball through the batsman and onto his off stump. 84/124 Gibbs, an innings worth its weight in whatever metal you fancy.

SA went into the slog on 180/5, and began to make a bit of a mess of it, Bharadwaj bowling superbly at the death, with support from Mohanty and Prasad at the other end, SA managing just 18 runs, for two wickets, between overs 40 and 45 to be 198/7 going in to the last five overs.

Where India lost it was in the final over, from Chopra who till that point had bowled 8 for just 31 runs. Shaun Pollock and Steve Elworthy both swung him out on the on for sixes, 17 came in that over despite a lovely bit of work from Ganguly at long off, attacking the ball and slamming in a hard throw to run out Dawson, and SA finished on 235/9 in its 50 overs -- the first time in this tournament that India has failed to bowl out the opposition.

Mohanty and Prasad both bowled well, both at the start and when they came back for their second and third spells. Chopra was on song till that final over, when the neck or nothing slog proved too much for him (wiser council would have been for the offie to bowl that final over flat and fast to keep the batsmen from getting under him, but Chopra attacked as he always does -- hopefully, this caning will teach him one lesson for the future). Bharadwaj was outstanding, using his head very well, switching between over and round the wicket, changing angles on the batsmen and producing a lovely demonstration of one day bowling. And ironically, it was Joshi, the man who won that first game for India, who lost it today -- the SA batsmen had obviously decided to attack him at every opportunity and after some clubbing, Joshi lost his nerve, switched to over the wicket to try and spear them in on leg, an essentially defensive line from a left arm spinner that negates his biggest weapon, the ball turning away from the right hander, and that cost India dear.

India through this tournament has focussed on keeping its wickets in tact. More than ever, they needed to do that here, and in this, they failed. The real tragedy here for the chasing side being that both Ramesh and Ganguly got out to bad shots, and not to the kind of bowling that had seen India cream the top off the SA batting lineup in the morning. Dawson bowled Ramesh a ball outside off, going straight through, and the southpaw pushed at it with bat a long way away from body, clinically hitting it to cover for the simplest of takes.

Ganguly was looking in good touch, and of late he has learnt not to panic when a few dot balls go by. Inexplicably, here, he lost his cool, to a delivery identical to the Dawson one, from Pollock this time -- here, he first shaped to drive through the covers, then changed his mind and shaped to glide to third man, and managed only to get the edge through to the keeper.

India sent out MSK Prasad at two down and the young wicket keeper, who has been growing in stature ever since he came into his own in Toronto, produced a superb innings here. What was most impressive was the thinking that went into his batting. SA settled down to do what they do best -- using its seamers in rotation, with six on the off, bowling outside off so that the batsmen, no matter how they played, were sure to find the fielders. Prasad worked that out and by thrusting his front foot a long way across, started hitting across the line to the comparitively vacant leg side, that showed thought and helped give India the momentum they were missing for a while.

At the other end, Dravid had settled into the anchor role with seeming ease, adn India, 30/2 after 10, moved to 60/2 in 20, and 106/3 in 30, a good platform seemingly for the latter batsmen to mount a viable assault.

Dravid fell to perhaps the best catch on a day of superb catches. Derek Crookes, the weak link in the attack, went round the wicket pitching the defensive line on leg, Dravid shaped to flick to square leg, the ball stopped a touch and the batsman got the leading edge. Had any other fielder in the world been at mid on, he would have fielded on the bounce -- but Rhodes' forte is anticipation, he was moving forward as the shot was being played, though mid on rarely sees the need to move when the batsman is shaping to play to square leg. On the run, Rhodes then dived forward full tilt, both hands extended in front of him to get his fingers under the ball and hold a breathtaking catch.

Jadeja came in and straightaway, began finding the gaps with clinical efficiency. Meanwhile, Prasad got to his 50 and a run later, suffered a cramp thad had him in increasing pain with every passing ball. They tried a runner but Prasad was in great distress, and finally had to retire hurt on 56. Bringing Bharadwaj to the crease -- and this young man, who is being hailed by all the television commentators as the find of the tournament, started with an effortless dance down the wicket to play an inside out cover drive for a four off Pollock, and when the bowler dropped one short next ball, promptly rocked back and blasted him through midwicket for four more.

Jadeja had one of his rare lapses of concentration. Usually, street smart is a word that comes to mind when describing his batting -- he sees where the fielders are and where he can safely hit the ball. This time, he erred -- square leg was untenanted when Pollock began his over, Cronje signalled a man there after one ball, Jadeja failed to spot that and off the second ball, hit it precisely in that direction, thinking to take advantage of a gap that was no longer there. He looked shocked to see Dipenaar, substituting for Gibbs, hold it with ease.

Robin Singh is the coolest batsman in the side, but again, a surprising lapse in his real strength virtually sealed India's chances. By this point, Bharadwaj was batting with ominous ease, getting singles at will, and all Robin needed to do was keep him company and keep knocking the runs off the target. Crookes was bowling, Bharadwaj had already taken him for a four, 7 had come in the over and instead of playing the last ball to leg, which was untenanted, he aimed a huge swipe at it, to a ball of full length, hit all over it and saw it take out off and middle stump.

From there on, the batting collapsed. Prasad came back with a runner to continue a brave effort, Bharadwaj kept chipping them around nicely, and India, 165/5 in 40 and 198/7 in 45 (the exact score SA had got at that point, except that India had managed 33 runs in those five overs) seemed to have the task in control. Bharadwaj was looking to swing Klusener over long on, but the ball stopped that bit (a factor we have been pointing out right through this tournament), the batsman got the toe of the bat on it and long on had an easy take. Bharadwaj's 24 had come off just 19 balls, and what was interesting was that like Jadeja, he seemed completely unhurried, never slogging, yet maintaining a good run rate with minimal effort.

Joshi hit one ball cleanly to long on, then crashed another to point while Prasad kept the other end going. But when Crookes went over the wicket to angle to leg, Joshi came down the track, the line wasn't right for him to try and lift, given that the ball was coming at his pads, the batsman missed and was stumped with ease.

Chopra fell to a doozy -- Klusener, looking for the yorker, bowled one full, the ball was dipping down onto middle and Chopra, trying to hit over cover, managed only to give Crookes the opportunity to take a fine catch overhead, the ball was travelling but it was hit off the toe of the bat, no elevation there.

A run out off the last ball of the 47th over ended Prasad's brave innings -- strangely, the better ploy given that it was Venkatesh Prasad at the other end would have been for them to take the single and let MSK Prasad retain strike, but they pushed for a second, Kallis fired a throw in from deep midwicket bang on top of the stumps (that argues an arm like a cannon, really) and it was bye bye Prasad and with it, the match as Mohanty got himself LBW in quick time to give SA the win.

It was a tense game, the advantage swinging back and forth -- but when it came to the crunch, India failed in the very thing it had done well thus far in the tournament, namely, keep wickets in hand for the death phase. And that cost them the game and with it, the cup.

To SA's credit, even when it looked like India had it covered, SA just held its nerve, played its own game, and sat on the situation, waiting for the mistakes -- a typical Protean effort, and they went out deserving winners.

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