Kiwis set up semis with Pak

Kiwis set up semis with Pak
VIKRANT GUPTA

NAIROBI, OCTOBER 9: The cab driver had a tempting offer for us on Monday. Charles, the poor old man who thought cricket was French before he met fanatics like us and can now go to Mumbai and discuss the game with any of the paanwallahs there, wanted to drive us to the Ruarka Sports Club, the venue where the Indians were to practice.

``You wanna see the match today ? No, everyone is going to Ruarka SC, we'll go there,'' Charles was guiding us. We had to stick to our job, and report on the New Zealand-Zimbabwe match, we told Charles, so it was the Nairobi Gymkhana for us. There were just a handful of spectators when New Zealand batted in the morning. In the afternoon, the number doubled, may have even tripled itself but most of them had come with their lunch and music. They munched their sandwhiches, drank their beer and cared little for the cricket on view.

It was understandable that inspite of the two teams' best efforts, the cricket was bereft of any excitement. Maybe, it had something to do with the lack of glamour among the players, so you can't blame the spectators from wanting to watch the Indian stars at the nets instead.

Those who were still at the Gymkhana when Kiwi Paul Wiseman bowled the last Zimbabwean batsman Nkala, went home with the knowledge that New Zealand will play Pakistan in the ICC Knock-Out Mini-World Cup semifinal on Wednesday after their 64-run win on Monday.

Both the teams were coming into the quarter-final clash having played a Test and a One-day series against each other in Zimbabwe. So, it was a revenge of sorts for the New Zealanders who lost the ODIs. Their batsmen made full use of whatever the Zimbabwe bowling offered and with left-hander Roger Twose batting strong till the end with a fluent 85, the run rate never quite dipped.

Even though big-hitters like Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns went back cheaply the Kiwis, boosted by an excellent late-surge set a daunting target for their rivals. There was some excitement for the few hundreds present like us when Craig McMillan pounced on the Zimbabweans with a 51-ball 52 and Adam Parore enjoyed himself thoroughly, hitting two sixes and a four in his eight-ball unbeaten 20.

The Zimbabweans batted in an unprofessional manner. A target of 265 was very much achievable under the circumstances, good batting wicket with small boundaries sideways, but reckless strokes made it stiffer by the over. Their hopes flickered as long as Alistair Campbell and Staurt Carlisle were together but in the end, Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming could afford the luxury of giving his main bowler Chris Cairns some more rest before he gets into proper shape once again.

Wiseman bowled those innocuous off-spinners and the Zimbabwe batsmen thought he was some magician. In the end, Wiseman picked up four wickets as Zimbabwe couldn't even survive their allotted 50 overs.

Indian seniors takea day off
NAIROBI: As a reward for pulling off the stunning win against World Cup champions Australia, the senior players in the Indian cricket team were given a break from practice session on Monday. India are scheduled to play the winners of England-South Africa match in the semi-finals on Friday.The senior players given the break included skipper Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad, according to coach Anshuman Gaekwad. Under the new dispensation of Ganguly, the players are encouraged to be on their own after the day's play.

Apparently, the Indian captain doesn't mind his mates going out in the evening after a hard day's play.This seems to have worked magic for the players who like to go out and socialise.