INDIA v ZIMBABWE

At Kanpur, March 6. India won by 40 runs. Toss: Zimbabwe.

Putting India in on a firm, flat pitch looked inspired when the Zimbabwean seamers reduced them to 32 for three by the 13th over. Streak scattered Tendulkar's stumps while Manjrekar and Azharuddin drove straight to Campbell at mid-wicket. But the apparent calamity was a blessing for Sidhu and Kambli, overshadowed in earlier games. They added 142 in 29 overs. Kambli beat Sidhu to his fifty by one ball, despite giving him a 22-run start; dropped twice, he advanced to 106 in 110 balls, with 11 fours, before being caught on the boundary. With Jadeja taking 19 off Lock's last over, India set a target of 248. Grant Flower and Waller bounded to 50 in the 11th, but the advent of the spinners swiftly turned the match. Flower was dismissed in Raju's first over and Waller in Kumble's second. At the halfway mark, Zimbabwe were 92 for two, to India's 85 for three, but the next three wickets, in consecutive overs, all but ended their World Cup campaign. The last rites were delayed only by a brief pitch invasion by a dog determined to complete its own lap of honour.

Man of the Match: A. Jadeja.