When Zimbabwe fell to Prabhakar swing!

One may not find much wisdom in Zimbabwean captain John Traicos’decision to take first strike after he won the toss. A dewy morning at the Wankhede Stadium greeted both teams, and it seemed that fielding first could have been a good idea as it would have allowed the bowlers to exploit whatever early moisture the wicket has.

Something, Traicos was to rue later. In fact, the move to bat first appeared even more baffling given the poor form of their openers. The opening conundrum was yet to fixed - Zimbabwe tried out its third different pair in Grant Paterson and Kevin Arnott in as many games.

And it soon became a hat-trick of flops from the Zimbabwean openers as Arnott was trapped in front by Manoj Prabhakar with the score on three. The right-arm medium-pacer swung the ball prodigiously and had the Zimbabwe batsmen at sixes and sevens.

Prabhakar opened the new ball with Kapil Dev, and while his skipper kept things tight at one end, he wrecked havoc from the other end.

Dave Houghton, who nearly pulled off a stunning win in the World Cup opener against New Zealand with a smashing 142, needed to assume responsibility and held the innings together. But even he found Prabhakar too hot to handle and was castled for a 12-ball duck. Paterson completed the sorry story of their openers, one run later, when his furniture rattled by Prabhakar.

The African side were smelling danger when Prabhakar got his fourth scalp – of Kevin Curran caught behind to leave them tottering at 13 for 4. Prabhakar’s impressive figures read 8-1-19-4.

There was only one Zimbabwean - Andy Pycroft - who digged deep and offered some resistance against the Indian bowlers. Though he wasn’t able to stitch any partnerships of substance as wickets clattered around him, his last-wicket stand with Malcolm Jarvis ensured they crossed the three-figure mark.

Prabhakar came around to don his batting gloves when India chased down the smallish target with plenty to spare. He was around when the winning moment came to cap off a hugely rewarding day. He was named Man-of-the-Match.