The habit of fighting back

This Indian team has made it a habit of extricating themselves out of a hole, especially in one-dayers. Give an Indian team of the '90s a start of 4 for 3 - or even, for that matter, 40 for 3 - and chances are, they would have pushed and prodded their way to, at best, an unconvincing 220. This Indian team invariably manages to find the men for the moment, almost every time.

VVS Laxman has been in glorious form throughout the summer, but today's knock, even by those high standards, was an outstanding one. The Australians have repeatedly cribbed about Laxman's tendency to save his best for them; today, Laxman went some way towards redressing his strangely skewed stats.

It was a typical Laxman innings - responsible, controlled, and at the same time, exhilarating for its breathtaking strokeplay. Especially memorable was the magical flick he stroked off Ervine, fetching the ball from around four inches outside off and clipping it between mid-on and midwicket for four. Later in the same over, an almost identical delivery was caressed through extra-cover as nonchalantly. This was Laxman's fourth century in his last 18 ODIs; his highest score during the remaining 14 matches is 31. A year back there were plenty of question-marks about Laxman's fielding, but few can question even that aspect of his game now. Apart from the two outstanding catches he took today, he was fairly brisk in the outfield as well.

The other big success story for India was Rohan Gavaskar, who emulated his father for the second time in a week, scoring his maiden ODI fifty in his fourth match. (He had earlier taken a wicket in his first over in one-dayers, just like Sunil.) More than the runs Rohan scored, he impressed with the manner in which he moulded his game according to the needs of the hour, first nurdling the singles with risk-free singles, then tonking the big hits in the slog overs.

Hemang Badani, though, would have reason to feel aggrieved with his demotion to No. 7 in the last three matches. He has been in the fringes for a while and was picked ahead of Gavaskar against Zimbabwe at Hobart. Since then, though, he strangely seems to have lost favour. With India all but into the finals, it was the ideal opportunity to promote Badani, allow to bat a sufficient number of overs, and check out how good he really is.

So far this summer, the Indians have been doing most of the partnership building. Today, though, Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine gave it back to the Indians in good measure. It didn't change Zimbabwe's fortunes, but it proved to them - and to their detractors - that they could push the top teams in the world.

When they look back on the match, though, Zimbabwe might rue their continued persistence with a poor top order. Vusi Sibanda gave enough indication in the previous matches to indicate that he wasn't international material, yet he was inexplicably persisted with. To make it worse, he stayed at the top of the order, pottered around for 36 balls scoring just 12, and ensured that a tough target for Zimbabwe became tougher still. Meanwhile, Dion Ebrahim and Tatenda Taibu didn't get an opportunity to bat. Zimbabwe are out of the tournament, but surely it's time to rework their batting line-up.