2005–06 Zimbabwe Tri-Nation Series

The Videocon Tri-Series is a three-team one-day international cricket tournament taking place in Zimbabwe between the hosts Zimbabwe, India and New Zealand. It started on 24 August 2005 and will conclude with the final on 6 September 2005. Based on the ICC ODI Championship table, New Zealand should go in as favourites, being ranked fourth - while India are seventh and Zimbabwe ninth. Zimbabwe, however, have not beaten a team other than rock-bottom Bangladesh for 31 ODI matches, since November 2003. Their last series win against a team other than Bangladesh or Kenya was, intriguingly, against New Zealand, in the 2000-01 season. India are still without a tournament win since March 2004, coming off an 18-run defeat by Sri Lanka in the final of the 2005 Indian Oil Cup, while New Zealand were comprehensively defeated 5-0 by Australia at home in their last series. Before that, however, they were undefeated in six tournaments. The Supersub rule, which means that a player can be substituted for another at any time, but once the player is off he can not return, was introduced for this tournament.

Tournament structure

The sides will be playing each other in a double round robin, meaning that each side is to play four matches, for a total of six matches being played. A win is worth five points, and a loss zero - however, if the winning team has a run rate (i.e. runs hit per over) higher than 1.25 times that of the opponent, a bonus point is to be awarded to the winning side, if not it goes to the losing side. In the event of a tie or a no-result, each side is to be awarded three points. The top two teams on points goes through to the one-match final.

Schedule

Date	Match	Venue
August 24	Zim v NZ, 1st ODI	Bulawayo
26	Ind v NZ, 2nd ODI	Bulawayo
29	Ind v Zim, 3rd ODI	Harare
31	Zim v NZ, 4th ODI	Harare
September 2	Ind v NZ, 5th ODI	Harare
4	Zim v Ind, 6th ODI	Harare
6	Final	Harare

Match details

1st ODI, Zimbabwe v New Zealand 24 August

	v

Lou Vincent and his New Zealand flayed a substandard Zimbabwe to all corners as they routed their way to the second highest score of all time in One-day international cricket. Despite the match being shortened to 44 overs a side following the discovery of a damp patch on the Bulawayo pitch, New Zealand hit runs right from the outset, and Zimbabwe did not take a wicket until the 28th over. By then, Vincent and Stephen Fleming had taken the score to 207 - already a fearsome total, and then you consider that 16 overs remained. No Zimbabwean bowler escaped the carnage, and it says something that debutant Anthony Ireland recorded the best bowling figures - still conceding 52 runs in his seven overs. Andy Blignaut, regarded as one of Zimbabwe's best bowlers, was dispatched for 96 runs - nine runs off the most expensive of all time. When the dust had settled, New Zealand had made 397 for 5 - one run short of Sri Lanka's nine-year-old record, which was set in 50 overs, and Brendon McCullum had equalled the fastest fifty for New Zealand, off 21 balls.

Zimbabwe, naturally, could not answer this, and they were up against a much stronger bowling attack than their own. The openers Brendan Taylor and Stuart Carlisle survived 14 overs, scoring 62 runs, but Chris Cairns and Andre Adams inspired a collapse to 123 for 6. At one point, Zimbabwe threatened to break the record of highest ODI defeat ever (256 runs), but 45 from Heath Streak, including two sixes, took them past 200. Overall, 205 all out wasn't such a bad score. The problem was that they had been so utterly demolished in the first innings - and two days later, they were to meet India's feared batting line-up, including people like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag. Cricinfo scorecard

2nd ODI, New Zealand v India, 26 August

	v

This was Shane Bond's first match against a team other than Zimbabwe since his return from injury, and Bond returned in style to inspire yet another ODI defeat for India. It was a match of two batting collapses, however, as Indian pacemen Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra used the conditions well to take five wickets in New Zealand first 13 overs. Lou Vincent, Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle and Hamish Marshall all fell for single-figure scores, and with Jacob Oram and Craig McMillan coming in to bat, the score was 36 for 5.

However, the two batted responsibly together, even finding the time to hit a few sixes - most of them off Harbhajan Singh, who was carted for 55 runs in nine overs. In sixteen overs, the pair added 91 runs, and put New Zealand back on track. There were good scores from Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori too, and New Zealand put the new super sub rule to its full use and placed all-rounder Andre Adams at number 11 in the batting order. They finished on 215 all out, McCullum holing out with a straight hit that fell short of the boundary into Rahul Dravid's waiting hands, but his 49 turned out to be very crucial.

Then it was Shane Bond's turn. He did not need to bat because of the substitute rule, and he came on for Nathan Astle at the start of India's innings. Taking the new ball, he immediately menaced the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly with short balls. Somehow, Ganguly survived the first over, but he was shaken and fell to Bond's eighth delivery of the day - caught by the wicket-keeper McCullum for 5. The next ball was faced by Venugopal Rao - an inswinging yorker that bamboozled the new batsman and slammed into his stumps, out bowled. And Bond just continued the slaughter. After he had bowled one ball of his sixth over, he stood with five wickets to his name, having added Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif to his tally. Andre Adams also took three wickets as India crashed to 44 for 8.

For a while, India looked to threaten their worst all out score in ODI cricket of 54 against Sri Lanka, but Bond and Adams were taken off and the other bowlers just couldn't threaten. A well-paced partnership between Yadav and Pathan in fact threatened to turn the match around, but Bond came back, breaking up the partnership with a typical fast bowler's ball outside off stump to Pathan, who edged to McCullum behind the stumps. Four balls earlier, Bond had dropped Pathan off his own bowling. With the end of the partnership - worth 118 runs, eight off the Indian record - that broke Yadav's resistance, and he was out attempting a lofted drive over Craig McMillan, who could hold a simple catch to end the game. Cricinfo scorecard

3rd ODI, Zimbabwe v India, 29 August

	v

Zimbabwe crawled to their fourth loss of over 100 runs in the last five matches, as they were bowled out for their third-lowest all out score in ODIs by a rampant Irfan Pathan. It followed a promising bowling effort, as India had been restricted to 121 for 4 after 35 overs - Mohammad Kaif tied down, as he could only make 65 despite having faced 122 balls. Earlier, Heath Streak had dismissed Venugopal Rao caught behind for a three-ball duck.

The dismissal of Kaif, however, brought a sense of haste to the Indian side. Dhoni slashed sixes off the spinners Prosper Utseya and Ireland, needing only 39 balls to reach his fifty, which he did with a straight hit off Blignaut over the boundary fence for six. Trying to make another one in the very last over, he mistimed it slightly, and Blessing Mahwire could hold the catch. Ireland got another wicket, that of Ajit Agarkar, and so ended with figures of three for 54 — despite seven wides.

The Zimbabwean batting effort, however, was spineless. In the match against New Zealand earlier on in the week, they had at least managed 205, but this time they could only bat respectably for seven overs. In the eighth over, Ajit Agarkar dismissed Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza, and that started the collapse. In 10.4 overs, Zimbabwe could only muster 26 runs, and lost a total of eight wickets to crash to 43 for 9. By that time, no batsman had made it into double figures. Heath Streak and Prosper Utseya battled out for seven more overs, before Utseya was finally caught by Rahul Dravid for 11, leaving Zimbabwe all out for 65. Extras made up 13.8 % of the total score, and was the third-highest scorer, thanks to all the wides bowled by Pathan, Nehra and Ajit Agarkar. Nevertheless, India had recorded a thumping victory, their highest by runs in two and a half years, but were still criticised by Cricinfo for not showing much improvementTemplate:Mn. (Cricinfo scorecard)

Current table

Tri-Series Standings
Team	M	W	L	NR	Pts	NRR
New Zealand	2	2	0	0	12	+2.59
India	2	1	1	0	6	+1.10
File:Zimbabwe flag large.png Zimbabwe	2	0	2	0	0	-3.75

Reference

• Cricinfo page on the tri-series

Footnotes

• Template:Mnb Question-marks remain despite the win by S Rajesh of Cricinfo.