Andy Flower hits century

By G Viswanath

SHARJAH, OCT. 21. There is a downside to Sharjah cricket when one of the big teams is not in the fray. A game of cricket was being played on Saturday afternoon in a most leisurely manner before Andrew Flower stepped in to provide some spark and life into the match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, whose total of 225 was almost on par with what the Indians made on Friday.

The elder of the Flower brothers, Andrew, who performs the role of an efficient wicketkeeper and brings in immense value as an allrounder, had to make up a lot for the early reversals that saw Zimbabwe make a hopeless start in its first campaign in the Coca- Cola Tri-series.

His second century in one-day Internationals even surpassed Sachin Tendulkar's effort on Friday not only on the count of quality, but also because of the fact he came to bat after the fall of two wickets.

The enormous contribution Andy Flower made along with Dirk Viljoen in the lower order can be gauged from the fact that Zimbabwe had not only taken the field without Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin, but also without Alistair Campbell, serving a one match suspension because he showed a note of dissent in the ICC Knockout at Nairobi and Grant Flower, who was presumably dropped because he has not been in good nick in recent times.

It required some confidence and guts to leave out one of the old pros in the side, but this is what the Zimbabwe selectors did on Saturday and included in the eleven a batsman who was their start batsman in the 1998 under-19 World Cup in South Africa.

Andy Flower lived up to the reputation of a solid and reliable batsman. His performance has been on the up ever since he gave up captaincy, a position he was given after Alistair Campbell vacated four years ago to concentrate on his batting. Andy Flower has been around for a decade and from the time Zimbabwe began playing Test match cricket. His wealth of experience was evident in the near three-hour tenure in the middle. He came in at the fall of Stuart Carlisle - 13 for two -

and never gave the impression that he was going to chuck his wicket away. He brought to the fore a nice blend of orthodox and unorthodox strokes, the latter so conspicuous in the three reverse hit boundaries, all off off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

The former Zimbabwe skipper was able to hold his own because he has an organised defence and plays cricketing shots. The match played on the adjacent pitch to the one on which the first match was played appeared to be marginally superior. He began stepping out to hit Kaushaliya Weeraratne to the mid-wicket fence, but the stroke of the day was his straight drive off the same bowler.

Zimbabwe needed the precise skills of Andy Flower for a counter attack after the Sri Lankans had made good inroads in the first hour after opting to field. Excess moisture on the outfield must have weighed heavily on Sanath Jayasuriya's mind before he took the decision to field.

The Indians had informed the Match Referee Denis Lindsay about the wet conditions on the outfield.

He told the Indian team management on Saturday morning that the conditions were the same for all the three teams and that the organisers would make special efforts to reduce moisture content on the outfield.

The Zimbabwe opener Douglas Marillier began with a rasping square hit off Chaminda Vaas, but thereafter he and debutant Mark Vermeulen failed to beat the strong off-side field. The harder they struck the ball, the straighter it went to the fielder. Marillier was a trifle unlucky to be given out, when the bowler Nuwan Zoysa and Romesh Kaluwitharana appealed for a leg- side catch. The ball appeared to have deflected off Marillier's pads before the wicketkeeper held the ball.

Marvan Atapattu who spilled a catch at cover, made up for the lapse quickly when he fired a direct hit to run out Carlisle. The third-wicket pair in Vermeulen and Andrew Flower strove to stabilise the Zimbabwe innings. Even as it appeared that the third-wicket pair had warded off imminent danger, Jayasuriya plucked the ball in the air at widish mid-off that terminated the innings of Vermeulen.

Zimbabwe suffered another blow when Muralitharan forced Guy Whittal to hit back at him straight. Jayasuriya's decision to field was vindicated.

But from here on Andy Flower and Viljoen fought a grim battle for survival, rescued their side from a palpable slide.

The onset of the slog overs saw Andy Flower carve his second century and Viljoen smashing three sixes off Russel Arnold in the 49th over. Andy Flower had picked Muralitharan in his ninth over, stepping out to send the ball over cover and excelling in the reverse hits.

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