Zimbabwe v India

At Harare, February 19, 2003. India won by 83 runs. Toss: Zimbabwe.

This was a game India dared not lose. Their limp start to the competition had sparked effigy-burning and stone-throwing back home, but the players responded with a pumped-up performance that kept the critics at arm's length. India were given the ideal platform by a blistering run-a-ball stand of 99 between Sehwag and Tendulkar, but the innings faltered against the nagging left-arm spin of Grant Flower. First he frustrated Mongia, who made just 12 in 36 deliveries before chipping to long-on; two balls later, he bamboozled Tendulkar with a beauty that pitched on middle-and-off and straightened. Had Flower not been forced out of the attack with a finger injury, India's total might have been less daunting. In the event, 255 was ample. Srinath quickly fired out the openers, and the best efforts of the black-sweatbanded Andy Flower to disrupt the bowlers' concentration - at one point he tried a truly remarkable one-handed reverse sweep against Harbhajan Singh - never quite succeeded. The real damage was done by Ganguly, who took three for two in six balls, and at 87 for six, Zimbabwe's main concern was their net run-rate; Taibu helped them to respectability. A random inspection by the ICC found that bats belonging to players on both sides were marginally wider than the Laws allowed.

Man of the Match: S. R. Tendulkar. Attendance: 5,800.