Zimbabwe's Cinderella-like tournament had a rude awakening in the final game of the Micromax Cup, as they caved to the pressure exerted by the Sri Lankan bowlers. Despite the heavy loss, Zimbabwe will hold their heads up for having performed better than anyone expected them to. As for Sri Lanka, they will be relieved that notwithstanding the loss to Zimbabwe in the previous game, there was no embarrassment for them in store on the big day.
The 2010 Micromax Cup - sandwiched between the Twenty20 World Cup and the Asia Cup for no real reason - has proven to be far more interesting than initially planned. While early bets were placed on a Sri Lanka vs. India final, Zimbabwe played confident, positive and impressive cricket to knock India out of the tournament and give Sri Lanka plenty to think about. Zimbabwe will now face Sri Lanka in a final that not many would have predicted, but most will welcome.
With India knocked out of the Micromax Cup, this match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe became a dress rehearsal. Both teams rested key players, and would have looked to see if it was possible to successfully defend a total in this series - in all the matches so far, the team batting second has won (and quite easily). The trend continued, as Zimbabwe easily reached Sri Lanka's target, with Brendan Taylor hitting his second ODI century to continue his good form and set up what should be a good final game between these two teams.
The everlasting saga of India-Sri Lanka cricket matches continued in Harare, and India's disappointing form in recent times continued right with it; a sparkling maiden century from wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal knocked India out of the 2010 Micromax Cup, upsetting pre-tournament predictions of a guaranteed India/Sri Lanka final. While India improved on their shambolic performance from their Zimbabwe game, Sri Lanka were always one step ahead, and in the end proved too much for India to contain.
It hasn't been a good two months for India. They were knocked out of the second stage of the Twenty20 World Cup without registering a win, failed to defend a large total against Zimbabwe in the first game of the Micromax Cup, and have now suffered their first ever second consecutive loss to Zimbabwe. India now find themselves in the uncomfortably familiar position of having to win their next game (against Sri Lanka) to stay in the tournament, while Zimbabwe find themselves in the pleasantly unfamiliar situation of having one foot in the finals of a multi-nation tournament.
Zimbabwe found themselves in the unfamiliar position of going into the third match of the Micromax Cup 2010 as favorites: their victory over India was very convincing; Sri Lanka were bruised after their own chastening loss to India; and Zimbabwe know their home conditions better than anyone. Add to the mixture Zimbabwe's slow-but-sure progression in climbing the cricket ladder, and Sri Lanka resting experienced players to test out youngsters, and the stage was set for another giant-killing.
