Date-stamped : 24 Nov93 - 11:30 IND v RSA CAB Semi final 1 - 24 Nov 1993, Match Report India win toss, bat first in Hero Cup semi-final Calcutta, Nov 24 (PTI) India won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in the first semi-final of the Cricket Association of Bengal Diamond Jubilee Tournament for Hero Cup at Eden Gardens today. Teams: India - Mohammmed Azharuddin (captain), Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, Pravin Amre, Kapil Dev, Vijay Yadav, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Salil Ankola. 12th man - Ajay Sharma. South Africa - Kepler Wessels (captain), Andrew Hudson, Hansie Cronje, Daryll Cullinan, Jonty Rhodes, Brian McMillan, Dave Richardson, Pat Symcox, Richard Snell, Fannie De Villiers, Allan Donald. 12th man - Dave Callaghan. Umpires - Steve Bucknor (West Indies), Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe). Third Umpire - S.K.Bansal (India) Source: PTI NEWS (INDIA); Thanks to Jayakris, shash ====> MORE Comments on Indian innings during irc commentary * Commentators disagree over Jadeja's lbw * Kambli out to direct hit - 3rd Umpire was used. * Prabhakar out to direct hit - 3rd Umpire was used. * Snell replaces Donald for over 13 - 1st ball 4 to Azhar. * McM replaces DeV for over 14 - 1st ball 4 to Azhar! * Cronje replaces Snell for over 25 * Symcox replaces McMillan for over 26 * McMillan replaces Symcox for over 38 * Azhar's 6 - straight drive off McMillan. * DevIlliers replaces McMillan for over 42. * Amre run out - middle stump knocked out. * All 3 run-outs of DeVilliers bowling! * Donald replaces Cronje for over 43 - Azhar takes 12. * McMillan replaces DeVillers for over 46. * Kapil run out falling over going for a second. * Snell replaces Donald for over 47 * DeVilliers replaces McMillan for over 48 Comments during RSA Innings: * Yadav drops easy catch - Hudson in 4th over. * Kapil Dev, replaces Prabhakar for over 11. * Ankola replaces Srinath for over 14. * Cronje run out by direct hit - 3rd Umpire again! * 25th over - Kapil drops Hudson ct & bld chance. * Kumble replaces Ankola for over 26. * Jadeja replaces Kapil for over 27. * Missed run out chance - Hudson over 32. * Mongoose interrupts play in 44th over! * Richardson 1st ball - given Not out by 3rd Umpire. * Prabhakar replaces Jadeja for over 45. * Srinath replaces Kumble for over 46. * Tendulkar bowls last over - 6 needed. * ball 1 - deVilliers run out, 1 to McM * ball 2,3,4 - dot to Donald * ball 5 - 1 to Donald * ball 6 - 1 to McMillan. Thanks to BritRoh Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> MORE Some impressions of yesterday's semifinal. Indians have themselves to blame for their low total. Kambli and Prabhakar should not have tried to test Cullinan's fielding abil- ity. Of course Amre's unfortunate run out can be excused, but Azhar should not have called Amre for the run. Kapil's run out was very unfortunate in that he was running on the grass and slipped while he was turning back. Apart from that Azhar's batting was excellent - but for a 'life' he cut he hit got the inside edge and went to fine leg - dangerously close to the stumps. The SA bowling, apart from that of Donald was of excellent length and line and was not easy to score from, especially when you are haunted by a posssible run out. SA fielding was EXCELLENT. When SA innings stared, it was taken for granted that they will win the match. That they could not was because of the top-class Indian ground fielding. There were hardly two or three cases of misfielding at ground level. One thing the Indians should prac- tise ad pracise well is hitting the stumps from their fielding position. SA would have had four more run outs if Kambli's throws hit the stumps. Everybody knows of Yadav's dropped catch. Kapil's catch on his follow-through was not dificult but he was not anti- cipating it. There were a couple of possible catches which were missed. As far as umpiring goes, it seems to be good except when Robin- son gave Hudson not out on an lbw appeal off the first ball from Kapil. Boycott ws saying that it was plumb lbw even before the replay was shown and it was plumb when seen on replay. Morning newspaper said that Cronje's run out was dobtful even on TV re- play, but the third umpire gave him out. I do not remember seeing that replay. I find fault with Wessel's captainy for SA's loss. After the first knock by India, it should have been clear tha runs will come off Srinath, Ankola and Prabhakar and not off Kumble and Jadeja. They should have (the openers) gone on attcak from the begining ( a la NZ). As far as the match goes, SA were on top till Rhodes was caught brilliantly by Azhar off Jadeja. When Kumble got Hudson bowled off a slower delivery, the match was all but over. But, for some unknown reason, Jadeja was not asked to bowl his tenth over and Srinath was brought in. After noticing how Donald was hit in hs last spell, Azhar should have got a slower accurate bowler in- stead of Srinath. That over and the next by Prabhakar swung the game in SA's direction. Yesterday, DD's coverage was much better. They had scoreboard at the end of every over, some hstograms an statistics very fre- quently. If only they get better cameras, they will have a very good chance of getting overseas broadcasters to pick their sig- nals and pay for the privilege of telecasting it. The lighting at Eden Gardens is done using four banks of lights, each bank con- sisting of 216 lamps. It cost a million pounds and consumes two megawatts. The project was finished in three months. There was a power failure during the game ( I think it was only for the broadcast equipment, the game was going on). TWI came back with only three or four minute interruption (Indian score from 173 to 180) but DD's OB equipment did not get power till after lunch. Is it CAB which arranged for TWI OB van to get power earlier or DD's equipment could not be brought back iinto opera- tion quickly, I do not know. Finally, STAR is picking SKY's cov- erage. The commentators were Coolville, Boycott, Gavaskar, Blo- feld and one Robin Jenkins (or Jenkison) former Surrey and Eng- land pace bowler. Contributed by ksrao (ksrao@*.ee.ndsu.nodak.edu) ====> MORE Azhar After Winning Against S.Africa calcutta, nov 24, (pti) ''i asked sachin (tendulkar) to bowl the last over because i wanted to win the match'' was indian cap- tain mohammed azharuddin's first comment after his team pulled off a razor-thin two run victory against south africa to enter the final of the hero cup tournament. ''at times i felt that the game was slipping away from us, but we kept our cool and played our natural game'' a relieved azhar told a post match press conference. the indian captain was full of praise for ajay jadeja and anil kumble for bowling well and bringing india back into the game. ''i think that was the turning point as both not only took wickets but tied down the south african batsmen''. azhar was unhappy with the running between the wickets but was not uduly worried, saying such things happened in one day cricket. he admitted that the indian batsmen did not play their natural game. asked why he did not complete ajay jadeja's full bowling quota, azhar said ''i thought it was better to give the regular bowlers a chance during the slog overs. i have to take decisions on the spot''. asked whether he was contemplating to try a new opening pair as the team had never got off to a good start right through the tournament, azhar quipped ''too late to think about it now. the indian captain is now looking ahead to the final on friday. ''today's victory is behind us now. we have to learn from our mistakes and we'll have to think what we will do in the fi- nal''. indian cricket manager, ajit wadekar said he had not given any instruction to his boys during the crucial stages of the match. wadekar said he would advise the players to make less number of mistakes and be more careful about running between the wickets. ''at the same time, we have to go for the quick singles to put pressure on the op- ponents. ====> MORE bringing sachin a bold move : wessels calcutta, nov 24 (pti) south african skipper, kepler wessels praised rival captain mohammed azharuddin for his of the match and snatch a thrilling two-run victory in the semi-final of the hero cup tournament at the eden gardens. ''it was a brave move and the gamble paid off'', a dejected wessels told a post match press conference. wessels felt that the run out of dave richardson in the crucial stages of the game was the turning point of the match. ''we had a very good chance but our batting let us down. the runout of richardson proved costly for us'', he said. the south african skipper said that india's score of 195 was a good score on this wicket. asked whether their main bowler alan donald's poor perfor- mance cost them the match, wessels said it would be harsh to blame only one person for the defeat. ''true, donald did not bowl well today, but de villiers compensated that with a fine spell'', he remarked. wessels said his team was not overawed by the massive turn out at the eden gardens. ====> MORE [No Header] it looked a difficult task for india to defend such a mod- est score. but the indian bowlers backed by some good fielding made the south african batsmen struggle for runs. as the match pro- gressed the asking rate increased and after the completion of 30 overs they were 130 for five. but brian mcmillan with some lusty shots took the fight into the indian camp and looked like heading for a certain victo- ry as he belted an erratic srinath for 14 runs in the 46th over. he treated prabhakar the same way and amassed nine runs of the following over. he collected nine more in the 48th over off srinath to bring south africa near vic- tory as they now needed just 13 runs off two overs. wicket- keeper dave richardson, who was involved in a crucial 44-run partnership with mcmillan, however fell in the first ball off the 49th over by prabhakar when he was run out while attempt- ing a non-existent run. with srinath unable to contain mcmillan, azharuddin was in a piquant situation. he conferred with ka- pil and tendulkar and decided to let tendulkar send down the last over of the match. ====> MORE india clinch pulsating sf clash against sa calcutta, nov 24 pti: a pulsating last over saw india clinch a dramatic two-run victory over south africa to march into the final of the cab diamond jubilee five-nation hero cup cricket tournament at the eden gardens here today. set to score 196 for a win, the springboks riding on a brilliant knock of 48 not out by brian mcmillan looked well set for victory needing only six runs off the final over with mcmil- lan going great guns. mcmillan and de villiers belted srinath for 23 runs in his last two overs. with the match slipping away from india's grip as even manoj prabhakar was hammered by the tail enders, azharuddin took a gamble and asked sachin tendulkar to come on to bowl the cru- cial last over. the teenage sensation measured up to the challenge with some intelligent bowling. his first ball saw de villiers being run out going in for a needless second run and a long throw from deep mid off from salil ankola being on target. he then pinned new batsmen alan donald to the wicket and did not allow macmillan to take strike until the last ball of which south africa required to score four runs. mcmillan failed in his endeavour and india won the pulsat- ing cliff hanger to the delight of the crowd. earlier, india aided by skipper mohammed azharuddin's fine 90 posted a modest total of 195. the south african chase began in a subdued manner as they lost skipper kepler wessels early in the sixth over. wessels missed the line of a srinath delivery and was declared leg before wicket and at that time the score read just 10. the springboks would have been in deeper trouble had vijay yadav not dropped an easy snick of andrew hudson when he had scored just one be- fore wessels returned to the pavillion. hundson then in the com- pany of hansie carried the score past 40 and in the process he struck two boundaries one off pra- bhakar and the other off srinath. kapil then replaced prabhakar but hudson riding on his luck dealt with him in the same manner. in the match of fluc- tuating fortunes, south africa, howver, suffered another blow when hansie cronje became the victim of a very close run out de- cision. amre's accurate throw from midon beat him by inches and the decision was confirmed by the third umpire s k bansal. darryl cullinan, who had come back into the team in place of d. callaghan, looked confident but was scalped by kapil dev before he could get going when he trapped him lbw for 10. Thanks to S.Ramani on misc.news.southasia Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)