It was in many ways a typical Zimbabwe match. Zimbabwe began well, but lost the plot - or had it snatched from their grasp. Then they fought back superbly, with Andy Flower as usual at the centre of things with little support from his colleagues, but it was not quite enough to gain them the victory.

The cynical - and many long-suffering Zimbabwean supporters fall into that category - will say we have seen it all too often before. But we need to remind ourselves that we do not have the resources of any of the other Test-playing countries, not even Bangladesh. Besides, our country is in political and economic turmoil, which can only adversely affect our cricket and our players. It is incredible that we are able to compete on even terms at all.

We see players like Mohammad Kaif tearing the bowling apart, and we may wish Zimbabwe had players of superb natural ability like that. As far as basic talent is concerned, Zimbabwe are not in the same league as countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. But, as the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. There are days when Zimbabwe’s dedication, fighting spirit and will to win are greater than those of their opponents and they pull off a surprise victory. Let us treasure those days. This was almost one of them.

India came into this match on the back of an arduous but quite successful tour of England, while it was Zimbabwe’s first proper international outing for six months. Mentally Zimbabwe were probably much fresher, much better prepared than the Indians; physically, though, they were a little rusty, and it showed in our seam bowlers at least.

It was a good batting pitch, which the experts considered would get lower and slower as the match progressed. In fact right to the end the bowlers were getting more bounce from the pitch than was expected. The weather was very hot and humid, which makes Andy Flower’s marathon innings, after keeping wicket throughout the Indian innings, all the more remarkable. But with Andy, the remarkable is almost commonplace - not because he is a batting genius like Sachin Tendulkar, as he is not, but because he has such mental strength that he is often able to overcome all manner of adverse conditions.

Halfway through last season Tatenda Taibu took over the wicket-keeping gloves from Andy, in both Tests and one-day internationals. Taibu is the better keeper, of that there is no doubt, although Andy is generally sound. But Taibu, although Dave Houghton for one speaks most highly of his batting potential, has not yet been able to put it together with the bat at international level, and his inclusion lengthens the tail. For this match the selectors decided to play Andy behind the stumps; unfortunately he had a nightmare time there, missing two catches and a stumping.

Many will be surprised to learn that Raymond Price was making his official one-day debut in this match. He has played in ten Test matches and achieved a lot, but the selectors deliberately kept him out of one-day cricket, according to Dave Houghton, because they did not want him to start pushing the ball through flatter and risk losing his ability as a genuine attacking spin bowler at Test level, as apparently happened two or three years ago. In this match Price began by tossing the ball up, but as the match progressed and Kaif took over, he began to push it through flatter and faster. Let us hope Houghton’s fears do not come true.

India won the toss, condemning Zimbabwe to batting under lights. Our batsmen rarely have the opportunity to bat under lights and had some difficult experiences two years ago batting under poor quality lights at one or two venues in England. But the lights at Sharjah appear to be very good and our batsmen did not seem to have any difficulty.

India began like a train, as the saying goes (but not for those familiar with Zimbabwean trains), Sourav Ganguly hitting the first ball, from Heath Streak, for four. Streak unfortunately looked pretty innocuous, and despite what he said in our interview published last week is still well short of his best bowling form.

His opening partner was Douglas Hondo, who looked a different bowler in India earlier this year after coming straight from a club season in Australia. Hondo was the most impressive of the seamers, still loose a little too often but able to produce the threatening deliveries that the others could not. He began badly, with a no-ball that was hit for four and then conceding another boundary off a legal ball; his figures at that stage were a remarkable 0.1-0-9-0. But he pulled it back quickly, got one to bounce at Ganguly, and had him fending the ball off with his glove, fortuitously wide of a fielder.

It was vital that Zimbabwe took an early wicket, and Hondo’s extra bounce, together with the desire of the Indians to dominate from the start, obliged. In his second over, extracting bounce, he had Ganguly caught at slip by Alistair Campbell, and four balls later had Dinesh Mongia out the same way. In his fifth over the pair got together for the third time and capped it all by dismissing Tendulkar for just 7.

Although the other seamers were innocuous, Zimbabwe reduced India to 87 for five at one stage, with the opposition apparently going for broke and scoring at more than six an over. Would this be one of those days where the race was not to the swift? The best catch of all was a brilliant one-handed effort at second slip by Sean Ervine to remove Yuvraj Singh.

But there Zimbabwe’s advantage ended. Rahul Dravid, India’s most disciplined batsman, has to live in the shadow of the more brilliant Tendulkar, but in most sides he would be the star. He has been a thorn in the side of Zimbabwe before, of England just recently, and in fact in just about everybody he has played against. His team-mates seek to dominate; Dravid is content to accumulate, and his record speaks for itself. Many are slow to acknowledge his greatness due to his efficient rather than spectacular style, and this time he was overshadowed by Mohammad Kaif despite keeping the score ticking over with 71 off 81 balls. Zimbabwe would yearn for two such superbly gifted batsmen as these two.

Once these two were set, there was little Zimbabwe’s bowlers could do, especially as the seamers were too often off line or length. In addition they were too slow bowling their overs, one of the nasty habits picked up by Zimbabwe after entering the Test arena. Perhaps the steadiest of them was Guy Whittall, welcomed back into the team again after being dropped for most of last season. Hopefully this season his knee and form will both hold out. The spinners were steadier and did more to keep the batsmen quiet.

Steadily the match began to slip away from Zimbabwe, although it would be more generous to say that Dravid and Kaif dragged it away from them. Still, the inaccuracy of the seamers made their job easier. Towards the end, as Kaif stepped up the attack in a brilliant exhibition of strokeplay, the Zimbabweans began to wilt in the field: chances were missed, misfields gave away runs and heads began to droop. The intense heat and humidity must have made things even more unpleasant for them.

Zimbabwe had a daunting target, but they have the memory of scoring over 300 against Australia last year, to lose the match by just one run. So they knew it was not a hopeless task, and they batted right down to number nine. It was good to see Andy Flower coming in at three, as the leading batsman needs to come in early - and he showed that, even in such heat, he can still handle it after a long stint in the field.

Technically it was not one of his best innings: he was dropped off a fairly straightforward chance soon after reaching double figures and missed several attempted reverse sweeps, which I have rarely seen him do in the past. But sheer mental strength carried him through. His best partner, as so often, was his brother Grant, and it was wise to put them together in the batting order. They put on 84 together before a misunderstanding led to a tragic run-out.

By then, though, the required run rate was slowly increasing. Whittall was Flower’s next reliable partner with a valuable 29. Doug Marillier batted well briefly without repeating his heroics of that famous one-day victory over India earlier this year; he has spoken of the pressure he feels of the expectation awaiting him, and will need to work through that.

But it was a major surprise that, with 49 needed off the last five overs when Marillier was out, that the inexperienced Ervine should come in next instead of the powerful Streak. Ervine did his best and should not be blamed, as he fished in vain for balls outside off stump when he so urgently needed just to get a bat on them and steal a single, and neither was he able to produce any of the big hits that Streak is famous for. The responsibility lies with Streak himself, and presumably also Geoff Marsh, for what was a puzzling decision that did not come off.

When Streak finally did reach the wicket, Flower finally falling in a desperate attempt to rescue the innings after the arrival of Ervine had worsened the situation, 26 were needed off eight balls and, cold from the pavilion, he had no chance to settle and hit. Flower’s 145 was a new Zimbabwe one-day record, at last beating the record of 142 held rather untidily by all three of himself, Grant and Houghton.

Once again he was a giant among pygmies, and it is disappointing that with such an outstanding example of dedication and mental strength in the team, there is still nobody else able to emulate him. It is also disturbing that Zimbabwe still rely almost exclusively on their senior batsmen, the Flowers, Campbell and Whittall. Apart from Hamilton Masakadza, considered a one-day specialist at present and studying at the University of the Free State (although available for Test selection), we have no young batsmen who have yet proved themselves capable of playing long innings against top international bowling. Perhaps this is because the selectors have never stuck long enough with talented young players like Gavin Rennie and Craig Wishart to see quite what they are capable of doing given an extended run in the team.

In their early thirties, these four can still play for several more years if they wish. Even then, only Andy Flower is really making the most of his ability at international level and the other three are not producing runs as they did in the past. Earlier in their careers Grant Flower and Campbell both averaged almost 40 at Test level; both are now below 30. Yet when they have been dropped (in the cases of Campbell and Whittall) their replacements have done worse.

Should they decide to retire or ply their trade more profitably in other countries after the World Cup, the Zimbabwe team will be in a sorry state. Andy Flower is 34 and has the desire to play for longer, but outside circumstances, including his on-going dissatisfaction with the administration of the game in Zimbabwe, may cut his career short. It is a disturbing situation. In the meantime, though, let us enjoy it when Zimbabwe at least make the big nations in world cricket fight hard in closely-fought matches.