Marillier's knock was the best: Ganguly

Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly said Douglas Marillier's 24-ball 56 was one of the best knocks he had ever seen after Zimbabwe hunted down India's 274 for six to win the first one-dayer by one wicket on Thursday.

Marillier, who came to bat at the fall of the eighth wicket with 65 needed off 34 balls, hammered 10 fours and a six en route to the fastest one-day 50 by a Zimbabwean.

"I have never seen anyone hit like this in seven years of international cricket," Ganguly told reporters.

"He played a fabulous knock, we just couldn't contain him."

Marillier raised his half-century in 21 balls, the fifth fastest in one-day cricket and just four balls shy of Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya's world record of 17 balls.

Ganguly said he had thought the match was in the bag long before it ended.

"We were coasting till Marillier entered in the 45th over. I thought we were on course for a win," he said.

The hallmark of Marillier's knock was his uncharacteristic parallel flicks that went right over the wicketkeeper's head.

"Coach Geoff Marsh gets very angry when I play those shots in the nets," Marillier joked. "But they worked for me today."

ALL-ROUNDER

The all-rounder, who plays for Kuwekuwe back home in Zimbabwe, said such an innings was not out of character.

"I have played these innings at the death many a times in club cricket," he said.

"I am known for scoring runs quickly, not for big hundreds. My objective when I went in to bat was that we should not lose once we were within 20 runs of the target and things happened right out there in the middle."

Indian left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan had troubled the Zimbabwe batsmen earlier, dismissing Craig Wishart (1), Travis Friend (7), captain Stuart Carlisle (23) and Alistair Campbell (84) for figures of four for 15 from his first eight overs.

But Marillier spoilt his figures somewhat to 10-2-47-4 with 21 runs in one over and 11 in another.

"Zaheer bowled really well," Carlisle said. "He was bothering us a lot apart from at the end when Douglas got after him."

The Zimbabwe skipper said the win was a bonus after they had slumped to 210 for eight.

"We won the game only in the 49.4 overs, I never thought we were going to pull it off before that. Douglas played an exceptional innings."

Carlisle said they had been on target when Flower (71) and Campbell were putting up their 111-run third wicket partnership but felt they had lost out after the middle-order collapsed.

"Even in the last over we thought we would win," Ganguly said. "It was very frustrating and disappointing but Marillier took it away from us."

Mail Cricket Editor