India caught out on day one
Prem Panicker
India had it all going its way on the opening day of the second Test, at the Queen's Sports Club ground in Harare.
Or at least, that is how this report should have begun, on a day on which India won the toss, and got first use of a track that had grass on it but didn't do anything alarming. And to top that off, Brighton Watambwa, Zimbabwe's most impressive young seam bowler, hobbled off the field halfway through his fourth over with a pulled hamstring, further limiting Zimbabwe's modest attack.
India let it slip, with rank bad batting. It was almost as if the Indians came into this game thinking that they merely needed to turn up, and the opposition would roll over and play dead.
They didn't. And at close, it was the Indian team that found itself in a vulnerable position.
Both teams made changes. Zimbabwe made one, with the injured Henry Olonga making way for the fit-again Travis Friend. India made two, with the injured Ramesh being replaced by Badani in the opening slot -- Badani walking out with his coach's assurance that a failure in the enforced role would not, as had happened earlier in the case of Laxman, be held against him. The other change saw Ajit Agarkar come in for Zaheer Khan -- the latter must now be wondering just what he did wrong.
The congnoscenti say that opening an innings is a state of mind. Judging by Badani's debut outing, there's something to it -- normally very free-flowing with his footwork, Badani here stayed rooted to the top of the crease, and that caused his downfall when, in the third over of the morning, he played around a fullish length ball from Watambwa and got it on the pad in front of middle.
VVS Laxman batted as if he was having a bit of a net. Confidence has been his hallmark ever since he came back into the side as a middle order batsman -- but the dividing line between confidence and over-confidence is thinner than the edge the batsman got to a harmless ball outside his off, which he drove at with no foot movement at all. A very casual shot by a batsman who seemingly found it all too easy out in the middle.
Sachin Tendulkar and Shiv Sunder Das, both looking solid, saw India through to lunch. And immediately after, the former managed to find yet another interesting way to get out. Heath Streak, who all morning had bowled as if he couldn't make up his mind which side of the pitch he wanted to focus on, produced an innocuous delivery angling to leg. Tendulkar moved a long way to off, looking to glance fine, missed with the shot and the ball, on its way through, hooked into the underside of the batsman's thigh pad and richocheted onto the stumps.
In the midst of the carnage, Shiv Sunder Das was batting as if he were playing in a different game. Irrespective of what the guy at the other end is doing, Das plays his normal game. And 'normal game', when you refer to Das, means that anything outside off is left alone, anything on off is played in the V, anything that drifts to middle and leg is put away through the on side, and if width offers outside off he will try the cut or the square drive. And throughout it all, he will bat with the patience of the proverbial saint.
That method, and that patience, got Das to yet another 50 that combined clinical defense with equally clinical despatch of the bad ball. The fall of his wicket, thus, came against the run of play -- Blignaut, taking over from Streak, put one down on a length just outside off, Das pushed at the kind of delivery he had been letting to till then, and found the edge through to Andy Flower behind the stumps, to prematurely end a fine innings of 57 off 121 balls.
Sourav Ganguly, meanwhile, showed all the characteristics of a batsman on a lean trot, searching for form and confidence. For the duration of his stay -- barring one flowing cover drive -- the Indian captain concentrated on just getting bat to ball and pushing it around. And his end came in increasingly predictable fashion, as he pushed with no foot movement to a ball from Streak angling across him, the thick edge finding slip and India, at 122/5, found itself in pretty much the same position Zimbabwe had been in, on day one of the first Test.
Sameer Dighe dug in, shrugged off the flash-and-mistakes, shrugged off the thick outer edge that fell just an inch short of the diving Andy Flower, and kept Dravid company for a bit. And then, as others had before him, undid all the good work by tamely pushing a delivery from a visibly tired Travis Friend, outside off, to deep gully.
The session between lunch and tea saw India add 81 runs off 27 overs. More to the point, it saw the fall of four top order wickets -- and with all due respect to the bowling side, it needs saying that none of them owed to bowling of any outstanding quality.
Ajit Agarkar fell in the second over after tea, standing up and pushing at a lifting delivery around line of off, from Friend, to third slip to reduce India to 172/7. And then came the first 50-run partnership of the day. And to no one's surprise, it was Harbhajan Singh who was the senior partner in the association, playing shots all round the wicket and playing them with panache what's more. The offie has for quite a while now been working on his batting, and judging by the way he plays, he compensates for a less then perfect technique with a very quick eye and a willingness to go the whole hog when playing a shot.
Harbhajan's wicket fell against the run of his play, when Murphy tossed up a straight ball on line of off, Harbhajan pushed defensively down the wrong line, and got bowled through the gate just when the Zimbabweans were, with their field placings, giving him more respect than they were giving Dravid.
Srinath, once talked of as a potential all-rounder, hung around for a bit and then got himself out in ridiculous fashion. Off the last ball of Grant Flower's first over, the batsman played to point, and took off for a tight single when the sensible ploy would have been to stay put, and let the well-set Dravid take the next over.
Having initiated the run, Srinath then completed it with a casual prod of the bat into the crease, in the process losing his grip, dropping the bat, and being caught out of his ground on the direct hit.
This also meant that Dravid was stranded at the wrong end when last man Ashish Nehra walked out. Murphy took only two deliveries to sort him out, a flighted delivery on middle stump having the tailender pushing it to Ebrahim at silly point to end the Indian innings.
Rahul Dravid, who started off with flowing strokeplay that saw him going at a run a ball into his 30s, settled down to try and anchor the innings once the recognised batsmen departed. His play on the day was flawless -- in fact, of the Indian batsmen, he alone showed precise judgement in what to hit, and what to let go.
Zimbabwe had done very well to restrict India to a low score of 237, despite its handicapped attack and a wicket that offered batsmen plenty of scope to perform. The bowling side would have done even better with a bit of application -- time and again, the bowlers instead of attacking would spray a few loose deliveries around to a new batsman, permitting him some easy runs. Again, a lack of discipline in line meant the Indians got quite a few four-balls -- a tighter line, forcing the Indians to really work for runs, would have had the visiting side in really bad trouble today.
Ashish Nehra, who had his fair share of problems in the first Test with his follow through, struck an early blow for India when, in the second over of the innings, he made one bend back a bit from line of off. Whittall pushed at it, got the edge onto pad, and Dravid held yet another sharp chance under the helmet on the on side.
Srinath, at the other end, worked up a good head of pace, pushing to around the 86mph mark but it was Nehra who struck again, with the first ball of his second over when he angled an inswinger across Carlisle. The batsman drove without compensating for the swing, the ball flew off the edge and Badani at point juggled to hold a sharp chance.
An over later, Nehra was at it again. Bowling over the wicket to the left handed Alistair Campbell, Nehra made one swing very late, at pace on a very full length. Campbell was beaten for length and swing, played all round it, and had his off stump uprooted to have Zimbabwe down at 18/3.
Dion Ebrahim and Andy Flower took Zimbabwe through on 31/3 -- which means the home side will begin tomorrow against a fresh new ball, just 10 overs old, and with only Grant Flower and Heath Streak among the competent batsmen left after this pair.
India's best hope is early wickets -- one thing is for sure, the wicket is not dodgy, batting is still easy, and if Zimbabwe survive the first hour of the morning and dig down, India doesn't have the runs on the board to really attack.
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