Zimbabwe win second Test, square series

Prem Panicker

Amazing, isn't it, how much time and effort it takes to produce good cricket, and how quickly all the hard work can be undone?

Brilliant batting against the odds, in Kolkatta, saw a renaissance in India's cricket fortunes. Three months later, an over-confident, overly-casual batting lineup dashed those hopes with a shambolic display against a weakened bowling lineup.

Six wickets fell on the fourth morning for just 37 runs -- and if you count Dravid's dismissal off the last ball bowled in play on day three, that makes 7/37.

What makes the loss in Harare, well inside the distance, especially sad is that it was all so unnecessary. India really lost the match in the first innings when, batting first on a good wicket, the team played with a lack of application that saw it fritter away the advantage of the toss.

That low total of 237 set it up for the home team. And once Zimbabwe went into the lead, the visiting Indians went into collective panic, swinging from the extreme of casual shot-making to the other extreme, of paranoid defence.

The result? 1986 still remains the Plimsoll Line, marking the year in which we registered our last real overseas win (for obvious, and oft-stated, reasons, we won't consider wins in Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh in this context). Zimbabwe 2001 should have ended that long wait, but...

Any hope that India had of making a fight of this game ended inside the first half hour of the fourth morning. (Actually, to all practical purposes it ended with the last ball bowled on day three, when Rahul Dravid feathered an edge through to the keeper off Andy Blignaut).

Sourav Ganguly had the occasion, he had the stage, he had the opportunity. The onus was on him to reverse his personal form, to produce the goods with the bat, to lead from the front when it mattered most. In the event, any hope that the Indian captain would be able to fight his way out of his personal slump ended inside four balls, with Andy Blignaut straightening a ball in line of the stumps. Ganguly shuffled along his stumps, neither forward nor back, played all round the ball, and got it on the pad bang in front.

For Shiv Sunder Das, his greatest strength for once proved his weakness. Throughout his various vigils beginning with the second innings of the first Test, one fact of his batsmanship that commanded attention was his impeccable judgement of line, and the sureness of his leaves around off. For once, he got it all horribly wrong, shouldering arms to one from Streak that straightened on line and trapped him in front.

Ajit Agarkar with the bat is hardly the most reassuring of spectacles, at this or any other time. Today was no different, as the Mumbai lad once touted as the all-round prospect Indian cricket has been waiting for slashed a drive at an away-seamer from Streak to feather the edge through.

Harbhajan Singh lived dangerously -- beginning with a slash that narrowly cleared the heads of the slips, following up with a skier just over the head of cover, and ending his innings with a leading edge off Blignaut that gave Dion Ebrahim, at short cover, an opportunity to display breathtaking catching skills.

Debutant Hemang Badani and Javagal Srinath held on grimly, for about half an hour, without really adding much to the scoreboard. Streak, returning for his second spell, ended Srinath's resistance and last man Ashish Nehra, who has no pretensions with the bat, gave Blignaut his fifth for the innings, leaving Badani unbeaten on a patient 16.

India were all out for 234 -- three less than they had managed in the first innings, which is quite frankly criminal given that in the second innings they got to use a wicket at its most benign. And Zimbabwe needed 157 -- at least 75 short of what it took to put real pressure on the side batting last.

The home side went in for lunch on 17/0, and it was in the second session that India fought back. Srinath, bowling with a lot more fire than he had shown in the first innings, started things going when he took out Guy Whittall.

Harbhajan Singh came on early, and struck in his very first over when Dion Ebrahim, as in the first innings, shaped to play the off break to leg, with a huge flourish which meant he was playing around the line. In the first innings he was out LBW, this time it was the edge onto front pad for Badani to juggle, then grasp, at silly point.

Alistair Campbell continued to underachieve. Ashish Nehra caused him problems with swing and seam around line of off, was distinctly unlucky to have an LBW appeal turned down, but one ball later, produced an almost identical delivery, only he straightened this one a bit more and Campbell, playing around his pads, took it in line of middle.

Grant Flower came in ahead of brother Andy, thanks to the latter running a temperature. This time round, the younger Flower couldn't repeat his heroics with the bat, Agarkar taking him out immediately after the tea break with a peach of a ball that hit good length, drew the batsman forward, then found just enough lateral movement to take the edge through to the slips.

Agarkar should have had Streak in the same over, but again, an LBW appeal went in favour of the batsman. The Zimbabwe skipper knocked 8 runs off the target, and added 31 runs for the 5th wicket, before Srinath came back, produced a nicely angled delivery in to the right hander that Streak had to push at, for Dighe to take a superb diving catch in front of the slip cordon.

But again, one batsman was prepared to put his hand up and be counted, and for Zimbabwe today, it was Stuart Carlisle. Whose single biggest contribution was the confidence with which he batted, the application he brought to the task of playing Harbhajan as late as possible, concentrating on blunting the threat of the off spinner. Carlisle was the single common equation in a series of small partnerships that chipped away at the small target.

One essential difference -- and yes, this is an attempt to look for the silver lining -- is that this time round, the Indian team showed no sign of giving up before the game was actually lost. They kept attacking, in a performance reminiscent of the way the Aussies attacked in the final innings of the Chennai Test. Nehra, brought back into the attack, produced a blinding yorker to take out Blignaut's middle stump, one ball after the batsman had heaved Nehra over cover with a slash for four.

Andy Flower, fever and all, walked out to the wicket at this point. And that pretty much sealed it, as the senior Flower and Carlisle took the side home to a four-wicket win.

For India, a defeat to end a three-Test winning streak. And a lesson -- rather, make that two. One, that you are only as good as your last result, your last game. And two, that past results don't matter -- you could have beaten the world champions two out of three, but you still have to play hard, apply yourself, even if next time out you are going against a team ranked at the other end of the scale from the Aussies.

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