'Indians should have
learnt from Das'

As the Indian team was looking for reasons for its defeat in the second Test which denied it a series triumph, it was Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak who came up with the most apt explanation for the visitors' plight.

Streak said batting on wickets such as those in Zimbabwe require a lot of patience and it was exemplified in the performance of man-of-the-series Shiv Sunder Das, as the rest of the Indian batsmen simply failed to emulate the diminutive opener.

"Throughout the series, Das showed the patience required on wickets with a bit of extra bounce. He knew where his off- stump was and he didn't play unnecessary shots," Streak told reporters on Monday.

"It was not an easy wicket to come out and dominate and play shots. For example, (V V S) Laxman came in and started to play some brilliant strokes. It is hard to play attacking cricket consistently on this wicket," he said.

Understandably pleased with his team's performance, Streak said the victory was made possible by the best use of the talent available.

"We had a bad start in the first innings but we recovered pretty well. The Flower brothers really got us back into the game. And we made the best of our talent and some of the tailenders batted really well. All the way down, seven, eight, nine, they all chipped in. Those were some of the things which probably won the game for us," he added.

Mail Cricket Editor