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Zimbabwe humble India in one-off Test

A day in which wickets fell like they were going out of style -- 19, in course of the three sessions -- ended with India suffering its first defeat in Tests at the hands of Zimbabwe. Which, considering that the two teams have only played three Tests so far including this one -- India won one, drew one, lost one -- is a humbling experience for the side that earlier this year defeated Australia by a 2-1 margin.

The pitch didn't dramatically change character overnight, yet the morning's play, by Zimbabwe, was as different from that of the previous evening as chalk from cheese. Wickets tumbled in a heap, Harbajan Singh beginning the rout as early as the second over of the day when he got rid of both night watchman Olonga and Gavin Rennie, who resumed at his score of 84 (at which point, yesterday evening, he had taken a hit on the head from a Srinath delivery and retired hurt) but lasted only just the one ball it took the Indian offie to find his edge.

With both spinners getting bounce and turn, attacking fields were employed and Campbell almost fell to Kumble, a bat-pad ballooning over Robin Singh and eluding his effort to run back and hold. However, the pressure was telling on the Zimbabwe skipper, and Harbajan cleaned him up with flight, loop and turn to take the edge and present a simple take for Azhar.

Playing in only his second Test, the young off spinner had struck a series of telling blows early on, and Kumble followed up by fizzing a top spinner through to rap Evans on the pad bang in front of the wicket. That dismissal signalled the end of the first hour, and Zimbabwe at that point had, in the space of 17.2 overs, lost 6 wickets for 40 runs.

Andy Flower seemed in fine touch, but the Indian quick bowlers chipped in after the break to ensure that he didn't have too much company. Heath Streak, let off once by Sidhu off Harbajan, played a tortured innings of three runs but did give Flower company in a 30-plus stand before Agarkar, with the second new ball, found the edge off an attempted cut for Dravid to hold in the slip cordon.

At the other end, Srinath straightened one up to trap Huckle in front, and off the next ball, took out Mbwangwa with a yorker to terminate the Zimbabwe second innings for 293. At the other end Andy Flower, who alone seemed more or less at ease against spin and pace alike, was left high and dry on a well made 41. For the Indians, Kumble and Harbajan, bowled inspired spells this morning, shared the first seven wickets among themselves before Srinath and Agarkar returned to polish off the tail.

Lunch was taken on the fall of the last Zimbabwe wicket, which meant that that in 30.3 overs, the home side had added 74 runs to the overnight score for the loss of 9 wickets in two hours of play. All of which left India, batting last thanks to the insertion after winning the toss, needing 235 to win, with two sessions plus an entire day to do it in -- or, more to the point, with 157 overs left in the game.

Within 14 deliveries, however, the two Indian openers were back in the hut, underlining yet again the folly of going in to a foreign tour without a regular, in form opening pair. Without a good start, the rest of the batting lineup is always going to be under pressure. On subcontinental tracks, makeshift opening pairs come good more often than not, but those successes, when used to justify similar tactics abroad, end up with the team foundering.

Sidhu, already out of the reckoning for the one day squad, did his Test prospects for the New Zealand tour considerable damage with a duck, while Mongia's technique outside off to the quick bowlers did for him yet again. All of which meant that Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar became opening batsmen by default, as India slid to 6/2.

Dravid, with a century in the first innings backing him, seemed in confident mood, racing to 17 off 25 deliveries but at the other end, Sachin Tendulkar looked unusually subdued. As often happens when Tendulkar is not quite middling it, the runs dried up and that is when the Indian master bat tries too hard to break the shackles, and gives it away.

Mohammad Azharuddin all but reprised his first innings dismissal, his feet nailed in place and his bat all edges, and his dismissal meant that India were reduced to 37/4 in just the 12th over of the innings.

Dravid, faced with the prospect of a long, attritive battle, promptly retreated into obdurate defence while Saurav Ganguly oscillated between the defensive pushes and the odd flowing drives when the pacemen in particular fed his strengths.

These two -- Dravid with 51.34 and Ganguly with 51.10 -- are the players with the highest Test averages after Sachin Tendulkar, in the current team. Neither batsman showed the slightest inclination to do anything foolish. More to the point, both batsmen appeared to understand the needs of Test cricket, remaining unfazed even while playing out successive maiden overs, patiently accumulating the runs where they could get them, and concentrating on ensuring that the early collapse was halted.

The two added 67 invaluable runs for the 5th wicket before Ganguly, against the run of play, missed the line of a straighter one from Adam Huckle and was out LBW, for a patient 36 off 92.

For Dravid, coming in with India 3/1 (an improvement on the first innings, when the score at his entry was 2/1), his second successive 50 plus score seemed to take off from his run starting against Sri Lanka in November 1997, when he scored 92, 93, 85, 52, 56 and 86 on the trot, equalling G R Vishwanath's record of 6 successive 50s before scores of 23 and 6 in the third Test against Australia spoilt the run. A 118 in the first innings was followed by a patient 44 in the second. However, an attempted flick through the leg side in the over after Ganguly's departure, off Mbwangwa, took the thin edge to bring wicket keeper Flower into the action, and India were 6 down for 112 and on artificial respiration. At that point, the side needed a further 123 to win.

Robin Singh, playing the second Test innings of his career, started off with successive fours off the first two balls he faced. And when he was trapped in front by Johnson, had made 12 off 12 balls with two fours -- a nice little cameo had it come towards the fag end of a one day innings, but far from the ideal in a tight Test match situation.

Kumble, who is on record as saying he wanted to concentrate on his batting, also opened his account with a four. And had another boundary in 12 off 26, before giving Johnson his second straight victim.

Ajit Agarkar, not to be outdone by his bowling partners, hoiked a four and a ball later, went for another hoist over midwicket, to exit for 5 off 14.

At the fag end of the innings, Harbajan Singh with an unbeaten 15/23, and Javagal Srinath who got 23 off 21 deliveries before throwing his wicket away in a needless run out, showed up their betters with a 40-run last wicket partnership that reduced the margin of defeat to 61.

The last wicket partnership was the next best after the 67 runs added for the fifth wicket between Dravid and Ganguly -- in fact, the only other partnership of any substance.

And in the end, this inability of the batsmen to hang in there long enough to put some runs on the board spelt the defeat, despite a modest target. Ironically, while its batsmen appeared stuck in the one day rut, the performance was dismal even by instant cricket standards -- the team managed a mere 173 off 56.5 overs.

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