India Go One-Up

Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh shared the spoils as India took just about two hours to wrap up the first Test with an emphatic innings and 90-run victory over Zimbabwe here today.

The visitors, who needed to capture just four wickets on the penultimate day, bundled out the hosts for 185 in their second innings barely five minutes before the lunch break to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Resuming at a precarious 67-6 after conceding a mammoth 275-run first innings lead, the Zimabwean lower order batsmen put up a much better display than the established batsmen and took the score beyond the 150-mark which looked extremely doubtful at one stage.

Harbhajan, who claimed his 200th Test scalp yesterday, did the bulk of the damage on a wearing track at the Queen's Club ground as he snared up three more wickets to guide India to victory with a full day and two sessions to spare.

The off-spinner returned with figures of 15.5-1-59-4 while paceman Pathan was the other succesful bowler with4-53 in a match which saw the Zimbabweans put up a much improved display.

The two teams will now travel to Harare for the second Test which will begin on September 20.

The diminutive Zimbabwean captain Tatenda Taibu stood bravely amidst the ruins with a defiant 52, his second half century of the match. Apart from Taibu, the last wicket pair of Gavin Ewing (34) and Blessing Mahwire (13 not out) frustrated the Indians to some extent as they added 47 runs before Harbhajan eventually brought an end to the partnership.

Captain Saurav Ganguly began the day with a two-pronged pace attack with Pathan and Zaheer Khan bowling in tandem but the duo could not separate the two overnight batsmen.

Taibu, who looked quite composed at the crease, and the hard-hitting Andy Blignaut scored runs at a fairly brisk pace as the hosts adopted a far more aggressive batting approach today.

Ganguly introduced Harbhajan after three overs from Zaheer and the off-spinner justified the decision by getting rid of Blignaut with a gem of a delivery which saw his stumps being dislodged.

Blignaut was completely deceived by the flight as he went for a mighty heave and the ball went through his bat and pad to knock off the middle stump.

Taibu produced a delectable drive of Anil Kumble to notch up his ninth Test half century but perished soon after nicking the leg spinner to Dinesh Kaarthick behind the stumps.

With Taibu's departure, it seemed that it was just a matter of time before the Zimbabwe innings folded up but the lower order batsmen managed to hang around for quite a long time to delay the victory celebrations.

PTI