India have a good chance of a three-day victory in the First Test match atthe Queen's Sports Club in Bulawayo, as after day two Zimbabwe had lostthree second-innings wickets and were still 66 runs behind.
India began the day 90 runs behind Zimbabwe's first-innings total of 173with seven wickets in hand. Night-watchman Javagal Srinath (1) flicked thesecond ball of the day towards square leg, only for Guy Whittall to take asuperb diving catch to his left. Then Sourav Ganguly (5) was adjudged tohave edged a rising delivery from Heath Streak to wicket-keeper Andy Flower,and India were 98 for five.
However, two master batsmen were still there in Sachin Tendulkar and RahulDravid. They set themselves to blunt the Zimbabwe attack and seldom lookedin any difficulty. They were soon scoring at more than four an over withoutever looking to be in a hurry. Tendulkar's fifty took 106 balls and for onceDravid took most of the limelight with his classic drives and pulls. ThenAndy Blignaut came on to bowl and Tendulkar helped himself to threeboundaries in his erratic first over.
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However, it was Blignaut who broke through, as just before lunch Tendulkar(74) slashed at a ball moving away outside off stump and Stuart Carlisle atsecond slip hurled himself to his right to hold a brilliant catch. India hadjust taken the lead and at the interval were 179 for six.
After lunch a good partnership again seemed to be developing as Dravid andSameer Dighe picked up runs steadily. The Blignaut again surprised everyoneby taking a wicket; Dravid (44), after hitting two exquisite fours in anover, was perhaps over-eager for a third and skied a catch to Flower behindthe stumps. At 208 for seven, India had only the tail to come.
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Dighe and Harbhajan Singh were not deterred, though, and hit out merrily,especially the latter. The Zimbabwe attack, lacking Olonga with an injury,was unable to make any impression. Finally Streak did the trick with thesecond new ball, dismissing Dighe for 47, caught down the leg side off a badball. The partnership of 72 may yet prove to be the turning point of thematch as it turned a moderately small lead into a very significant one. Onceagain Zimbabwe conceded a major eighth-wicket partnership, a frequent habitin recent years.
This was just before tea was due, and in the same over Streak produced amuch better delivery to bowl Zahir Khan (0) off the inside edge, resultingin a delay of the interval. Harbhajan went on to reach his fifty, and thelast pair survived half an hour until tea. Off the last ball before theinterval, Brighton Watambwa took a superb diving return catch off bat andpad off Harbhajan, only to have umpire Harper erroneously rule it not out.
Shortly after the interval, Watambwa fumbled a return to miss a clear run-out opportunity. He got his wicket the same over, though, when Singh (66 off71 balls) top-edged a pull to be caught at mid-on. India totalled 318, alead of 145. Streak and Watambwa took three wickets each.
When Zimbabwe went in again, Whittall cut a couple of boundaries over theslips, but Dion Ebrahim struggled and failed to score before being caught atshort leg without scoring. On current evidence, it seems to have been amisguided effort to turn this young middle-order batsman into an opener, andhe showed in the Academy match how short of confidence he is at present.
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Zimbabwe almost suffered the incredible bad luck of falling foul ofcricket's most unfair law twice in the same match when Carlisle played abeautiful straight drive that glanced the stumps at the bowler's end on itsway to the boundary with Whittall probably out of his crease; fortunatelyNehra's groping hand just failed to touch it.
Whittall continued to play positively, but on 20 he cut once too often andwas brilliantly caught low in the gully by Sadagoppan Ramesh. At 34 for two,Zimbabwe were in deep trouble. Carlisle and Alistair Campbell fought withdetermination until the latter was caught at short leg off Harbhajan for 16.At close, Zimbabwe were 79 for three, with Carlisle on 27 and night-watchmanBrian Murphy 10.
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Play finished 55 minutes late this time, a real indictment of both theplayers and the ICC who are quite incapable of enforcing acceptable overrates.
