India have won the second and final Test of their two-Test series againstZimbabwe by four wickets. At Feroz Shah Kotla on Monday, it was HarbhajanSingh's turn to become the unlikely hero with the bat by hitting a boundary overcover and a big six straight down the ground to take India past the modesttarget. India finished on 126/6 with Harbhajan Singh (14*) and Sanjay Bangar(3*) the two men at the crease at the end.
Resuming on 36/3, India got off to a flying start. Sachin Tendulkar picked up12 runs off the first over of the day bowled by Grant Flower. A glorious coverdrive and a powerful square cut thudded into the signboards.
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In the following over bowled by Flower, the little master struck another fourthrough mid-wicket, forcing Carlisle to make a bowling change. The idea wasquite simple, Tendulkar scoring runs at one end while Das would deal with theguiles of Ray Price.
Price has bowled exceptionally well on this tour and he was distinctlyunlucky as umpire Jayaprakash turned down a couple of shouts of lbw against ShivSunder Das.
Tendulkar played a delicate leg glance and then a superb flick throughmid-wicket off Streak for fours, forcing Carlisle to bring back Grant Flowerinto the attack. Tendulkar, however, was in a hurry and he was in no mood toallow Flower to settle into a rhythm. A slightly short delivery was pulled highin the air over square leg for a massive six.
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Finally, Price got an opportunity to have a go at Tendulkar and immediatelyhad his man lbw, trying to sweep. The little master made a valuable contributionof 42 off 52 balls with the help of seven fours and a six.
Rahul Dravid came out to bat and found himself in trouble against Price. Thescoring suffered substantially as Streak and Price tightened the screws. Thishad its effect too; Das (31) was given out lbw to Streak, umpire de Silva givingit in the favour of the bowler when the ball appeared to be going down the leg.India were 103/5 at that stage.
Rahul Dravid (6) was the next man to be `Price'd out, caught by Andy Flowerat gully after pushing forward to the left-arm spinner. India were undertremendous pressure (105/6) at that stage. Umpire Asoka de Silva was not doneyet. An appalling decision from him gave four leg byes to India, after Streakhad struck Harbhajan Singh plumb in front of the wicket. If that ball was goingto hit anything, it was the middle stump.
Soon it was the turn of umpire Jayaprakash to negate another very close shoutfor lbw by Price; Bangar being the lucky batsman. Harbhajan Singh pinched fourover-throws to ease the pressure a bit. And, then came Harbhajan Singh's two bighits off Streak to finish the match. Harbhajan was deservedly named that Man ofthe Match while Anil Kumble picked up the Man of the Series award.
