Close Zimbabwe 248 for 8 (Carlisle 77, Campbell 57, Zaheer 3 for 45, Kumble 3 for 72)
scorecard

A lusty counter attack by Travis Friend took some of the sheen away from what would otherwise have been considered a very good day for India. On a belter of a track with not much in it for the bowlers, India had Zimbabwe reeling at 194 for 7, before Friend redeemed the Zims a bit with a quickfire 33 not out, off only 31 balls.

When Anil Kumble accounted for Tatenda Taibu (1), bowling him off a flipper in the 78th over of the day, Zimbabwe appeared set to succumb before the 90 overs allotted for the day were up. Friend had other ideas. He cover-drove Kumble for four and in his next over, got two successive boundaries: a flick off the legs to the square leg boundary and a confident glide down to third man.

Heath Streak, who had been unusually subdued until then, got into the act with a lusty stepping-out straight six off Harbhajan, but was out as soon as the new-ball was taken, misjudging the pace of a fullish delivery on his legs and hitting it straight to SS Das at square leg(227 for 8). Streak's 24 came off 70 balls, an unusually gritty innings from a man who usually likes to get on with the job.

Friend was joined by Ray Price, and got on with it soon enough. He hit three cracking fours off Zaheer in the same over where he took Streak's wicket. A backfoot cover-drive was followed by an elegant offdrive, and then a crashing square drive that left Zaheer looking somewhat stunned. Price held firm, and the two were unseparated at stumps.

The day had begun well for Zimbabwe, as they scored 60 runs in the first session of the day, for the loss of only Trevor Gripper(5). He nicked one from Zaheer Khan and Deep Dasgupta took a good low catch to his right (12 for 1). But Stuart Carlisle and Alistair Campbell dug in, and India's five-man bowling attack – Sanjay Bangar came into the team in place of Virender Sehwag – could not make further inroads, on a pitch which offered no assistance at all.

Campbell played some glorious straight drives off Srinath, which revived memories of the 102 he had scored on this very ground just 15 months ago. But the leitmotif of Campbell's cricketing career has been the squandering of good starts, and he duly obliged after lunch, hitting Kumble uppishly to VVS Laxman at short cover (118 for 2). His excellent 57 had set the Zims up for a big score, and his dismissal gave them a perfect starting point for a collapse.

Andy Flower came in, but had no answer to an inswinging yorker from Zaheer Khan which beat his hurried jab and crashed joyously into the leg-stump (125 for 3). The Indians exploded in joy, believing that with Flower gone, Zimbabwe would not start giving it away. They weren't all wrong.

Inspired by the exploits of his new-ball partner, Javagal Srinath produced a snorter which climbed from short of a length, took the handle of Gavin Rennie's bat, and lobbed gently to substitute fielder Virender Sehwag at third slip. Rennie had made 9, Zimbabwe was 151 for 4.

Carlisle had looked in an aggressive frame of mind after lunch, smashing Harbhajan Singh for a four and a six in front of the sightscreen and driving Srinath through the covers on the back foot, but shifted to defensive mode as the wickets started falling around him. He passed his highest Test score of 64 and seemed to be heading towards his first hundred when he ran himself out with his score on 77.

There is an old cricketing adage about never running to a misfield; non-striker Grant Flower did just that when he saw a delivery from Harbhajan Singh ricochet off Deep Dasgupta towards the legside. Flower ran, Carlisle watched, SS Das sprinted back, picked up the ball and threw it to Harbhajan at the bowler's end. Then, Carlisle ran. Too little, too late, out (175 for 5).

Seven runs later, Grant Flower was done in by an offspinner; not Harbhajan, but umpire S Venkataraghavan. Flower went for a sweep off a shortish delivery from Anil Kumble, and the ball jutted off his arm up in the air, behind the keeper. Rahul Dravid ran around and caught it safely, and Venkat upheld the appeal (182 for 6). Flower had made 14.

Taibu came in, gritted it out for a while, but fell to Kumble. And then, Friend got into the act.

Teams
Zimbabwe 1 Stuart Carlisle (capt), 2 Trevor Gripper, 3 Alistair Campbell, 4 Gavin Rennie, 5 Andy Flower, 6 Grant Flower, 7 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 8 Heath Streak, 9 Travis Friend, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Brighton Watambwa.

India 1 Shiv Sunder Das, 2 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Javagal Srinath.

Amit Varma is assistant editor at Wisden.com India
S Rajesh is sub editor at Wisden.com India.

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