On a slow pitch where most of the batsmen struggled to get the ball off the square, SS Das scored his runs at a perfectly acceptable clip – his 105 came off 203 balls, a strike-rate of 51.7%. A look at Das's scoring pattern is a good indicator of the methods he adopted to thwart the lack of pace in the wicket. Simultaneously, it also suggested that Zimbabwe's bowlers didn't quite get their act together.

The emphasis should have been to make the batsmen play on the front foot; yesterday, Stuart Carlisle was forced on to play forward 76% of the time (155 balls out of 204). He managed only 49 runs off those balls, but when allowed the luxury of playing back, he scored 23 runs in 38 balls.

It was a similar story today, except that Das was made to play forward less than 60% of the time (120 balls out of 203). He got just 33 runs from them, but made 67 from 71 balls when playing back. Das is not among the most accomplished back-foot players, but the slowness of the pitch allowed him to make the most of Zimbabwe's errors in length.

Das's wagon-wheel was another indicator of the lethargic nature of the track – just 8 runs in the V between mid-off and mid-on, and 66 in the region from third man to extra-cover.

S Rajesh is sub-editor of Wisden.com India.

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