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More nervous nineties
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 28, 2002
Dion Ebrahim, who missed his maiden Test hundred by six runs, made his highest first-class score, surpassing his 90 for Mashonaland A in a domestic game last season.
For the second time, two Zimbabweans were out in 90s in the same innings. Andy Flower (92) and Ebrahim (94), today, were preceded by Craig Wishart (93) and Andy Blignaut (92) in the second innings of the Harare Test against West Indies last July.
It was the fifth time two batsmen were dismissed in their 90s against India. The earlier instances are: Raman Subba Row (94) & Mike Smith (98) for England at The Oval in August 1959; Alvin Kallicharran (98) & Deryck Murray (91) at the Wankhede Stadium in January 1975; Jonty Rhodes (91) & Brian McMcMillan (98) for South Africa at Johannesburg in November 1992 and Jacques Kallis (95) & Lance Klusener (97) at Bangalore in March 2000.
Anil Kumble set a new bowling high at Kotla. Tatenda Taibu was Kumble's 33rd Test wicket at this ground, bettering the previous high of 32 set by Kapil Dev. Kumble later increased his ground record to 34 Test wickets.
With 30 wickets each against their names, Javagal Srinath and Kumble shared the top spot for the highest number of wickets taken against Zimbabwe by an Indian bowler.
Sourav Ganguly's unbeaten 78 was his highest since his 98 not out against Sri Lanka at Kandy in August 2001. Since then he had gone 11 innings without a fifty.
This was Ganguly's highest score against Zimbabwe, bettering his unbeaten 65 at Kotla in November 2000.
The combination of the Feroz Shah Kotla and Javagal Srinath isn't good news for Zimbabwe. When Srinath bowled Stuart Carlisle with the fourth ball of the match, Zimbabwe had lost a wicket without a run on the board for the second Test running at this ground. The only difference was that on November 18, 2000, it had taken Srinath three overs to castle Grant Flower.
Carlisle became the first Zimbabwean to record a second duck while captain, after his 0 against Bangladesh in Dhaka last November. This was his fifth duck in 27 Tests. Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell are the other Zimbabwean captains to have been dismissed without scoring.
When Harbhajan Singh had Andy Flower caught at forward short leg for 92, it was the first time he had been out in the nineties in a Test in the nineties. He was out for 86 against Sri Lanka at Bulawayo in November 1999. But he is not the only Flower to be dismissed in the nineties at Delhi - brother Grant fell for 96 in March 1993.
Andy Flower's aggregate in Tests at Delhi now stands at 522 in three matches. Only Dilip Vengsarkar (671 runs in eight matches) and Sunil Gavaskar (668 in nine) have scored more at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
With Heath Streak's wicket, Anil Kumble equalled Kapil Dev's record of most wickets at this ground, with 32.
When he reached 72, Dion Ebrahim broke a jinx. He had managed to get out for 71 three times before - against West Indies at Bulawayo in July 2001, and against South Africa at Harare and Bulawayo in September 2001. His previous-highest score outside Zimbabwe was 41 against Bangladesh at Chittagong last November. Before this match Ebrahim had never scored a first-class century - 90 was his highest score.
Mohandas Menon is the leading cricket statistician in India.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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