Delhi Test, Day 2, Lunch
Friday, March 1, 2002

The Zimbabwe total of 329 might just force Sourav Ganguly to have a few words with his bowlers. Against the weakest batting line-up in the world, India made heavy weather of dismissing the tail. It's been India's fatal flaw for a while now, and there were no sign of improvement today.

The most disappointing bowler on view was Javagal Srinath. He doesn't seem to have the balls –in a cricketing sense, of course – to dismiss tail-end batsmen. The yorker can be a lethal delivery in such circumstances but once Travis Friend went after him, he was reduced to bowling at a good length.

Watching India struggle against a tail that battled hard, you wondered how a team like Pakistan might have coped. They have developed the welcome habit of being able to blow tails away and I don't think these Zimbabwe batsmen would have hung around too long against them.

After getting rid of the top order fairly quickly, and limiting Andy Flower to a mere 92, India will be none too pleased about conceding 329. Finally, they had to rely on a spinner bowling quick yorkers – Anil Kumble – to get the breakthrough. The total represents an upswing in Zimbabwe's fortunes and it will certainly test India.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the early 1990s, was talking to Dileep Premachandran.

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