Close India 319 for 6 (Ganguly 135*, Sehwag 74) trail Zimbabwe 329 (Ebrahim 94, Andy Flower 92) by 10 runs
scorecard

A severely curtailed day of cricket began India's way and finished Zimbabwe's, though it now appears that a draw is in the offing at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Significantly for India, Sourav Ganguly ended his drought of Test centuries. He made 135 not out, high on determination and not short on class. It means that he will lead India to the West Indies in April.

On a grey day, though, the 47 overs of cricket were far from dreary. Virender Sehwag stroked a glamorous 74 and, had the weather held, crowds would have thronged in once word got around Delhi that their latest poster-boy was turning it on at the Kotla. He was busy dancing down the track and straight-driving Ray Price for four in the first over he faced. Soon he was tucking into Heath Streak too, and he moved to within three of his half-century by lunch.

Only 17 overs were possible in the first session, but that was a lot compared to the six between lunch and tea. It was in this period that Ganguly reached his first Test hundred in two-and-a-half years with a half-pull half-guide to fine leg off Heath Streak. For a man so publicly chastised for his batting form, an emotional celebration was in order. Instead, there was a grim acknowledgement to the dressing-room and a fleeting thank-you to the big man above; there was work still to be done. Pleasing for Ganguly must have been the high percentage of runs on the leg side, particularly with the pull.

Following another frustrating delay after tea, both Sehwag and Ganguly batted with a freedom that made all of India wonder just what all the fuss about Price was. Sehwag twice inside-outed him effortlessly through the covers and Ganguly crashed him through the off side three times in succession.

Just when Zimbabwe's 329 was beginning to appear a formality, Streak broke through. A ball after Andy Flower, at a wide first slip, had spilled a thickish edge, Streak's inswinger trapped Sehwag lbw for 74 (265 for 5). An astonishing 86.5 per cent of Sehwag's runs had come in boundaries.

Sanjay Bangar had made only 4 when Stuart Carlisle and Tatenda Taibu took advantage of his mix-up with Ganguly to run him out. That was 280 for 6, and the cue for India to shut up shop for the day. The last hour of play brought only 27 runs as Anil Kumble and Ganguly walled themselves in.

Things stand fairly even at the end of the third day, though India still have a chance to seize victory if they turn in an inspired session or two with the bat tomorrow. No-one would bet against a draw.

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

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

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com India.

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