Delhi Test, Day 4, Lunch
Sunday, March 3, 2002

Though a lot of time was lost yesterday, the weather conditions have favoured India in this Test. When India were batting yesterday, the sun didn't come out at all, and, as a result, the pitch didn't wear much. Virender Sehwag was even able to play on the rise, which went to prove that the surface was fairly true.

The sun is out today, and that will be an important factor in the outcome of the match. The pitch will be dry and the rough will get more exaggerated as the ball takes off a bit of soil every time it pitches there.

The effects could already be seen in Harbhajan Singh's fantastic spell. Although he hasn't got it to turn alarmingly, the ball is fairly new and the seam is hard, so he is gaining about 6-8 inches of extra bounce which is really making the difference. It was certainly the extra bounce that did in Alistair Campbell, and to an extent, Andy Flower too. The smartest move that Harbhajan made was to attack the left-handers from round the wicket straight away.

To Zimbabwe's credit, they were trying to play attacking cricket, which is good for Test cricket. It's just that they're a bit short on batting class. And they had one go against them too - TV replays showed that Rahul Dravid's catch for Trevor Gripper might not have been clean. However, I'm not a big believer in technology and things like this happen in a game of cricket.

India's batting performance in the morning was disappointing but frankly, too much was expected from the tail. There was talk of a lead of 150 runs from some of the Indian players, which was always unrealistic. Sourav Ganguly's dismissal in the first over of the day, made that target impossible.

As things stand though, Harbhajan is on fire, and has given India a very good chance to force a result.

Sanjay Manjrekar, stalwart of the Indian batting in the early `90s, was talking to Rahul Bhattacharya.

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