After batting with unaccustomed professionalism in the opening two matches, India were back to bad habits at the Nehru Stadium. There are two simple benchmarks to rate a one-day innings. If you keep the number of dot balls to 50% or less, then you've done really well. Similarly, if the ratio of singles to dots nudges close to one, it's a job well done. In the opening two matches, the percentage of dot balls that India played out were 46.7 (141 out of 302) and 45.7 (138 out of 302) respectively. Here, it ballooned to 62.3% (182 dots from 292 balls), dismal by any standards. Ironically, Mohammad Kaif and Sanjay Bangar – who rebuilt the innings – were the worst culprits, playing out 84 dot balls between them.

Zimbabwe's pace bowlers, Douglas Hondo (8.3-0-37-4) and Pommie Mbangwa (10-2-31-1), devastated India with tried and tested methods. They chose the direct line – Hondo pitched on or outside middle stump 81 % of the time, while the figure for Mbangwa was an astonishing 97 %. India were also undone by length - Mbangwa bowled 50 of his 60 deliveries on a good length (and not a half-volley in sight), while Hondo pitched on the spot 26 times out of 52. He also bowled 16 half-volleys, which the batsmen punished to the tune of 20 runs. Quite clear from those figures that it was Mbangwa who tied the Indians down for Hondo to carve them apart.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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