Ashish Nehra, the 22-year-old left-arm seamer from Delhi is our 'Player of the fortnight'. Nehra made his debut for India, in the Asian Test Championship against Sri Lanka a couple of years ago. His consistent performance with the ball did not go unnoticed. Nehra has been a rediscovery on the Zimbabwe tour; he did create a good impression by picking up 5 wickets in the Bulawayo Test match, which India won handsomely.

The Bulawayo Test match did bring disappointment too for this young medium-pacer. He was barred from bowling in the latter part of Zimbabwe second innings, for running on the danger area of the pitch. The last two weeks have seen Nehra put behind those incidents.

India lost the second Test match at Harare to a fighting Zimbabwean outfit. Nehra was the best bowler in the first innings taking 4/72 and in the second innings he picked 2/45. Nehra doesn't really have the pace of someone like Ajit Agarkar, but makes it up with good use of swinging the ball both ways.

For a left-hander bowling over the stumps, to seam and swing the ball back into the right-handed batsman is a difficult thing. Nehra seems to have mastered the art and had all the Zimbabwe batsmen in trouble. If the Indian batsmen had put up a bigger total to defend, Nehra would have ended up with more wickets in the Test match.

In the first One-Day International against Zimbabwe, Nehra gave India a great start by picking up the wicket of their leading batsman, Alistair Campbell for a duck, with the second ball of the match. It was a perfect out-swinger and all that Campbell could do was edge it to the keeper. Zimbabwe never got over that shocking start. He also went on to pick the wicket of Dirk Viljoen to complete his quota of overs in one go, 10-2-33-2.

In the second One-Day International Nehra bowled a tidy length and line and finished with 10-0-31-0. Ashish Nehra gets the vote above the other contenders for his remarkable bowling as well as for the character he has shown all through this tour of Zimbabwe. This young man has miles and miles of cricket in him; his best is yet to come.

Inside Stuff Nehra episode an unsavoury controversy ... [ More ] My hard work has paid off, says Nehra ... [ More ] Wright will do India a lot of good, says Ashish Nehra ... [ More ] Forgotten seamer gives India hope of elusive Test win abroad ... [ More ] Audio Interview ... [ More ]

Milestones India v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo [ Scorecard | Ball-by-ball ] India v Zimbabwe at Harare [ Scorecard | Ball-by-ball ] StatsGuru analysis of Nehra [ More ] Hercules Champion ... [ More ]