Zimbabwe in the dumps

The difference in the batting styles of India and Zimbabwe on day four of the first Test was stark. India, looking to score swiftly, batted at a frenetic pace and raced to 133 runs off 21 overs this morning and declared at 570 for 7.

Zimbabwe, in contrast, were battling it out for a draw, after facing a hostile spell of spin bowling. At 152 for 4, the tourists need 131 runs more to make India bat again.

Rookie all-rounder Sanjay Bangar knocked off his maiden Test hundred and left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan re-discovered his deadly yorkers. India, save for the weather, seem to have taken the Zimbabweans by the scruff of the neck in this first of the two-Test series.

Indian innings

India started their innings looking to step on the gas and adding another 100-120 runs to the overnight lead of 150, thereby not having to bat again in the Test. Heath Streak started proceedings, with skipper Stuart Carlisle surprisingly opting for the new ball, and the first over itself cost nine runs. More mayhem was to follow soon.

Carlisle made the same cardinal error the previous morning on day three by going for the new ball when Tendulkar was struggling to play Ray Price with the old ball on a wearing pitch. Overnight batsman Sanjay Bangar smashed Ray Price in the next over for four and followed it up with another couple of fours in the bowler's next over, with the inside out stroke through the covers the highlight of his innings this morning.

When the duo reached their 97-run partnership, Bangar and Tendulkar had broken the record partnership set by Sanjay Manjrekar and Kapil Dev for the sixth wicket -- of 96 against Zimbabwe in their inaugural Test at Harare in 1992.

Streak strayed down leg-side and the unforgiving bat of Tendulkar duly sent it packing to the fence as he reached 150 runs -- his ninth 150-plus score in Tests.

Tendulkar played a copybook square-cut off Heath Streak to extend the lead to 200 runs.

Bangar scored his maiden Test fifty, lofting Price on the full to the long off boundary. The all-rounder chipped another boundary through extra cover. His fifty off 119 balls, with eight fours, gave a fillip to the Indian innings this morning after a rather sluggish day's play yesterday.

In the 10 overs bowled in the morning session, 65 runs were scored at the rate of 6.5 an over. The effortlessness with which Tendulkar and Bangar batted this morning on the same wicket that seemed to be difficult was quite baffling.

Bangar went after the first change of the morning, Grant Flower, dispatching him to the extra cover boundary to get into the sixties and then cleared the long on fence for maximum to screech into the seventies.

Bangar simply went berserk against the spinners and forced Tendulkar take the back seat in the morning session. Such was the ease with which the Indian duo batted that Tendulkar, probably out of sheer boredom, reverse swept the last ball before drinks to the fence.

Tendulkar, after trying a reverse sweep, danced down to Price and top-edged the red to Andy Flower at extra cover, giving Ray Price his five-wicket haul. He walked back to the pavilion with 176 runs, scored off 316 balls, and India on 546 for 6.

Zaheer Khan walked in and walked out with his wickets castled by Watambwa for a duck. 547/7.

After the fall of the two quick wickets and on reaching the nervous nineties in only his second Test, Bangar lost momentum as he seemed eager to get to his maiden Test hundred. With a delicate touch down to the third man fence, opening the face of the bat, he reached 98. An overthrow got him his maiden Test ton, which came off 155 balls. Immediately, skipper Ganguly employed the mercy rule, forcing the Zimbabweans to bat the 10 minutes before the lunch break.

One conspicuous feature of Bangar's batting was the number of runs he scored in the V -- 40, as against the number of runs the entire team scored in that area -- 78. Surprisingly, Tendulkar scored a mere eight runs in the 'V' in his marathon knock of 316 balls.

The discovery of Bangar, who opens for Railways in the domestic league, gives India the comfort of playing Tests with five-specialist bowlers, and, maybe, India's search for a genuine all-rounder might be on the right track.

Zimbabwe 2nd Innings

Skipper Carlisle played a lose shot off Srinath to find the fence; in the same over he beat point fielder Harbhajan Singh to find the fence again. And the skipper was no done yet, flicking one of his legs to the mid-wicket fence for another four.

Kumble opened the bowling from the other end with four around the bat to make use of the rough areas on the pitch. Carlisle dealt in boundaries with Srinath, driving another one through extra cover. The four overs Zimbabwe faced before lunch fetched 20 runs.

Post Lunch Session

Skipper Carlisle seemed more positive in the second innings looking to attack the bowling. Zaheer Khan provided the breakthrough -- a lucky one, trapping Carlisle in front, with one that pitched a few inches outside leg-stump, for 28, leaving Zimbabwe at 32-1.

The prompt decision from umpire Venkat seemed debatable, with the replays showing the ball pitching well outside the line of the stumps.

First innings half-centurion Campbell seemed self-assured at the crease, taking every opportunity to score. A drive through covers off an over-pitched Kumble delivery got Zimbabwe to fifty for the loss of one wicket.

Trevor Gripper, at the other end, seemed to have stuck to the crease and though he didn't get a move on he held one end up. Zimbabwe played at a snail's pace, scoring 60 runs in the post-tea session which ended with Campbell edging Kumble to Laxman at first slip for 30 runs.

Zimbabwe went into tea at 80 for 2 still 203 runs in arrears to avoid an innings defeat.

Post Tea Session

Umpire Venkataraghavan's stern 'no-nonsense' attitude on the field, giving a mouthful to the Indian close-in fielders for excessive appealing, was a sterling example to be emulated by other international umpires to discount the unwarranted controversies that plague international cricket.

Zaheer Khan's spells, accompanied with his deadly yorkers, were easily the best of the day, though the mantra of the day for the Indian skipper was spin, thus giving very few overs to Khan.

At 99 for 2 Kumble went round the wicket and pushed one quickly through the air, finding Andy Flower's edge for keeper Deep Dasgupta to grass a tough chance. Adding insult to injury, the beneficiary of the dropped chance drove Kumble to the fence in the very same over.

The highlight of the post-tea session was the confrontation of skills between Andy Flower and Anil Kumble. The leggie threw every poser in his repertoire at the classy Flower, who, not in the best of his patches, braved it.

Having played Kumble, summoning all his reserves of concentration, Andy Flower finally surrendered to one that kicked, fending at it and looping the ball to Rahul Dravid at silly point.

Flower departed at 103/3, and with him Zimbabwe's chances to draw the game seemed all but over.

The spin duo of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble seemed unplayable after that as they made the ball do everything except talk.

Harbhajan, who bowled a dream spell, was unfortunate not to have got a wicket when one of his deliveries to Trevor Gripper hit the stumps but failed to dislodge the bails, leaving the keeper and slip fielders, not to mention the bowler himself, in utter disbelief.

Gripper started dourly but finally reached his half-century of 180 balls with some clean sweep shots off the tweakers and learnt the key to survive the sub-continental wickets is patience.

Just when it looked like Zimbabwe had shut shop for the day, Kumble bowled a vicious delivery that jumped at left-handed Rennie (25) and lobbed up to substitute fielder Sehwag at leg slip.

The tourists scored 72 runs in the 33 overs bowled in the post-tea session at a rate of 2.17 runs per over. At 151 for 4, Zimbabwe played out the last over from Harbhajan without further damage.

Though the damage was done already.

Scoreboard