Grant Flower holds fort for Zimbabwe

At stumps, Zimbabwe needed 51 runs with four wickets remaining to save themselves from the humiliation of batting again.

Undoubtedly, Ramesh must be blamed for granting Zimbabwe the much-needed advantage by dropping a sharp catch by Alistair Campbell (then on zero) off debutant off spinner Sarandeep Singh. Staurt Carlisle, who was dropped by Ramesh on the second day, went on to score a half-century which should definitely have major bearing on the Zimbabwe innings if they do manage to save the day on the morrow.

In what could only be looked upon as a saving grace, Ramesh made up somewhat for his earlier blunders when he caught Alistair Campbell at silly point off Sarandeep, who was quite worked up because of the sloppy close-in fielding, barring SS Das and Rahul Dravid’s comparatively better show. Later, Dravid added to the debutant’s party by making no mistake in catching opener Guy Whittal (84).

Surprisingly, the placid rectangle did offer some assistance to the bowlers on Monday. Ajit Agarkar made the most of it despite having Whittal dropped by Sachin Tendulkar at first slip during his spectacular morning spell. He took no chances with the fielders after that, catching danger man Carlisle off his own bowling. Agarkar’s was a thrilling spell this morning even as Srinath and Zaheer Khan failed to live upto expectations.

Sarandeep too enjoyed the pitch initially, despite getting hammered all over later, especially by Grant Flower, who took Zimbabwe withing sight of saving the follow on in tandem with younger sibling Andy.

But for a man playing his first match, the Punjab offie did what was expected of him after replacing Sunil Joshi. He put every batsman under pressure from the pavilion end by cleverly using the foot marks created by his seamer colleagues. Like a seasoned spinner, he did not lose heart as Grant came down heavily on him, hitting the offie over mid-on for a huge six and two fours in a single over.Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly tried Sarandeep’s art of spin from the other end also, but that yielded no desirable result. The Flowers continued flaying the Indian attack in style. They added 96 runs for the fifth wicket taking Zimbabwe to 262 from 166 for 4. Andy gifted his valuable wicket to Agarkar, who would like to thank wicketkeeper Dahiya for a thrilling diving catch which saw the stumper crying in pain.

Apart from Zimbabwe’s gallant batting effort and India’s lost chances, the third day’s play was marked by an outstanding response from the cricket-crazy public who thwarted a ‘bandh call’ given by the Vidarbha separatists.

Scoreboard
INDIA: (1st Innings): 609 for 6 decl ZIMBABWE: (1st Innings): Overnight 59 for 1Guy Whittal c Dravid b Sharandeep Singh (164b, 246mts, 12×4) 84
Gavin Rennie run out (27b, 55mts, 2×4) 19
Stuart Carlisle c & b Agarkar (103b, 134mts, 8×4) 51
Alistair Campbell c Ramesh b Sharandeep Singh (35b, 41mts, 1×4) 4
Andy Flower c Dahiya b Agarkar (92b, 122mts, 4×4, 2×6) 55
Grant Flower batting (160b, 220mts, 12×4, 3×6) 91Dirk Viljoen c Dahiya b Z Khan (42b, 71mts, 2×4) 19
Heath Streak batting (28b, 25mts, 2×4) 16
Extras: (nb-3, b-6, lb-11) 20
TOTAL: (for 6 wkts, 108 overs) 359
Fall of wickets:1-43, 2-144, 3-165, 4-166, 5-262, 6-324.
Bowling: Srinath 22-4-78-0, Zaheer Khan 21-3-8-1, Joshi 21-6-55-0, Agarkar 21-7-54-2, Sharandeep Singh 22-7-70-2, Tendulkar 1-0-7-0.