It was the Test-match eve and the Indian teams net session was winding up. Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma had missed breakfast,and since it was 3.30 pm already,the two pacemen were getting hunger pangs. With no fear of being mobbed here in Hamilton,they opted to pick up something on their way to the team hotel. As the duo walked off,the only thing missing from the picture was Zaheer Khan the bond between the left-arm seamer and the two apprentices is there for everyone to see. There is constant banter between them during nets and theyre almost always seen together after practice. On Wednesday morning,Zaheer triggered the New Zealand collapse with two wickets in successive overs (Martin Guptill caught in the slips for 14 and Daniel Flynn snapped up down the leg-side for a duck). When Rahul Dravid held on,after a slight fumble,to send back Guptill,he equalled Mark Waughs world record of 181 catches. Incidentally,the former Indian skipper could even have gone past later in the day,but failed to hold on to a sharp edge off Harbhajan Singhs bowling. After Zaheers opening burst,Ishant and Munaf took over. Ishant first got through the defences of the dangerous Ross Taylor,and then induced the outside edge off the dogged Tim McIntosh. He was lucky to pick up the wicket of James Franklin,the ball going off the pad to Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the Kiwis kept crumbling. Munaf then chipped in with a ball that rose sharply and clipped the shoulder of Brendon McCullums bat,before Jesse Ryder and Daniel Vettori came together for the days defining partnership. While Ishants success was expected,Munafs show was the icing on the cake. In the lead-up to the Test,he hadnt quite been in the thick of action in the nets,with Laxmipathy Balaji doing the hard yards instead. Such was the ambiguity over Munaf that coach Gary Kirsten and skipper MS Dhoni were asked if all was well with the seamer with a dodgy fitness record. Doubts were cleared when Munaf was named in the XI and,after the first days show,the fears were proved wrong. Munaf kept things tight when Ishant was taking wickets from the other end,and there was a spring in his step after he picked up McCullums wicket. His shoulders didnt drop even as Vettori and Ryder put the attack to the sword on a pitch that eased considerably after lunch. And just when things were gradually drifting away from India,he struck to get the visitors on top once again. As Vettori edged behind the stumps,Munaf broke into a superman-like celebration,all the while looking at Sharma who was running in towards him from fine leg. The two added another wicket each to their tally after that and the Kiwis had been restricted to 279. The Vettori-Ryder partnership had done enough to keep this Test match alive there was a strong possibility of a rout when the teams went for lunch but despite the fightback,Indias pace trio had done enough to justify Dhonis decision to bowl first on a track that didnt really have the demons of 2003.
