Tendulkar, Dravid make merry as India amass 609

The Indians may not be consistent, but the Zimbabweans sure are predictable. When it comes to bowling on Indian wickets, Heath Streak and his motley crew have no idea how to approach the task. Their speedster Henry Olonga is a case in point. After roaring in for a few overs attempting to send down the fastest delivery in the history of the game, he settles down to being more sedate, if not more sensible. When it comes to spinners Brian Murphy, Grant Flower and Dirk Viljoen, the less said the better. Uniformly, the Zimbabwean bowlers, barring the captain himself, bowled on every spot in the pitch. Short, full, wide of off stump, down leg side... Everything was tried but the simple short of a length outside the off stump delivery. The result, India amassed 609 before declaring with four wickets still in hand. Sachin Tendulkar made a masterly 201 not out and Rahul Dravid helped himself to 162. The two put on 249 runs together. For the first time since Mark Taylor's Australians conceded 633/5 declared to India in Calcutta in early 1998, India crossed the six hundred run mark. That was two and a half years ago. One would certainly have to go back much longer to find an instance where India made six hundred runs abroad.

The day began positively for India. After a few quick singles Dravid struck a boundary to reach ninety-nine. On reaching that score, he slowed down, ever so briefly. Carefully playing out almost two overs, Dravid finally brought up his century. Having done so, it was back to business as usual. Dravid quickly got busy cracking the bowlers away. He began by welcoming Grant Flower to the wicket by hitting him out of the ground over long on. Playing several such shots against the left arm spinners, Dravid was unafraid to take the aerial route. Meanwhile, Tendulkar threatened to catch up with his counterpart. Reaching his century off 155 balls, Tendulkar opened his shoulders and began to take a serious liking to the Zimbabwe bowlers. The pair went in to the pavilion to enjoy a sumptuous lunch, till then untroubled and unconquered.

While the crowd eagerly awaited a surfeit of runs and no wickets lost in the session between lunch and tea, they were in for a disappointment. Instead, the Indians added just 83 runs for the loss of two wickets.

After reaching 162 without stuttering, Dravid inexplicably went after a bouncer that was well down the leg side from Streak and gloved the ball through to the wicketkeeper. The nature of the pitch and the bowling attack made it look like Dravid had missed out on a good opportunity. However, one must remember that he spent more than six and a half hours at the wicket and struck twenty fours.

Coming in to bat with 473 runs already on the board must be quite awkward. Sourav Ganguly certainly found it so. In a two paced innings where he was either blocking the ball or going for huge hits, Ganguly managed 30 before miscuing one such big hit, only to be caught at mid off.

Ajit Agarkar (12), as he has done many times in the past, promised much and delivered little. Fortunately Sunil Joshi came in and smacked the ball around for a sprightly 27 in the company of Tendulkar. This brought stumper Dahiya out to the middle. He was given just four minutes at the crease by Tendulkar. Reaching the second double century of his Test career in 392 minutes, Tendulkar exulted. In a repeat of the last Test, India declared their innings closed as soon as a batsman reached his double hundred. In Delhi it was Dravid and today, Tendulkar. The Mumbai batting star's 201 included 27 hits to the fence, but not once did he attempt to hit the ball all the way over the ropes. At a massive 609/6 India declared their innings closed.

In response, Zimbabwe sent Guy Whittall to open the innings in place of Grant Flower who bagged a pair in the Delhi Test. In the eighteen overs that were bowled, Zimbabwe managed to reach 59/1. The wicket that fell was of Gavin Rennie, being needlessly run out. Whittall (34 not out) and Stuart Carlisle (4 not out) saw Zimbabwe through to stumps without further damage.