Whittall, Grant Flower fight hard in uphill battle

Ajit Agarkar should never ever be given the new ball again. The feisty Mumbai mediumpacer displayed such maturity bowling with the old ball today that he should be asked to do just that at all times. Although he has come in for a lot of flak for his recent bowling form, Agarkar regained some lost pride after his performance today. On a pitch where no fast bowler got any assistance, Agarkar managed to extract reverse swing even when the ball was just forty odd overs old. Using reverse swing to superb effect, Agarkar scalped two good wickets, that of Stuart Carlisle and the all important one of Andy Flower. Aided by Agarkar, India picked six Zimbabwe first innings wickets while the visitors amassed a healthy 359 runs, 50 less than what they need to avoid being asked to follow on.

If Agarkar impressed then Sharandeep Singh certainly announced his arrival on the international scene with a bang. The twenty-one year old off spinner from Punjab scalped two wickets in the space of ten balls and set Zimbabwe firmly on the back foot at 166/4. Brought into the attack for just two overs before the luncheon interval, Sharandeep came good after lunch. Whatever the Sardar ate for lunch, it certainly did wonders for his bowling. Extracting good turn from the wicket, Sharandeep made the ball jump on the batsmen, and this was the singular reason for the dismissal of both Guy Whittall and Alistair Campbell. The first to go was the southpaw, presenting Sadagopan Ramesh at silly mid off with a sharp chance. Having floored a similar chance earlier when Campbell was yet to get off the mark, Ramesh made no mistake the second time around. Diving to his right, Ramesh scooped up the ball centimetres from the ground and Campell (4) made the long walk back to the pavilion.

Given the context of the game and the stubborn manner in which Whittall had resisted the Indian bowlers, his wicket might very well have been even more crucial than Campbell's. Trying to turn a ball from Sharandeep behind square, Whittall only managed to glove the ball to Rahul Dravid at leg slip. Whittall's effective, if not entirely chanceless innings of 84 (12 fours, 164 balls) had come to an end.

The period of play soon after lunch when Sharandeep Singh and Ajit Agarkar were bowling was the only time that the Indians bowled with any real intensity. It was a serious case of blow-hot blow-cold otherwise and the Zimbabweans capitalised on this. No one more so than Grant Flower. Having bagged a pair in the Delhi Test, Grant Flower was demoted to number six. At the end of the day, this has to be viewed as a wise decision. Hitting the ball crisply around the park, Grant Flower remained unbeaten on 91 when stumps was called. In the course of his 220 minute essay, Grant Flower used his feet well to the spinners. Sharandeep Singh who met with early success was at the receiving end of this ploy on more than one occasion. Against the mediumpacers, Grant Flower took more chances than would have appealed to the purists. Then again, none of the balls that flew off the edge of his bat went to hand.

The same can't be said of Andy Flower or Dirk Viljoen. When Andy Flower (55) went after a widish ball from Agarkar he looked back in dismay as Vijay Dahiya dived to his left and picked up a good low catch. There were murmurs that India's wicketkeeper problems were finally solved. If any further proof was needed, it came soon after when Viljoen slashed hard at a quick delivery from Zaheer Khan. Just when it looked like the ball would fly over the head of first slip Dahiya leapt across and plucked the ball out of the air. The sensational catch left Dahiya winded but a little medical attention got him back on his feet in a hurry.

Zimbabwean skipper Heath Streak joined Grant Flower in the middle and saw Zimbabwe safely through to stumps. The pair will return tomorrow with the score on 359/6 to continue the quest to save this match. Although the visitors did better than expected on the third day, there is still a lot of hard work to be done if they want to save this Test.