Zimbabwe have a lot to prove

Considering how new entrants to the Test arena had fared, Zimbabwe's performance in their inaugural Test against India at Harare in October, 1992 was quite heart-warming. They not only had the better of a drawn game but also displayed many of the qualities required to succeed in Test cricket. Given this background, it was a fairly confident Zimbabwe side that came to India for a return visit a few months later. But they soon discovered that tackling India on the designer home pitches was going to be anything but a breeze. The Indians, always formidable at home and then in the midst of their remarkable run of ten consecutive victories in this country, won the one-off Test and all the three one-day internationals and at the end of it all, the Zimbabwe players must have learnt a few lessons.

All the same it must be said that given their limited experience of Test cricket and the fact that they were playing in alien conditions, Zimbabwe did not go down tamely in the big game at New Delhi. The scorebook may show that India won by an innings and 13 runs but till about half-an-hour after lunch on the fourth day, the match was virtually written off as a draw.

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For, in reply to India's 536 for seven declared, Zimbabwe were 275 for three with the Flower brothers well-entrenched in a near double-century partnership. Indeed, they were well set to join Ian and Greg Chappell and Mushtaq and Sadiq Mohammed as the third pair of brothers to make centuries in the same Test innings. But at this stage, a sudden rush of blood saw Andy Flower give leftarm spinner Maninder Singh the charge only for debutant Vijay Yadav to effect an easy stumping. In Maninder's next over, Grant Flower was leg-before and Zimbabwe's defiance against the spin trio of Maninder, Anil Kumble and Rajesh Chauhan, was well and truly at an end. So sharp was the collapse that by tea the visitors were following on.

The first two days had been dominated by the Indian batsmen, or more specifically by Vinod Kambli. In hitting 227, the lefthander, then 21 and playing in only his fourth Test, joined legends Bradman and Hammond in making double centuries in two successive Tests. Just three weeks earlier, the gifted, freestroking batsman had made 224 against England. Kambli was involved in successive century stands for the second, third and fourth wickets with Navjot Sidhu, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin. He came threateningly close to surpassing Sunil Gavaskar's 236 not out - the highest individual score for India in Tests ­ before giving a return catch to 45-year-old spinner John Traicos.

By the time Azharuddin declared, it was already lunch on the third day; there being very little play on the second day, thanks to primitive covers which a minor shower penetrated to reach the pitch and render the run-ups soggy. Zimbabwe lost three wickets for 83 before the Flower brothers took centrestage with their long partnership. Andy was out for 115 and Grant for 96 and the rest of the batting offered little resistance as Chauhan (2), Kumble (3) and Maninder (3) took quick wickets.

With the pitch deteriorating, Zimbabwe had little chance once they had failed to avoid the follow-on by 15 runs. And midway through the final afternoon, they were all out for 201 in the second innings to leave India comfortable winners, after all the anxious moments they had faced. Alistair Campbell scored 61 and Andy Flower again defied the spinners in making an unbeaten 62, a subdued innings that lasted 214 minutes and 191 balls. In all, the pugnacious left-hander spent more than eight hours at the crease to ensure that Zimbabwe, though beaten, were far from disgraced. This time Maninder (4) and Kumble (5) hastened the end. The leg-spinner's haul brought his career tally to 53 from ten Tests, making him the quickest Indian bowler to reach the 50- Test wickets landmark.

After this engrossing encounter, the one-dayers were quite anticlimactic with India underlining their overwhelming superiority, the margins of victory being 67 runs, seven wickets and eight wickets.

By the time Zimbabwe next visited India early in the 2000-2001 season, they had gained enough international experience and had run up a fairly good record which included a victory over India at Harare in 1998. But again they found that taking on India in India was a very different proposition.

They lost the first Test at New Delhi by seven wickets and drew the second at Nagpur after being obliged to follow-on. They also lost the five match one-day series by four matches to one. It became quickly obvious that whatever the batting strength of the visiting side, the bowling was very weak. The fact that India notched up totals of 458 for four declared, 190 for three and 609 for six declared in the Tests underlines this fact. Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar got a century and double century each. Dravid in fact headed the Test figures with a freakish average of 432.00 for as many runs. Tendulkar, for his part, averaged 181.00.

The Zimbabwe bowlers finished with the kind of figures they would see in their worst nightmares. The visiting batsmen, however, showed why they made distinct progress since the early days and none symbolised this more than Andy Flower. The wicket-keeper batsman was a veritable thorn in the flesh for the Indian bowlers as his scores in the two match series will indicate ­ 183 not out, 70, 55 and 232 not out. An aggregate of 540 runs at an average of 270.00 brought out the concentration and insatiable appetite for runs that has characterised Flower's batting. He batted for a total of 1331 minutes and faced 1021 deliveries - all quite mind-boggling.

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Indeed, it was just one batting collapse that cost Zimbabwe the series. They led off with 422 at New Delhi and after India took a first innings lead of 36, they were dismissed for 225 in the second innings. India then raced to victory with Dravid and Sourav Ganguly sharing an unbroken 110-run stand for the fourth wicket. Dravid incidentally had scores of 200 not out and 70 not out. But the man-of-the-match award went to Javagal Srinath who had a haul of nine wickets.

In the second Test, the Indian batsmen made merry at the expense of some innocuous Zimbabwe bowling and Shiv Sundar Das (110) and Dravid (162) got hundreds while Tendulkar got his second double century in Tests. Grant Flower with an unbeaten 106 shone as Zimbabwe replied with 382.

Following on, Zimbabwe were in trouble at 61 for three. But a fourth wicket partnership of 209 runs between Alistair Campbell (102) and Andy Flower put them in safe waters and Zimbabwe at close were 503 for six.

In the one-day internationals, India's superiority was quite marked. The margins of victory were by three wickets, 61 runs, nine wickets and 39 runs while Zimbabwe's lone win was in the third game in which they squeaked home by one wicket.

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