da winzada777： Having lost the toss, Sourav Ganguly was forced to take the field onthe first day of the first Test in New Delhi
da heads bet： Anand Vasu18-Nov-2000Having lost the toss, Sourav Ganguly was forced to take the field onthe first day of the first Test in New Delhi. Although the toss wasnot a bad one to lose, if India had batted first, they might havemanaged to secure more of a psychological edge than was achieved at the endof one day’s bowling. However, it must be said that the healthy crowdpresent at the Ferozeshah Kotla had enough to cheer about as Indiarestricted Zimbabwe to 232/5 at stumps.Earlier, an energetic spell of fast bowling from Javagal Srinathreduced the visitors to 15/2. Scalping openers Grant Flower (0) andGavin Rennie (13) in quick succession, Srinath got the momentum goingin India’s favour. A quick delivery, slanting in to Grant Flower sawhim shoulder arms and lose the bails. Rennie edged the ball soon afterto Vijay Dahiya and the visitors were in trouble. Alistair Campbell,who has already made a century in this tour, was forced to consolidateZimbabwe’s position. For company he had Stuart Carlisle.The pair took Zimbabwe safely through to lunch at 62/2. After puttingon a 120-run partnership that defied the Indian spinners and seamersalike Carlisle succumbed. Driving hard at a Sachin Tendulkar deliverythat stopped on him, Carlisle found the hands of Sunil Joshi at cover.Carlisle’s patient knock saw Zimbabwe out of the woods, but by nomeans gave them the kind of start they would have been looking for.Occupying the crease for over three hours, Carlisle struck tenboundaries in his innings of 58.Alistair Campbell had to then shoulder most of the responsibility andhe had for company Andy Flower. Easily the top two batsmen in theZimbabwe line up, the Campbell-Andy Flower duo teamed up again.Unfortunately for the visitors, their association did not last long.After making a crucial contribution with his 70, Campbell chased aSrinath delivery and only managed to nick the ball. VVS Laxman, safeas ever in the slip cordon held a good catch and Zimbabwe were onceagain in trouble at 154/4. If they looked to Guy Whittall to help stemthe rot, they had cause to be disappointed. Attempting to sweep Joshiagainst the spin, Whittall misjudged the length of the delivery. Theball ricocheted off something, perhaps the glove, perhaps the forearmand Rahul Dravid appealed after taking a smart catch. UmpireVenkataraghavan’s lethal forefinger, once used to deliver quality offspinners, went up and Whittall was on his way. He picked up the secondduck of the Zimbabwe innings.At 155/5 the Zimbabweans were in a very difficult position. A coupleof quick wickets and things would be all but over for them. SkipperHeath Streak, who has been enjoying his batting so much more afterbeing handed the captaincy, walked out to the middle with a lotdepending on him. Batting with confidence, Streak proved the idealfoil for the stoic Andy Flower. While Streak used the full face of thebat to play the bowlers back in the ‘V’ Andy Flower swept his way to agood half century. Not afraid to improvise even in a Test match, AndyFlower unveiled the reverse sweep and kept the spinners at bay. Whenstumps was called, Zimbabwe were on a healthy score. Flower had 55 tohis name while Streak was on a useful 25.India’s decision to go into the match with only four bowlers wastelling. Although India made inroads into the Zimbabwe batting, theywere not able to capitalise. Murali Kartik was once again underused.This meant that India were playing with three and half bowlers. Havinggot Zimbabwe in trouble first at 15/2 and then at 155/5, India let thevisitors off the hook. When the Zimbabweans resume their resistancetomorrow they will do so with the confidence that their position couldhave been much, much worse.
