da esport bet： India have a good chance of a three-day victory in the First Testmatch at the Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo, as after day twoZimbabwe had lost three second-innings wickets and were still 66 runsbehind
John Ward08-Jun-2001India have a good chance of a three-day victory in the First Testmatch at the Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo, as after day twoZimbabwe had lost three second-innings wickets and were still 66 runsbehind.India began the day 90 runs behind Zimbabwe’s first-innings total of173 with seven wickets in hand. Night-watchman Javagal Srinath (1)flicked the second ball of the day towards square leg, only for GuyWhittall to take a superb diving catch to his left. Then SouravGanguly (5) was adjudged to have edged a rising delivery from HeathStreak to wicket-keeper Andy Flower, and India were 98 for five.However, two master batsmen were still there in Sachin Tendulkar andRahul Dravid. They set themselves to blunt the Zimbabwe attack andseldom looked in any difficulty. They were soon scoring at more thanfour an over without ever looking to be in a hurry. Tendulkar’s fiftytook 106 balls and for once Dravid took most of the limelight with hisclassic drives and pulls. Then Andy Blignaut came on to bowl andTendulkar helped himself to three boundaries in his erratic firstover.However, it was Blignaut who broke through, as just before lunchTendulkar (74) slashed at a ball moving away outside off stump andStuart Carlisle at second slip hurled himself to his right to hold abrilliant catch. India had just taken the lead and at the intervalwere 179 for six.After lunch a good partnership again seemed to be developing as Dravidand Sameer Dighe picked up runs steadily. The Blignaut again surprisedeveryone by taking a wicket; Dravid (44), after hitting two exquisitefours in an over, was perhaps over-eager for a third and skied a catchto Flower behind the stumps. At 208 for seven, India had only the tailto come.Dighe and Harbhajan Singh were not deterred, though, and hit outmerrily, especially the latter. The Zimbabwe attack, lacking Olongawith an injury, was unable to make any impression. Finally Streak didthe trick with the second new ball, dismissing Dighe for 47, caughtdown the leg side off a bad ball. The partnership of 72 may yet proveto be the turning point of the match as it turned a moderately smalllead into a very significant one. Once again Zimbabwe conceded a majoreighth-wicket partnership, a frequent habit in recent years.This was just before tea was due, and in the same over Streak produceda much better delivery to bowl Zahir Khan (0) off the inside edge,resulting in a delay of the interval. Harbhajan went on to reach hisfifty, and the last pair survived half an hour until tea. Off the lastball before the interval, Brighton Watambwa took a superb divingreturn catch off bat and pad off Harbhajan, only to have umpire Harpererroneously rule it not out.Shortly after the interval, Watambwa fumbled a return to miss a clearrun-out opportunity. He got his wicket the same over, though, whenSingh (66 off 71 balls) top-edged a pull to be caught at mid-on. Indiatotalled 318, a lead of 145. Streak and Watambwa took three wicketseach.When Zimbabwe went in again, Whittall cut a couple of boundaries overthe slips, but Dion Ebrahim struggled and failed to score before beingcaught at short leg without scoring. On current evidence, it seems tohave been a misguided effort to turn this young middle-order batsmaninto an opener, and he showed in the Academy match how short ofconfidence he is at present.Zimbabwe almost suffered the incredible bad luck of falling foul ofcricket’s most unfair law twice in the same match when Carlisle playeda beautiful straight drive that glanced the stumps at the bowler’s endon its way to the boundary with Whittall probably out of his crease;fortunately Nehra’s groping hand just failed to touch it.Whittall continued to play positively, but on 20 he cut once too oftenand was brilliantly caught low in the gully by Sadagoppan Ramesh. At34 for two, Zimbabwe were in deep trouble. Carlisle and AlistairCampbell fought with determination until the latter was caught atshort leg off Harbhajan for 16. At close, Zimbabwe were 79 for three,with Carlisle on 27 and night-watchman Brian Murphy 10.Play finished 55 minutes late this time, a real indictment of both theplayers and the ICC who are quite incapable of enforcing acceptableover rates.