Grant blossoms to graft a gritty knock

By G. Viswanath

NAGPUR, NOV. 27. The batsman who bagged a pair at the Kotla a week before turned out to be India's bugbear on Monday. Grant Flower, was not the batsman in the least, Indians held apprehensions of putting up a brave front and stopping them in their tracks mid way in the afternoon session on the third day of this second Test for the Pepsi series.

Grant Flower, who bats right handed and is more than two and a half years younger to Andrew Flower, was undistinguished in the first Test which Zimbabwe lost by seven wickets. He did not make a run in the 21 minutes he batted at the Kotla as an opener, snapped up by Javagal Srinath in both the innings. But on Monday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) ground, he proved to be a stumbling block that prevented India from advancing to an impregnable position. It was a terrific day for cricket, Zimbabwe scoring 300 runs and in the vicinity of the first target of 410 runs it has to make to avoid the follow on.

This second Test match was entirely upon India to force a result, clinch the Pepsi Series 2-0, for the players to spend the rest of the winter wearing their respective State colours in the less tense situation of the national championship. It appeared the home team was almost up there, having maintained the upward graph because it managed to dismiss half the Zimbabwe side at a score of 262 and the first destination point of surviving the follow on a good distance away.

How far the steady and aggressive hands of Grant Flower will succeed in achieving the primary task along with the tailenders will be seen on the first session of Tuesday. There are still twelve hours left in this Test match and in spite of all the handiwork of the Flower brothers, if any one holds the trump cards and win the Test from here, it is India's captain Sourav Ganguly, who will exercise his right to invite Zimbabwe bat a second team should it fall short of the first target by a handful of runs. And even should the situation be contrary wherein India have to bat, there will be scope for the Test to take a decisive turn in India's favour.

Zimbabwe's first target was just over two-thirds of the big Indian total and the pooled effort of its batsmen was capable of taking them there. At stumps on the third day, the visitor was 51 runs short with four wickets in hand. It might have left the task altogether to Grant Flower, who exhibited brilliant strokeplay that exposed the shortcomings of the two spinners, who chiefly represented India's hopes.

Joshi disappoints

Left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi came as a total disappointment and though debutant Sarandeep Singh got wickets of his 32nd and 41st balls, bowling off-breaks, his lack of experience and craft was evident when he bowled to batsmen as adept as Grant Flower and Andrew Flower.

Joshi might have won the Test match against Bangladesh a fortnight ago, but the fact remains it was the only occasion when he took his first five wickets in an innings in 13 Tests. Surely he would not like to see the clippings of his bowling or the figures he ended up with on Monday. Joshi showed no skill or craft on a good wicket and this is what has seen him not rise to the occasion and excel in the circumstances that warranted him to do so after Ajit Agarkar held his own in a hostile spell of ten overs either side of the lunch time and again when Ganguly fell back on his fast bowlers to break the crucial fifth-wicket partnership between Grant Flower and Andrew Flower.

Indeed, cricket, was too engaging on the third day. It would have been tragic if this Test had meandered along its way without any excitement. But Agarkar, who is so thinly made and according to the fancy of many, could be blown away by a small wind, not a storm, committed himself to a task after Srinath and Zaheer Khan struggled to break the second-wicket pair of Guy Whittall and Stuart Carlisle.

Whittall has an unbeaten double century to his credit which meant that the Indian bowlers had their job cut out. Srinath is too good a bowler who boasts of 180 Test wickets, but in the morning session he bowled many `Thank You' deliveries that were imperiously hammered to the pickets. When he was given the second new ball in the post tea session, he looked pedestrian, bowling the batsman's pads that was worked away for cheap boundaries.

Zimbabwe's resolve to the fore

The stand between Whittall and Carlisle, was the first instance of Zimbabwe's determination not to cave in to pressure. The first big appeal of the morning might have been all over the orange city, Agarkar raising a shrill, but that did not even slightly impress umpire Steve Dunne. Carlisle was on 38. A chance went down to the left of Sachin Tendulkar, the fielder not able to latch on to the dipping catch that had come off the bat of Carlisle.

The Mumbai bowler, who is playing in his eighth Test, finally got the important breakthrough, all of his own bowling and catching. A superb yorker-length delivery had Carlisle digging it out. The ball took the inside edge and ricocheted of his back pad to the bowler.

Just before lunch Agarkar was asked to stay away from the danger area. Whittall had chanced his arm slashing him behind point and edging him, when there was a big gap between the first slip and gully. Whittall again edged Agarkar wide of Sadagopan Ramesh. On a good batting pitch, Agarkar, basically an arm bowler, got his rhythm and bowled one of his better, if not his best spell in eight Tests. It was again his clever bowling that dragged Andrew Flower to take swipe at a widish delivery and land a catch to Vijay Dahiya, who held a spectacular catch to get rid of Dirk Viljoen.

After the fall of Carlisle, Zimbabwe's former captain Alistair Campbell had a horrendous time in the middle, when Sarandeep Singh was introduced less than half an hour before lunch time. Campbell struggled and should have been held by Ramesh at silly point when he had not opened his account. But Ramesh made amends in the off-spinner's last ball of his third over.

The 21-year-old from Punjab at least troubled the batsmen, but it was not the case with Joshi, who when he came on to bowl for the first time on the third day had the cover of runs to flight the ball and invite the batsman to drive. What he did was bowl at the batsman's pads which was promptly swept by Whittall and Carlisle.

Whittall was 20 runs away from his fourth century at lunch. But the bowling combination of Agarkar and Sarandeep gave nothing away, so much so that Whittall's next four runs came as a result of an overthrow by Shiv Sunder Das. Whittall was dismissed when Zimbabwe was a good 234 runs away from the first target of 410 runs. His dismissal brought in Grant Flower after which he and his elder brother gave a charge to the two spinners that produced 96 runs in 110 minutes. They were so good at lifting sixes of the spinners and executing the reverse hit.

This was the time when Ganguly went back to Agarkar and he immediately struck a blow, dismissing the left-hander whose half century took his total past 300 runs in three innings in the series.

Dirk Viljoen batted for 71 minutes to prolong the agony for India. By now Ganguly was so frustrated that he took the new ball after the 90th over. Khan who bowled an excellent second spell, but without luck, had Viljoen, held superbly by Dahiya. India might have expected wickets to fall in a heap, but Streak was as competent, batting straight and without fuss. At the other end, Grant Flower laid out his own rules, smashing Srinath and Khan and thereafter dancing down the pitch to lift Joshi over long off.

In the first Test, Grant had opened the innings and here he came in at No. 6. And he showed his repertoire in a classy fashion. He and Streak have taken Zimbabwe's score from 324 for 359 and a figure of 410 does not look a mile away. To party, India will have to take another 14 wickets, but whether or not it will have to set a fourth innings target will largely depend on Grant Flower's individual push on the fourth day morning.

Scoreboard


INDIA - 1st innings: 609 (for six decl.)

ZIMBABWE - 1st innings:

G. Whittal c Dravid b Sarandeep                 84
(246m, 164b, 12x4s)
G. Rennie (run out)                             19
(55m, 27b, 2x4s)
S. Carlisle c and b Agarkar                     51
(134m, 103b, 8x4s)
A. Campbell c Ramesh b Sarandeep                 4
(41m, 35b, 1x4)
A. Flower c Dahiya b Agarkar                    55
(122m, 92b, 4x4s, 2x6s)
G. Flower (batting)                             91
(220m, 160b, 12x4s, 3x6s)
D. Viljoen c Dahiya b Zaheer                    19
(71m, 42b, 2x4s)
H. Streak (batting)                             16
(35m, 28b, 2x4s)
Extras (b-6, lb-11, nb-3)                       20
                                               ---
Total (for six wkts)                           359
                                               ---
Fall   of  wickets:  1-43  (Rennie),  2-144   (Carlisle),   3-165 
(Campbell),  4-166  (G.  Whittall),  5-262  (A.  Flower),   6-324 
(Viljoen).

India  bowling: Srinath 22-4-78-0, Zaheer Khan 21-3-78- 1,  Joshi 
21-6-55-0, Agarkar 21-7-54-2, Sarandeep 22-7-70-2, Tendulkar 1-0- 
7-0.

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