By Telford Vice in Harare
FOR a session and more on the opening day of this Test match at Harare Sports Club yesterday Zimbabwe batted well enough to suggest India would not enjoy the luxury of winding down their tour in languid fashion.
Then, as the merciless African sun tilted in the afternoon, came the crash of three wickets in the space of 13 deliveries, and Zimbabwe struggled. Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble finished with three wickets each, Kumble reaching his 200th in Tests when he had Mpumolelo Mbangwa stumped.
India's tour started long before Bulawayo just last month. It has dragged itself south from one-day matches in Toronto and the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, and there will not be much respite for the players before they return to domestic competition and the Bangladesh limited overs tournament.
The Zimbabwe part of India's odyssey has been successful so far, with a 2-1 win in the limited overs series and an innings victory in a three-day game against a President's XI.
The Harare pitch was not the green top wanted by the Zimbabweans. It was closer to khaki.
The pendulum swung 45 minutes into the second session. Murray Goodwin, having grafted well, was leg before offering no stroke and Alistair Campbell was caught at short leg next ball. Ajit Agarkar, on his India debut, then had David Rennie spectacularly caught in the covers.
Day 2: Dravid century bails out India
By Telford Vice in Harare
INDIA bounced back again yesterday, this time thanks to a grinding century by Rahul Dravid which was as unflashy as the strokes which claimed Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin were reckless.
Dravid, whose second Test hundred came in his 23rd match, will surely look back on this innings with quiet reflection rather than wordy nostalgia.
Few centuries come easily and even fewer in the kind of heat that burns thoughts of strokemaking to a crisp, not to mention monotonous bowling that too often ushers batsmen to an unheralded demise.
Central to Dravid's century was a sixth-wicket partnership with Saurav Ganguly that began with India in trouble and lasted more than two hours.
It was exactly the kind of sober rehabilitation the tourists required after a day-and-a-half of 'not-quite' cricket, and at the close Dravid was still there almost six hours after his arrival.
On Wednesday's opening day of the only Test match of this tour, at Harare Sports Club, Zimbabwe threatened to make the most of being asked to bat with an unusually steady top order performance.
But their insecurity returned in the afternoon and it seemed the nether regions of the Wisden rankings were in no danger of being scrambled.
Half an hour before tea yesterday India were 127 for five, Tendulkar and Azharuddin both gone and Zimbabwe energetically in control in the outfield.
Indeed, Tendulkar himself spent his hour and a half at the wicket uncharacteristically scratching around in the crease. His end was a top-edged pull which ballooned over the slips for Alistair Campbell to take a good running catch over his shoulder.
Twenty minutes later Azharuddin hacked an ugly, ragged cut and snagged a bottom edge.
Neil Johnson, the Test debutant who has played most of his big cricket in South Africa, will have cause to remember both dismissals: the first was his maiden Test wicket, the second one of the better slip catches he will take.
Day 3: Rennie's fine show marred by injury
By Telford Vice in Harare
GAVIN Rennie and Craig Wishart shared a partnership of 138 in more than 3.5 hours as Zimbabwe took control of the one-off Test against India.
Both batsmen recorded their highest Test scores as well as amassing Zimbabwe's second-best opening stand.
Anil Kumble, called on after Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar had again squandered the new ball, found the chink and finally induced a driven, return catch from Wishart.
Rennie departed hurt after being struck on the head by a ball from Srinath.
Earlier, Zimbabwe had wrapped up India's first innings two balls after the morning drinks break.
Day 5: Zimbabwe cheer Campbell
By Telford Vice in Harare
THE SHOUT was urgent and demanding, yet admiring. ``Alistair!'' said a bright-eyed boy clinging to a drainpipe leading up past the Zimbabwean team's dressing-room window.
Alistair Campbell, Zimbabwe's captain, who minutes before had led his team to an enthralling victory over India at Harare Sports Club on Saturday, duly signed the autograph through the open window.
In Zimbabwe, where cricket is still as white as mainstream society is black, it was relevant that Campbell was white and the bright-eyed boy black, as was the cluster of companions he had beaten to his drainpipe perch.
Zimbabwe's second victory in 31 matches during their six years as a Test-playing country was good news that had been hard to find.
The currency had been plunging daily, several suburbs in the capital had no water in the taps and, just across the street from the cricket ground, armed guards patrolled President Robert Mugabe's residence.
At lunch, though, the news was anything but good for Zimbabwe. Their handsome overnight score of 219 for two had become 293 all out.
The crippling Zimbabwean uncertainty, when confronted by something as foreign and cunning as the spin bowling of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, 19, had returned.
It seemed that India, without an away Test success since 1986, would be only moderately challenged chasing 235 for victory, although a sound pitch and five sessions in which to get the runs should have ruled out almost all the variables. However, India's top order batted poorly a second time. By the end of the 12th over Nayan Mongia, Navjot Sidhu, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin had gone.
Tendulkar fell to a fine delivery from Neil Johnson that jagged away off the seam, and the others departed to weary attempted cuts.