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Ashish Shukla
HARARE, Oct 10: The much-vaunted Indian batting failed to click today as the visitors slumped to a humiliating 61-run defeat with over a day to spare in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Ground here today.The Indians have only themselves to blame for the defeat after their bowlers did a good job of restricting Zimbabwe to 293 in their second knock, after they resumed on 219 today.
But the visiting batsmen made heavy weather of the 235-run victory target and were skittled out for 173 on a wicket which held no terrors.India, who began the Test on a high note after winning the one-day series 2-1 and the three-day tour game, had complacency getting the better of them as they gave their worst showing.
The babes of cricket scripted a big win inside four days despite conceding a 59-run first innings lead and setting an easily achievable winning target. Zimbabwe seized the initiative with early blows and had the top order -- Nayan Mongia (0), Navjot Singh Sidhu (0), Sachin Tendulkar (7) andskipper Mohd Azharuddin (7) -- back in the pavilion with the score reading 37 for four.
Rahul Dravid (44) and Saurav Ganguly (36) the saviours in the first innings, tried to stem the rot but didn't much succeed as the hosts did not let the initiative slip and struck after the duo had added 67 runs for the fifth wicket.
Robin Singh (12) and Anil Kumble, with an identical score, could not do much and by then the writing was on the wall.
Javagal Srinath (23) and Harbhajan Singh (15) resisted for a while raising 40 runs for the tenth wicket but could not stop the inevitable.
Scoreboard
Zimbabwe (1st innings): 221
India (1st innings): 280
Zimbabwe (2nd innings; overnight 219-2): Gavin Rennie c Robin b Harbhajan 84, Craig Wishart c&b Kumble 63, Murray Goodwin c&b Kumble 44, Henry Olonga c Azharuddin b Harbhajan 5, Alistair Campbell c Azharuddin b Harbhajan 25, Andy Flower not out 41, Neil Johnson c Robin b Kumble 1, Craig Evans lbw b Kumble 4, Heath Streak c Dravid bAgarkar 3, Adam Huckle lbw b Srinath 1, Mpumelele Mbangwa b Srinath 0; Extras: (b1, lb12, nb9) 22. Total (all out in 105.3 overs) 293
Fall of wickets: 1-138, 2-209, 3-223, 4-223, 5-246, 6-249, 7-257, 8-288, 9-293
Bowling: Srinath 23.3-7-43-2, Agarkar 18-2-60-1, Ganguly 4-1-10-0, Kumble 36-4-87-4, Harbhajan Singh 20-4-64-3, Robin Singh 4-2-16-0India (2nd innings): N Mongia c Wishart b Olonga 0, N Sidhu c Johnson b Streak 0, R Dravid c Flower b Mbangwa 44, S Tendulkar c Flower b Johnson 7, M Azharuddin c Campbell b Streak 7, S Ganguly lbw Huckle 36, R Singh lbw Johnson 12, A Kumble c Goodwin b Johnson 12, A Agarkar c Olonga b Mbangwa 5, J Srinath run out (Goodwin) 23, H Singh not out 15. extras (lb-3, w-1, nb-8): 12. Total (all out in 56.5 overs): 173.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-6, 3-29, 4-37, 5-104, 6-112, 7-124, 8-129, 9-133.Bowling: Olonga 10-1-40-1, Streak 14-2-49-2, Johnson 14.5-5-41-3, Mbangwa 12-6-16-2, Huckle 6-0-24-1.
Man of match: Henry Olongo
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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