Superman Srinath puts India on road to victory

Superman Srinath puts India on road to victory
Vikrant Gupta

New Delhi, November 21: Ask the mother how inquisitive the young minds can be at times. The lad certainly wasn't more than seven or eight, but he wanted to rewrite the cricket rules book: "But why has (Javagal) Srinath stopped bowling? He should bowl from both ends. He is so fast. My Superman!"

"Son," her mom was giving tips, "it's not possible. He is allowed only one over at a time. After he bowls six deliveries, somebody else has to bowl from the other end."

If the little kid had his way and Srinath could also bowl from the other end -- maybe, we also needed him to be some five years younger -- India could have wrapped up the Test on Tuesday itself.

Pity, Srinath is no Superman. He is into his 30s, an age where you are sharp only in short bursts. But, what a burst the Kotla saw on the fourth evening. By the time Srinath had finished his fourth over of the Zimbabwe second innings, the heart of the rival batting had been prised out, and yes, you can't blame the kid if he thinks Srinath indeed is Superman.

Only Srinath could have spread the terror as he did and the visitors could relax only after Srinath tired, like in the first innings. Grant Flower chased a Srinath outswinger, giving wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya a low chance and the other opener Gavin Rennie couldn't take his bat away from a rising one, fending it off to Saurav Ganguly in the slips. Neither scored a run.

Alistair Campbell, whose 70-run knock held together Zimbabwe's first innings, was also done in by the bounce, as the ball kissed his pad and the bat before ballooning up in the air. Srinath was then, in the midst of a dream spell. He could have picked up is fourth wicket had Sunil Joshi not reacted late to an Andy Flower snick in the gully.

Andy lived for another day, but only by a sliver. The stylish Stuart Carlisle, very comfortable despite Srinath's pace, fell to Joshi off a delivery left-arm spinners can only dream of and Joshi's partner Murli Kartik picked up his first wicket of the match, getting rid of a stubborn Guy Whittal.

Zimbabwe, trailing by 36 runs, luckily didn't lose another wicket, finishing the day at 119 for five. It means they are effectively 83 runs ahead when the final day's play begins tomorrow.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed. I will not say we will do this or that but we are in with a good chance of winning the Test. Srinath has always been very consistent and today he was outstanding," his former skipper Sachin Tendulkar, who only in the morning had scored his 23rd Test century, put the game in right perspective. "The ball is turning quite a lot so I think the spinners can pose problems for the batsmen. Of course, we also have Srinath."

Pray, we had another Srinath in the team. The double-centurion Rahul Dravid agrees Srinath is the most underrated bowler in the world. He considers himself lucky not having to face the fellow Bangalore quicky in matches.

India now smell a win, something not many were putting their money on, even till this morning. Today was one of those days when they could do no wrong. A perfect example was when Ganguly surprised all by declaring some 40 minutes before tea, at 458 for 5, though many expected the Indians to get another hundred runs before doing that. Ganguly wanted the time and not the runs to play on the Zimnbabwean minds. That seems to be working alright.

Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid flayed the liberal dose of loose Zimbabwe bowling in the morning. Tendulkar didn't even let the Zimbabweans loosen up, smashing Bryan Strang for three fours in the day's opening over while Dravid was timing the ball as if he had been thinking about his batting all night. The reward, Dravid's first double century was equally sweet and he still had the stamina to climb up a few stairs to closely study the video tapes of his batting in the evening.

Tendulkar's century was equally dominating. "I shouldn't have got out at that stage. I made the mistake of chasing a ball which stopped and came. I could have picked up more runs," Tendulkar (122) pondered over his dismissal.

Without getting bogged down, Dravid played fluently. Ganguly kept company for a while, even hitting the Indian innings' only sixer but a lazy stroke ended his sojourn. Incidentally, VVS Laxman, whose selection at No 6 was the debating point, walked in when India were ahead of the Zimbabwe total.

As soon as Dravid got to his 200, Ganguly called the two batsmen back to the pavillion.

It was the start of Zimbabwe's fallout then.

ZIMBABWE (Ist innings) 422 for nine declared

INDIA (Ist innings)

Shiv Sundar Das lbw Olonga (211m, 146b, 6x4) 58
Sadagoppan Ramesh lbw Streak (75m, 53b, 1x4) 13
Rahul Dravid not out (551m, 350b, 28x4) 200
Sachin Tendulkar c P Strang b Murphy (288m, 233b, 19x4) 122
Saurav Ganguly c A Flower b Olonga (89m, 58b, 2x4, 1x6) 27
VVS Laxman not out (28m, 22b, 3x4) 18
Extras: (b2, lb10, w2, nb6) 20
Total: (for four wkts decl, 142.4 overs, 617 mins) 458
Fall of wickets:1-27 (Ramesh), 2-134 (Das), 3-347 (Tendulkar), 4-430 (Ganguly)

Bowling
Heath Streak 30-9-78-1
Bryan Strang 28-9-95-0
Brian Murphy 36-5-90-1
Henry Olonga 20-3-79-2
Paul Strang 15-1-52-0
Grant Flower 13.4-3-52-0

ZIMBABWE (2nd innings)
Grant Flower c Dahiya b Srinath (3m, 2b) 0
Gavin Rennie c Ganguly b Srinath (24m, 12b) 0
Stuart Carlisle c Ganguly b Joshi (68m, 49b, 4x4, 1x6) 32
Alistair Campbell c Dravid b Srinath (18m, 7b, 1x4) 8
Andy Flower batting (128m, 86b, 7x4) 41
Guy Whittal c Ramesh b Kartik (71m, 49b, 3x4) 29
Brian Murphy batting (16m, 16b) 0
Extras: (b4, nb1, w1, lb3) 9
Total: (for five wkts, 37 overs, 164 mins) 119
Fall of wickets:1-0 (G Flower), 2-15 (Rennie), 3-25 (Campbell), 4-109 (G Whittal), 5-109 (G Whittal)

Bowling
Javagal Srinath 10-1-30-3
Ajit Agarkar 7-0-35-0
Sunil Joshi 13-2-35-1
Sachin Tendulkar 4-1-10-0
Murli Kartik 3-1-2-1