da 888casino： Zimbabwe enjoyed much the best day of the First Test against India atthe Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo, batting throughout the third dayto finish on 303 for seven
da dobrowin： John Ward09-Jun-2001Zimbabwe enjoyed much the best day of the First Test against India atthe Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo, batting throughout the third dayto finish on 303 for seven. The main contributors, as so often forZimbabwe, were the Flower brothers, Andy and Grant, who both scoreddetermined fifties, as did Stuart Carlisle.Night-watchman Brian Murphy did not last long into the morningsession, out to a fine diving catch by Shiv Sunder Das at short legfor his overnight 10 off Zahir Khan, who had just received his secondwarning for running on the danger area of the pitch. Ashish Nehra,another left-armer, bowling over the wicket, was also to receive asecond warning later.Carlisle, although beaten occasionally, played some good strokes,especially drives and cuts, and it was a fine drive through extracover that brought him his fourth Test fifty. His highest is 58, andonce again he failed to reach 60. When 52, he played back loosely toNehra and was caught at second slip. Zimbabwe were still 21 behindwith half their wickets gone.Once again the Flower brothers were together with almost everythingdepending on them. Andy Flower was playing far more typically than hedid in the first innings, choosing his deliveries carefully andwaiting for the bad ball to put it away unerringly. At lunch Zimbabwewere 143 for five, still two runs in arrears.A reverse sweep for four by Andy Flower off Harbhajan Singh in thelatter’s first over after lunch took Zimbabwe into the lead. It wasnot long before a similar stroke brought up his ninth fifty in tenTest innings. It was the ninth time in 12 Test innings against Indiathat Andy has passed 50. Only once have India been able to dismiss himfor less (when he made 30) as on the other two occasions he was notout.India strove in vain to break the fraternal partnership until thesecond new ball was due in the last over before tea. Once again thebrothers proved how they have been the backbone of Zimbabwe’s battingduring the country’s nine-year Test history. At the interval Zimbabwewere 230 for five, 85 runs ahead.Andy Flower disappointed in the first over after tea. He slashed atNehra and the thick edge just cleared the slips and went to theboundary. Off the very next ball, he failed to profit from the warningand sliced a hard catch into the slips where Sadagoppan Ramesh took itvery well. He scored 83, another fine innings, but must have beendisappointed to give his wicket away through the basic error offailing to play himself in again after an interval, and immediatelyafter receiving a warning the previous ball. He also missed the chanceof recording his tenth Test century. The brothers had put on 101 runstogether, and neutralized the threat of Harbhajan very effectively.Heath Streak almost immediately had the benefit of a very close lbwappeal against Nehra, but survived to fight again. Grant Flowerreached his fifty, a fine effort after some trouble early on. Streak(14) played inside a ball from Zahir Khan to be out lbw; at thispoint, with only the inexperienced Andy Blignaut and two tail-endersto partner Flower, Zimbabwe were only 128 ahead.Shortly afterwards umpire Harper bit the bullet and removed Nehra fromthe attack, after two previous warnings from umpire Tiffin at theother end for persistently running on the danger area of the pitch.Blignaut, initially very nervous, gradually settled in and gaveoccasional evidence of the powerful hits for which he is renowned indomestic cricket. Flower seemed to go into his shell, playing for theclose, which ended due to bad light `only’ 30 minutes after thescheduled close with two overs unbowled. Flower had 67 and Blignaut11.
