The Hindu : Sport : Match peters out into a draw

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 11, 2005

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Match peters out into a draw

S. Ram Mahesh

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

TIME OUT: Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Sourav Ganguly make good use of the time in the dressing room by watching the Ashes Test.

MUTARE: A Sourav Ganguly injury scare, a couple of bizarre `retired hurts', and a middle order failure marked the final day of the three-day practice match between India and the Zimbabwe Board XI at the Mutare Sports Club here on Saturday.

The game ended, as most three-day warm-up matches involving India do, in a draw.

The first two days were near farcical. The third was a full-blown farce.

Rahul Dravid, overnight on 102, didn't walk out to bat in the morning; Sourav Ganguly did. And walked off the field grimacing without being hit by the ball, while peering at his right elbow. The most exciting phase of the match followed with `experts' diagnosing the injury.

Ganguly confirmed it wasn't the injury he picked up in Sri Lanka, which incidentally was on his left hand. "I had an elbow problem even through the (Videocon) one-day series", said Ganguly. "But it's not serious".

The Indian skipper added he would play the Tests and undergo an MRI scan subsequently.

V.V.S. Laxman seems perpetually on trial. He didn't help himself by edging Anthony Ireland on to his middle stump when he had scored just 28. The Hyderabadi hadn't looked in trouble till then.

Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh will battle for the lone Test batting spot up for grabs. Neither edged ahead in Saturday's bat-out, though Kaif probably has the drop on the Punjab left-hander.

Kaarthick's neat knock

Dinesh Kaarthick and Anil Kumble then joined forces to prevent the embarrassment of being bowled out. The Indian gloveman was decisive with his feet and played a neat knock. This season has seen the revival of Shane Warne's batting talent and Kumble picked a less menacing attack to notch up 61 (120m, 75b, 9 x 4,1 x 6). The Indian leg-spinner also relished punishing his opposite number, hoisting Graeme Cremer over the boundary ropes.

Kaarthick missed out on a half-century edging to Dion Ebrahim who had borrowed Coventry's gloves.

Ganguly returned for some practice but fell to his favourite type of bowler, the left-arm orthodox spinner, after scoring 46.

Dravid then re-entered to bat with Lakshmipathy Balaji till tea, confusing scorers. India promptly declared with the score at 572 for nine, a lead of 278.

Cremer copped a beating but took four wickets in the process.

Hamilton Masakadza got himself a blazing half-century off a disinterested attack as the umpires called off play with 14 overs remaining.

The scores:

Zimbabwe Board XI — 1st innings: 294 for nine decl. in 99.4 overs.

India — 1st innings: G. Gambhir lbw b Ireland 126, V. Sehwag b Cremer 123, R. Dravid (not out) 108, V.V.S. Laxman b Ireland 28, S. Ganguly c Duffin b Dabengwa 46, Mohd. Kaif c Coventry b Mwayenga 4, Yuvraj b Mwayenga 1, D. Kaarthick c Ebrahim b Cremer 40, A. Kumble c Sibanda b Cremer 61, Zaheer c & b Cremer 2, L. Balaji (not out) 17, Extras (b-8, lb-4, w-1, nb-3) 16, Total (for nine wkts. decl. in 134 overs) 572.

Fall of wickets: 1-197, 2-335, 3-382, 4-393, 5-399, 6-477, 7-526, 8-530, 9-564.

Zimbabwe Board XI bowling: W. Mwayenga 30-4-114-2, A. Mwayenga 15.5-0-73-0, Ireland 28-4-112-2, Dabengwa 30-4-113-1, Cremer 30-3-148-4.

Zimbabwe Board XI — 2nd innings: B. Taylor (not out) 36, T. Duffin lbw b Balaji 0, H. Masakadza (not out) 58, Extras (b-1, nb-1) 2, Total (for one wkt. in 18 overs) 96.

Fall of wickets: 1-2.

India bowling: Zaheer 6-2-27-0, Balaji 5-0-33-1, Kumble 3-1-9-0, Pathan 3-1-11-0, Gambhir 1-0-15-0.

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