da dobrowin： Zimbabwe are taking Carl Rackemann’s advice too seriously one reckons
da aposte e ganhe： Anand Vasu14-Nov-2000Zimbabwe are taking Carl Rackemann’s advice too seriously one reckons. Onthe second day of their second warm-up game, against the Board President’sXI, they gave the crowd at the Nahar Singh Stadium in Faridabad very littleto cheer about. Refusing to even attempt to play for a result, the Zimbabweteam used another day of their warm-up routine to practise hard. As inIndore, they played doggedly from ball one, not aiming to respond in kind tothe Board President’s XI total. Declaring overnight on 314/5, BoardPresident’s XI skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar put the ball firmly in GuyWhittall’s court. By making just 236/5 off 73 overs, the Zimbabweans banishedwhat little interest the last day held. Presumably to give their fastbowlers another go, they took the field with fifteen overs left to bedelivered. As it turned out, they managed to send down twentyone overs andstill could not make early inroads. Board President’s XI made a steady 52for no loss.Earlier in the day, Grant Flower and Gavin Rennie opening the innings dug infor a long stint at the crease. Starting off, they had to reckon withDebashish Mohanty and Santosh Saxena. While he has been successful onwickets that offer assistance, there is very little record of Mohanty doingwell on placid tracks in the past. The batting strip at the Nahar SinghStadium is as placid as they come, and this rendered the Orissa mediumpacerweaponless. Realising this, Kanitkar bowled him for just seven overs,(7-4-7-0) and banished him to the outfield. The youth of Saxena made him ashade quicker off the wicket and through the air and this resulted in himbeing bowled for thirteen overs. He too went wicketless and conceded 51runs.Operating in tandem, left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi and offspinner AashishKapoor tested the Zimbabwe batsmen more than the mediumpacers had. Sanghvigave the ball plenty of air and tempted the Zimbabwe batsmen to drive.However,Grant Flower and Rennie were in no mood for positive strokes and chose tocounter the spinners with bat-pad defence instead. This resulted in a fairfew errors of judgement and chances to the close in fielders. Despitenumerous dives and more appeals, Abbas Ali fielding close to the wicketsimply could not hold onto the ball when there was bat involved. When thefirst wicket fell, it was not caught close, but clean bowled, as GrantFlower played down the wrong line to a straight ball from Kapoor. He was on49 and Zimbabwe had advanced, albeit painstakingly slowly, to 94/1.Although he lost his partner, Gavin Rennie did not falter, playing himselfin with great determination. In an innings that spanned almost four hours,and witnessed the coming and going of four batsmen, Rennie made the topscore of the Zimbabwe innings, a dogged 79. When he was eventuallydismissed, it was not before Stuart Carlisle (4) and Trevor Madondo (26) hadmade brief, if unfruitful appearances out in the middle. Rennie was finallysent back when Abbas Ali dived full length to his right and pulled of asharp catch. Virender Shewag was the man who sent down the offspinner thataccounted for Rennie.Skipper Guy Whittall played a few lusty blows off Shewag in the company ofthe promoted Mluleki Nkala as Zimbabwe sauntered past the two hundred runmark. After playing just one over, Nkala top edged a ball from Shewag towicketkeeper Dahiya and Zimbabwe were 201/5. This brought young leg spinnerBrian Murphy to the crease. Having been hit all over the park when he bowledto the Board President’s XI team, Murphy was keen to give back a few. Hemanaged two boundaries in a quickfire 14 before Whittall decided that he hadseen enough of the bowling. The skipper took the team off with an unbeaten30 to his name (5 fours, 1 six) at 236/5 off 73 overs.Seventy eight runs ahead, with just fifteen overs to play, the BoardPresident’s XI team sent out Ravneet Ricky and Vijay Dahiya to face theZimbabweans. Earlier in the day, Dahiya was picked to keep wickets for Indiain the first Test against the touring Zimbabweans. This seemed to have giventhe stumper confidence, as he played fluently. The Zimbabweans experimenteda bit and this too went in favour of the batsmen. Henry Olonga openedwith Nkala while Friend bowled first change. Standby stumper Trevor Madondowas given a chance to peddle his wares behind the stumps. Andy Flower whodid not bat, was once again not a part of the action. In the first innings,Dahiya took 18 balls to get off the mark. In his second essay he failed toscore off the first ball he faced, but was on his way with the very next ball.Driving through the offside with characteristic short arm jabs,Dahiya made his way to an unbeaten 23 at stumps. Ravneet Ricky too was inbetter nick in his second essay and had helped himself to 26 not out whenthe day’s play ended. Board President’s XI were 52 for no loss and led by130 runs. The last day’s play will inspire a sense of déjà vu. At Indore asis likely here, the game was all but dead before the first ball wasdelivered on the third day.
