Ray Price (3) did not last long enough after the tea interval. He was caught at forward short leg by Das off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh. Grant Flower found himself lucky when on 49, flicking the ball to mid-wicket only to see Sehwag putting down the catch. Sehwag took a tumble and dislocated his left-shoulder, and had to be carried off the ground on a stretcher.

Kumble had better luck in his next over; Flower sweep-slog towards mid-wicket was well held by Harbhajan Singh. His innings of 49 came off 118 balls and included half a dozen boundaries. Brighton Watambwa remained unbeaten on one.

Zimbabwe players found out how difficult it is to bat against the spin duo of Harbahajan Singh and Anil Kumble on a worn out track. Resuming at 42/3, Zimbabwe lost five wickets in the 150 minutes of play in the post-lunch session. The Zimbabweans surrendered their wickets rather abjectly to Harbahajan Singh (5/56) and Anil Kumble (3/52).

Ganguly brought in Zaheer Khan to bowl left-arm spin for a solitary over. With Sehwag and Tendulkar available to wheel their arm over for a few overs of spin, this 'masterstroke' from the skipper was a bit bemusing. Anyway this was done to switch ends of the two specialist spinners.

And the change in the ends did work immediately. Zimbabwe skipper Stuart Carlisle was lured into playing a shot in the air; Harbhajan Singh flung himself to the left and got his left hand to it, remarkably managing to hold the ball close to his chest after it had popped out initially. All this happened in a flash and umpire Jayaprakash had no other option but to refer it to the third umpire. After a long delay to review a series of replays, the red light came on to signal the exit of Carlisle (37).

Dion Ebrahim and Grant Flower tried to repair the faltering Zimbabwe second innings. Anil Kumble was getting very frustrated as Das put down a straightforward catch at forward short leg off Ebrahim. Kumble’s agony knew no bounds at the sight of Dasgupta putting down a simple catch offered by Grant Flower.

Kumble was a much-relieved man, as Asoka de Silva did not waste time to raise the finger to adjudge Ebrahim (22) leg before. There was nothing wrong with that decision though, the ball would have hit the stumps and Ebrahim was not offering a shot.

Heath Streak survived a very close shout for lbw, the unlucky bowler being Kumble and the umpire in question – Asoka de Silva. One ball later, Kumble trapped Streak (9) lbw with a delivery that would have hit the middle stump.

Travis Friend did not last long enough to trouble the scorers; he was cleaned up for a duck by Harbhajan Singh, the turbanator’s fifth for the innings. Zimbabwe were in dire straits at that time on 114/7.

Tatenda Taibu struck a couple of boundaries to move on to double figures (10) and that was all he made, caught by Bangar at gully off the bowling of Kumble. Grant Flower has been in good touch and showed his ability to deal with the spin attack. He has so far struck five strokes past the ropes.

Gripper dancing down the track to play a flighted delivery from Harbhajan Singh was given out caught at first slip by Rahul Dravid. Asoka de Silva relying more on the reaction of the Indian players than actually keeping an eye on the action, completely missed the fact that the ball actually bounced before it went to Dravid. There was no inside edge at all and even the suggestion that the ball might have kissed the glove doesn't hold any water. The Sri Lankan umpire has got a few decisions wrong in this match and it was surprising to see him not employ the option of calling for the TV replay.

Gripper made 10 off 18 balls with the help of two boundaries. Zimbabwe were 23/1 after his unfortunate dismissal.

By the look of it, the rub of the green has not been going Zimbabwe's way. Skipper Stuart Carlisle has looked very confident and positive in his approach; he swept Kumble high in the air for a boundary.

The dismissal of Gripper opened the floodgates. Alistair Campbell averages 26.91 in Test cricket and he fell cheaply again, scoring just two before being caught by Dravid at first slip. Harbhajan Singh struck another big blow in the same over, removing the dangerous Andy Flower for a duck. Flower's half prod forward could only take the inside edge into the pads and Shiv Sunder Das took the simplest of catches at forward short leg.

Ganguly tried to sweep the last ball of the first over and the ball turned and jumped to kiss the gloves and ballooned in the air for Trevor Gripper to take an easy catch at forward short leg. Ganguly could only add just one more run to his overnight score and was out for 136 made off 284 balls (21 fours, 1 six).

Surprisingly, Javagal Srinath was sent in ahead of Harbhajan Singh. Srinath too survived a close call for lbw off Price's bowling. Price had his man after Srinath had scratched around for 15 balls without opening his account and gave a simple catch to Gripper at silly point.

Harbahajan Singh came in and blasted Price for a couple of boundaries to make nine off 16 balls. Heath Streak putting together a good spell had Harbhjan Singh trapped plumb in front of the wicket.

Zaheer Khan (8) was the last man to dismissed, cleaned up Streak. Anil Kumble remained unbeaten on 34 off 108 balls (6 fours). Streak was the most successful of the bowlers, finishing with the figures of 37.2-11-92-4. Ray Price gave good support to finish with 50-16-108-3. India took a narrow first innings lead of 25 runs.