THEY had to perform a unique pitch transplant here yesterday before they could get the third day of the first Test underway after which Zimbabwe continued to perform their own clinical dissection of a West Indies team that remains enfeebled whenever away from home.

A sizeable indention made on the pitch when the heavy roller ran over a stray ball from Zimbabwe’s pre-match warm-up-delayed play for two hours while the damage was repaired.

It took a delicate operation to satisfactorily replace the affected section with soil excavated from behind the stumps at one end.

Ironically, the procedure, involving a piece of equipment used for digging green holes at the nearby Harare Golf Club, was initiated and supervised, along with umpires and match referee, by West Indies captain Brian Lara (see accompanying story).

The exercise was so successfully completed that no scar could be detected, Zimbabwe’s bowlers proceeded to capitalise on their daunting first innings 507 for nine declared and the kind of witless West Indian batting that has become familiar at venues across the cricketing globe.

By close, called 13 overs early because of fading light, the West Indies were 241 for six, still 66 away from the indignity of following on, with only Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the main batsmen remaining.

On his way to his 19, Chanderpaul passed 10,000 first-class runs, a notable landmark, but he needs many more today for the West Indies to squeeze out of the corner they have repeatedly found themselves in.

Over the past six years, they have had to endure whitewashes in Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and Sharjah and resounding defeats in England and India.

But they have just managed to remain above the newest and, supposedly, weakest entrants into Test cricket, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, on the International Cricket Council (ICC) league table.

Of their four previous Tests against Zimbabwe - two in the Caribbean in 2000 and two here in 2001 - they have won three and drawn the other.

Over the first three days here, there has been just cause to wonder whether the ICC hasn’t got the placings out of order.

On a pitch promising increasing turn for their left-arm spinner Ray Price, who has already snared three wickets, Zimbabwe are in a strong position to end a sequence of 11 successive defeats.

The West Indies, on the other hand, need a major effort to avoid their 26th loss in their last 31 overseas Tests and humiliation as they haven’t experienced since their two-day loss to England at Headlingley in 2000.

Their listless, unimaginative cricket allowed Zimbabwe to free themselves from the bind of 155 for four midway through the opening day to amass their fourth highest Test total.

The submission continued yesterday as they forfeited two critical wickets through sheer carelessness just when they were asserting themselves on pitch unaffected by its earlier surgery but displaying signs of natural wear.

Wavell Hinds came through Heath Streak’s testing new ball swing under cool, overcast skies that accounted for his partner, Chris Gayle, plainly lbw in the 14th over, to merrily slam the ball 15 times in all directions to the boundary in a second-wicket stand of 77 with the composed Daren Ganga.

When he was served up a ball of short length and no threat by Blessing Mahwire, a 22-year-old medium-pacer with a decidedly suspicious action, he chose to deal with it in his favoured way, with a lofted stroke over mid-on.

He had repeatedly used the aerial route back over the bowler or over mid-off to gather runs but, as he has often discovered, it is a method fraught with danger.

It was again. The result was a mistimed stroke, a lobbed catch and his exit for 79 when a hundred was at his disposal.

The break lifted Zimbabwe just when their enthusiasm was wearing thin and brought in Brian Lara.

No one needed to be reminded of his significance, especially after he announced himself first ball with an effortless, straight-driven boundary off Mahwire.

He was in for an hour and 10 minutes for 29 and had carefully dealt with seven deliveries from Price, a wily bowler whose method is built around variations of flight, spin and angles, when he decided it was time to let him know who was boss.

Sensing the champion left-hander’s approach, Price carefully placed Mahwire 10 yards inside the long-on boundary with the precision of his famous golfing uncle, Nick, lining up a putt.

He then waited for the inevitable charge. It came, after eight balls.

Lara was not quite to the pitch and he didn’t get enough bat into his stroke to clear Mahwire and the ropes.

To whoops of delight on the field and the few hundred, mainly schoolchildren, dispersed in the stands, the catch was safely grasped on the run to his right and the most dangerous batsmen in the game trudged back to the dressing room.

For the next hour, either side of tea, Sarwan battled hard but unconvincingly to find his touch while Ganga continued to play the innings that was required.

He dispatched boundaries mainly through the off-side with textbook drives and cuts and one exquisite straight on-drive off deserving deliveries and defended solidly against the rest.

The West Indies’ effort fully unravelled in the last 50 minutes in the bright afternoon sunlight when three wickets went for 26 in 11 overs.

Price pinned Sarwan on the back foot for a plain lbw decision in the 59th over and Ganga had an ill-fated end nine balls later.

He had batted with common-sense and without blemish for three-and- a-quarter hours when he played a ball from Mahwire into his left boot. It bounced up, took his forearm guard and deflected back onto the bails, an undignified and undeserving climax to an innings that deserved three figures.

Ridley Jacobs somehow managed to survive 19 balls, any one of which seemed likely to be his last, before Billy Bowden ruled him caught at silly point from pad and bat off Price with a confusing sequence of nods before he raised his finger.

By now, the sun was setting and the light fading fast and the umpires’ offer to end play prematurely was swiftly accepted by batsmen relieved the end their ordeal.