West Indies captain Brian Lara plays a forward defensive stroke in his unbeaten 77, during the first day's play of the second test match against Zimbabwe yesterday at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Reuters Pix).
Brian Lara's determination to compensate for the nonsense that went on in the first Test in Harare last week was obvious when he chose to spend much of the lunch break on the first day of the second test against Zimbabwe yesterday batting in the nets.
Within half an hour, he was striding to the middle at the careless fall of the second wicket ten minutes later, another was gone to even more senseless batting and he was confronted by the potential middle-order crisis brought on by the same folly that led to the trouble in Harare.
Daren Ganga and, yet again, Wavell Hinds softly offered their wickets within 11 balls and 15 runs of each other when they had the bowling at their mercy and, at 161 for three; the innings was in need of restoration.
Lara was among those culpable in the first innings decline in Harare with a wanton stroke off the same leftarm spinner Ray Price, who claimed ten wickets in the match and now accounted for Ganga and Hinds.
It was a different Lara this time.
He scrupulously transformed the relief of the great escape in Harare into a measured, yet strokefilled, unbeaten 77 that guaranteed a strong position. It would have been stronger but for light rain, accompanied by distant thunder and lightning, and fading light that brought a premature end to the day with 27 overs available.
Similar elements had handicapped Zimbabwe last week. Now it halted Lara's advance in a partnership of 141 with vicecaptain Ramnaresh Sarwan that took only 25.2 overs and included 19 fours.
Dismissed for 29 and 01 in the first Test that was only saved through their last pair's survival through the final 11 overs, Lara was clearly intent on making good.
He continues this morning, 23 runs short of his twenty-second hundred in his ninety-eighth Test and 28 away from surpassing Viv Richards's 8,540 runs as the most by a West Indian in Tests. These are worthy statistics, but they will be devalued if they are not converted into a team triumph.
On a dry pitch, which locals expect to increasingly yield to spin, the West Indies gained an early advantage when Lara correctly called heads' at the toss.
On the shortened day, they built a foundation for offspinner Omari Banks, now completely over the stomach virus that kept him out of the second Test, to exploit.
Bristling with determination, Lara found the ideal balance between impeccable defence and typical aggression during his two hours. Only one of the 93 balls he faced perceptibly beat his bat; one from Price that passed the defensive outside edge.
Unerringly finding gaps in the field, he stroked 12 fours in all
directions. Three - a drive through cover, a contemptuous pull and a whistling squaredrive - were off successive balls in one over from Blessing Mahwire, the energetic young quick bowler in his fourth Test.
Sarwan took time to find his touch. His first ball, from Price, found the edge and landed a foot short of slip. A little later, he nicked the same bowler through a vacant gully. But once he got going his shots began to find the middle of the bat.
The most confident were his favourite squarecut that yielded him half his eight boundaries.
The base for the total the West Indies were seeking was laid before lunch, taken at 104 for the solitary wicket of Chris Gayle.
The tall lefthander, a shadow of the batsman who decimated bowling when he was last in Zimbabwe two years ago, was getting better with every over and was 47 when he succumbed to a difficult ball from Andy Blignaut. Delivered from round the wicket, it straightened and bounced to find the outside edge on its way to the keeper.
Hinds, already 47 at lunch, and Ganga put on a further 73 on either side of the interval before they fell in quick time.
Ganga, batting like a dream, suddenly offered a catch from a shot as if he were actually in a dream. A sweep dragged from well outside offstump off Price spiralled from the topedge into the lap of deep squareleg.
Eleven balls later, disregarding both the fall of his partner and the experience of Harare, Hinds charged down the pitch once too often to Price, swung wildly, missed and paid the price as Tatenta Taibu quickly stumped.
Hinds, who lives by the sword, is clearly prepared to die by it. Either by personal choice or under instructions, he set himself as the man to deal with Price, repeatedly advancing to attack. But he perished by choosing the wrong ball at the wrong time.
He was 81, had deposited Price for sixes over the fielder at longon and over longoff and stroked 12 fours besides.
As in the first innings of the first Test when he hoisted an ordinary ball into mid-on's lap to be out for 79, he once more spurned another hundred. In his case, such opportunities do not come along very often.
It made the West Indies 161 for three and in need of repair work. In Harare, it was 127 for two when Hinds departed. By close, it had declined to 240 for six and it was left to the lower order to avert the followon.
Lara was one of those culpable in the middle order decline then. Not this time.