ENGLAND woke up to the second day of the first Test at the Queen's Sports Club in Bulawayo to discover that it was exactly like the first. There was the same enervating pitch, the same uninspired fast bowling, and yet more Zimbabwe resistance.
Today should go some way to revealing England's fate in this series. Having conceded 376, they can establish their superiority over the next two days by scoring 500 on a featherbed pitch and applying pressure on the final day.
Alternatively, the top six can make another hash of it, and collapse against the leg spin of Paul Strang. This being England, both outcomes are entirely likely.
The one discouraging image that England must suppress is the final act of an abbreviated second day - that of their captain, Michael Atherton, trailing from the field at tea after falling lbw to Strang's 11th delivery. The rudimentary conclusion is that this was nothing more than a batsman getting out after being hit on the leg.
Wrap it up in psychological relevance and England might as well catch the next plane home. Atherton had looked on top of his game. Feet moving decisively, the big game player was again making his unconvincing form in the warmup games seem an irrelevance.
Then Strang pushed through a quicker, flatter leg-spinner and Atherton, on 16, was ambushed on the back foot. As the rain fell, with England 48 for one, the memory of his dismissal left a cold, damp feeling creeping down the back of every English neck.
Andy Flower, whose 112 had prolonged Zimbabwe's first innings into mid-afternoon, said: "Everybody sees Atherton as the backbone of the batting. It was nice to get rid of him. The ball is turning from the rough and I reckon we can put England under pressure.
England laboured for a further 23 overs yesterday to split Zimbabwe's seventh-wicket pair and needed twice as long to bowl them out. From 256 for six overnight, they might have been expected to make another 80; they stole 120.
No bowler disappointed more than Alan Mullally. If he operated with reasonable economy, it was a fraudulent economy as he repeatedly failed to make the batsmen play. Darren Gough has moved a mile down the road from the Bulawayo Athletic Club pitch on which he terrorised Matabeleland, and found himself on a different planet.
Chris Silverwood could be reasonably content with his debut, although his wicket yesterday was fortuitous, a loopy full toss which Strang swung to Tufnell at midwicket. Strang played perkily for his 38, particularly against Tufnell, but it was Andy Flower, 58 overnight, whose six-hour resistance allowed no respite.
Flower has spent the past five summers around the English leagues, and next summer will coach at Oxford University, and he played with diligence and good organisation. There was occasional invention, too, notably when he reverse-swept Tufnell to reach his third Test hundred. Few, if any, Test players have premeditated a reverse sweep to reach three figures but Flower had spent virtually an hour, and 57 balls, in the nineties, and was fast running out of ideas.
Streak dragged a weary delivery from Mullally into his stumps as Zimbabwe's last three wickets fell in eight halls. Flower, sweeping in Tufnell's next over, was caught off his glove as the wicketkeeper, Stewart, dashed round to the legside, and Olonga was neatly held later in the same over by Knight at silly point. After the torment that had passed before, it all seemed ridiculously easy.
