By Thrasy Petropoulos BBC Sport at Chester-le-Street

Of all the hapless individual performances by Zimbabweans in their innings first Test defeat at Lord's, Douglas Hondo's topped the bill.

Hondo set England on the back foot shortly before tes

Wicketless in 14 hesitant overs, he also failed to score a run - his third successive scoreless innings on tour.

Just to think that he went into the first Test of the summer claiming that he could imagine his name on the honours list showing the players to have scored a century or taken five wickets at the ground.

The dreadlocks were impressive, and the smile infectious but there seemed precious little substance to the 23-year-old swing (so the brochure tells us) bowler.

Until Chester-le-Street, that is.

Three wickets do not make a summer, but Hondo's burst just before tea renewed Zimbabwe's interest in the series.

That Alec Stewart and Anthony McGrath fought back with half-centuries says as much for Zimbabwe's position of strength at 156-5 than the unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 142.

In the warm-up to this Test match, Hondo had his run-up taken apart and put back together again by Rodney Hogg, the former Australia Test player and current Zimbabwe bowling coach.

I'm pleased with my wickets but you're only as good as you're last Test Doug Hondo

Hogg lengthened Hondo's run up to generate greater consistency at the start of the approach - something conspicuously absent at Lord's

It was by no means a flawless performance by Hondo, and his brief elevation to new-ball bowler towards the end of the day brought nothing but a flurry of boundaries.

"I struggled a bit with the wind pushing me back," Hondo said afterwards. "I bowled well in patches."

But three wickets for eight runs in 11 balls is some patch.

A slower ball had Mark Butcher chopping on to his stumps and Rob Key pulled low to square leg, only for Grant Flower to swoop and claim the catch.

The decision was referred to Peter Willey who went against the standard practice of television umpires and found in favour of the bowler.

"I saw the ball going into Flower's hands and I was convinced it was out," Hondo explained.

Zimbabwe's attack lacks penetration and there will be English batsmen cursing the fact that they missed out again Agnew's first day verdict

But most satisfying would have been the ball that forced Nasser Hussain to grope outside off stump and edge behind.

Hondo, lest we forget, had played only 12 first-class matches before this tour.

And the two years spent playing league cricket for Lydney Cricket Club in Gloucestershire was his only experience of English conditions.

"I'm pleased with my wickets but you're only as good as you're last Test," he pointed out.

Thankfully that last Test now reads Durham, not Lord's.