Charge of the slighted brigade

South Africa had a fabulous chance to wipe India completely out of the series by batting for time. For most of the afternoon they did just that and then, in one manic session, they threw it all away, opening the door for an Indian comeback.

Graeme Smith did himself a great favor by winning the toss and getting the first crack at what Ravi Shastri calls a "good wicket". If you have been listening to the BCCI's team of commentators, a good wicket is one that is flat, has plenty of runs and, in most cases, is a bowling graveyard. This is decidedly odd, since, barring Sunil Gavaskar the rest of them are bowlers (or began their lives as one).

Graeme Smith has the habit of bringing his bat down from gully when he plays the forward press, so while at the end of the defensive shot it looks like there is no gap between bat and pad, in reality the gap exists for a long time. Zaheer Khan has been exploiting this aspect for a long time and today was no different, sliding a ball through the gap hitting middle but uprooting the off-stump. Just like that it was 9 for 1.

Alviro Petersen, the debutant, was given the comfort of relaxing at the crease by a steady diet of balls on the leg-stump or bouncers aimed at the body, without a forward short-leg to make him worry about mis-hits. A few fours later his nerves had settled and a debut century seemed inevitable. All through Alviro's inning, the thought that kept coming to my mind was how worried we had been about Badrinath and Saha making their debuts and (the pre-match talk of the second Test) of having to space Vijay and Badrinath in this Test by having Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman as buffers in between. What the heck?!! Alviro showed everyone that batting skill is batting skill, irrespective of experience. Time to remind Vijay and Badrinath of that and let VVS press home the advantage by batting at #3 (if that is what VVS wants to do).

Hashim Amla's knock was another big one but at no time in the inning was I convinced this was the same fellow who serenely made 253* in the previous Test. He looked very edgy and very intent on attacking rather than waiting for the bad ball to come around, which he did so well at Nagpur. When on 60, he edged a ball to VVS that hit Laxman near the solar plexus but the fellow did not cling on to it, in spite of three attempts at it. True, he had just about 0.25 seconds to react but, by his standards, it was a sitter. Worse still, it came off Harbhajan Singh. It takes very little for Economy to go off the boil these days and, for a while, I feared the worst.

That is until both centuries were duly made and ZAK came back to reap the rewards of Ishant Sharma's aggressive bowling. In the post-lunch interval, after the spinners had tried their best (worst?), Ishant Sharma went back to the length and line that gave Ricky Ponting all kinds of problems in Australia. Consistently clocking near 140kmph, the tall fellow got the ball to rise and cut viciously into the batsmen, rapping Amla on a couple of occasions and troubling Petersen with forward short-leg hanging around. On TV, Robin Jackman dryly remarked, "Why did it take so long?" Honestly, I agree.

Sharma made the batsmen hop but, more importantly, got the crowd into the game. The BCCI and CAB tried as hard as they (unintentionally) could to ensure that this game was played in front of two spectators and a dog. However, the extremely passionate (and pleasingly obstinate) local populace refused to let such things affect them. Around 30-40,000 showed up and pushed the Indian team along. The batsmen had just reached their centuries, the score was a serene looking 200-plus for one, the softening had been done by Ishant and the crowd was roaring its appreciation. Into this perfect storm came ZAK, inducing Alviro to tentatively prod forward and the resultant away movement did enough to take the edge. MS Dhoni, having a very, very good game behind the stumps so far, skipped across in front of first slip and took it standing up and the first breach had been made.

Batting prosperity does not go well with Jacques Kallis' (and to an extent Rahul Dravid's) preferred batting style. When the score reads 228 for 2, what you really need is a batsman who will continue the good work, pushing the bowlers back into the negative mindset that they were in until the wicket fell. 10 runs in almost an hour of batting by Kallis was just too paralyzing and pressure-building. With the runs drying up, Amla went for a very uncharacteristic pull shot to a ball that was angling wide of him and the upper edge was smartly snaffled by Dhoni, skipping across one more time. The cat was now firmly among the pigeons and the big bully Economy was just getting into the act.

When the batsmen are intent on survival, they bring out the best in Economy. If he is sure that the primary thought in a batsman's mind is not to attack, it frees his own mind and he unfurls the hop in his run-up and his eyes light up. The pressure was built up at both ends and, finally, the valve popped. Kallis attempted a slog-sweep off Harbhajan and the top edge went swirling away towards short fine-leg. Laxman took off from first slip, eyes always on the ball, and took the type of over-the-shoulder catch while falling to the turf that makes it to every video clip in the evening news segment. The dazzling full-fledged Laxman smile came out in full force and, just like that, Economy switched into Harbhajan mode.

(Associated Press/CricInfo 2010)

The rest can be found on CricInfo or other blogs and I will not give you a systematic breakdown of the dismissals. When the day began I told myself that I would be happy with anything in the range of 300 or less runs for 5 wickets or more. The SAffers finished at 266 for 9. The SAffers were 250 for 3 after 62 overs. In the next 19 overs till close of play, they scored just 16 runs losing 6 more wickets. Too defensive, really.

In spite of all that transpired on the first day, I still feel that South Africa is still slightly ahead. The reason is that they already have the runs on the board. India needs to bat out of its skin to put up a big total and put pressure and, more importantly, take 11 more SAffer wickets to win. Taking that last wicket quickly on the 2nd morning will be necessary. Though, as long as they don't allow too many more runs, it may not be a bad thing from India's point of view if South Africa bats long enough for the early morning dew and moisture to evaporate from the pitch! I'm not hoping it happens, though.