Three chips and some mild salsa

Overnight rain and some inept groundskeeping ensured that two possible results were rendered highly unlikely in the India-South Africa Test match at Kolkata. With a South African win and a tie knocked out of the loop, only an Indian win or a draw remain.

About 90 odd overs remain to be bowled, and the SAffers trail by 232 runs, with seven wickets in hand. In reality, a combination of bad light, slow over-rate, and rain will ensure that they actually need to survive between 50-80 overs. They have the batsmen - Amla, De Villiers, Prince, and Duminy to do it, but they have also lost two very important cogs - Smith and Kallis.

There's nothing much to be said about the fourth day's play except to point out how disappointing it was to see minimalist close-in catchers to the South African batsmen. Two slips and a gully do not constitute anything more than a rudimentary field for a fast bowler. For an Indian team that needs to win, this was a pretty diffused response. When the spinners came on, there was just a slip and a short-leg (for the off-spinner) or silly point (for the leg-spinner). As soon as a boundary was hit, a fielder was sent to patrol the deep.

Why, oh why?! One catch off Zaheer Khan went where third slip would have been, another catch off Harbhajan Singh went were leg gully would have been. These are half-chances that shouldn't be half-chances. Come on, Masada, go all out and attack, forget the fours that come from it. Runs are no longer important, wickets are.

Here's hoping that the rain relents and the Indians are able to get the 50 or so overs they need to get the remaining 7 wickets. I am predicting an Indian win with a meaningless, stat-padding, big'un from the man named Abraham Benjamin.

P.S. Before you send me a response scenario where a SAffer win is possible, for instance, featuring a spectacular Indian collapse, let me tell you that I know that theoretically anything is possible. I was simply speaking of the probability of those events occurring when I removed a SAffer win or tie from the equation.