Quietly dominant

The first Test match between South Africa threw up a few surprises by the time the lunch interval was ushered in. Before the match, Rohit Sharma, riding the wave of popular opinion and one huge triple century against Gujrat, was a shoe-in for the middle-order spot that opened up when VVS Laxman injured himself in Bangladesh. (In spite of the 309*, Sharma had the 20th highest run aggregate in the Ranji Super League this year).

About an hour before play was to start, Sharma stepped on another player's foot in a routine pre-game play-around and was done for the day. Suddenly, Wriddhiman Saha, a wicket-keeper batsman from West Bengal, drafted into the team because the selectors (very wisely, really) deemed that Dinesh Karthik was better spent leading South Zone in the Duleep Trophy, found himself with the coveted debut match. Fortuitously, Saha leapfrogged more worthy aspirants (Pujara, Kohli, Pandey, Rahane come readily to mind) into the Test team as a specialist batsman. Since I will not mention his name again today, let me say that Saha is a very good and active fielder, especially in the deep, based on what I saw.

Zaheer Khan began as only he does - bowling to a plan in his mind, wide of the off-stump, asking the batsmen to reach out for the ball or at least pantomime letting it go. Everyone, including the scorer and his chaiwalla know that this is a set up for the ball that comes in or the bouncer, yet ZAK's current aura is such that when the ball inevitably comes, it causes discomfort. Ashwell Prince got injured in a series against Australia and JP Duminy stole the thunder. On Prince's return, he was drafted in as an opener, the selectors indicating they felt Duminy was the better long-term option. Prince is in a scoring rut and, not surprisingly, was dismissed by an iffy decision, the ball bouncing off his arm-guard to the keeper. Prince did not help matters by fending so awkwardly at the bouncer that, on first impression, it clearly looked out. Only slow motion capture from the square angle showed that he may have been not out. I cannot fault the umpire for that decision at all.

Graeme Smith and ZAK go way back and he was content to watchfully play out the medium-pacer's spell. The sucker ball to Smith is the one the comes in after pitching and the South African skipper still managed to play an angled shot to an incoming ball and heard his middle-stump rattle. Just like that South Africa was 6 for 2 and the door was open for India to come thundering in.

Instead, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla sedately set about surviving ZAK's probes and negating Ishant Sharma's run-denying line. The introduction of Harbhajan Singh, playing purely on reputation of late, opened the floodgates (relatively speaking). In the recent past, in my opinion, two things have conspired to make Economy Singh a ghost of the bowler of the past - both of which have to do with the doosra. The ICC is more vigilant than ever before about chucking and Economy no longer uses it as frequently as he used to, but his off-middle stump line has remained the same. Secondly, as Saqlain Mushtaq found out and Trever Jenner recently pointed out, a bowler who bowls a lot of doosras loses the action that produces the heavy overspin and loop that is the trademark of a good off-spinner. In pursuing that doosra Economy has lost his loop and bounce. Sad, really. A few weeks in purgatory may be the jolt he needs to get his rhythm back. If Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly could be dropped, why not Economy?

Anyway, Economy helped Kallis and Amla settle down. Amit Mishra found some turn and bounce but a propensity to not be able to bowl a full length on his faster balls meant that he repeatedly got pulled away to the midwicket region everytime he pitched short. Soon the SAffers were glued into the crease and, once that happens on flat pitches like this, it takes a special ball or a stupid shot to prise good batsmen out. Neither Amla nor Kallis were prepared to give it away and, barring ZAK, no Indian bowler looked capable to pulling out that zinger.

Runs, which came at a trickle in the first hour, began to gush forth in a more steady flow as the day progressed and at close South Africa had reached close to 300 runs for the loss of those early wickets. Slight advantage, South Africa, but this is a position that this Indian team has been in before and still managed to pull it out. (I will give you some examples of this later today).

For now, though, it is time for the Indian team to sit back, rest those tired feet, and plan some rebuttals. If Day 2 belongs to the South Africans, then 3 days of saving a Test match beckon.