Dhoni won the toss, and in conditions that were perfectly suited for swinging the ball, inserted South Africa -- doubtless Smith would have done the same, despite his statement of not being sure what to do. The ball moved around quite a bit, the pitch was bouncy -- and the forecast for Days 2-5 was bright sunlight. The stage was perfectly set for India to win the series. The script seemed a complete reversal of the one in Centurion; Dhoni would have envisioned bowling out South Africa, either by end of play today or having them 7 or 8 down.
Someone forgot to tell the South African batsmen. Also the Indian pacemen were not clued in on the script -- the attack was lackluster, and pressure was applied only in patches. For starters the ball didn't swing consistently, only once in a while. But there was bounce to be had, and the occasional delivery jagged off the pitch appreciably. Batting was hard -- and the South African batsmen, particularly Kallis went a long way to ensuring that India not only lost the advantage of winning the toss, they are now the underdog instead of the favorite.
Today the rub of the green definitely went against the Indians. When they did get the ball in the right slot, it either beat the bat or flew through a vacant position. But fundamentally, the Indians didn't go at the batsmen except in patches and rarely applied the pressure from both ends.
At first, all seemed going to plan. Order was restored when Zaheer Khan got his bunny Smith early -- again if you look at the ball he got out on, it would look like a straight ball that was angling in. But it was set up by the many away swingers afterwards. Then the rain came, and off they went.
After the first resumption, Ishant Sharma got Petersen off a ball that seamed a touch away outside off that he tried to drive. Ishant's first spell was poor and he got a wicket -- his later spells were much more incisive and he went wicketless. Another rain break and this time they came back for good.
When they came out, Amla was the man in a hurry. Zaheer looked extremely stiff and uninterested when he came back ambling up to the wicket. Trying for swing he overpitched and served up 3 juicy half volleys that Amla dispatched gratefully. Sreesanth also pushed it up as well -- it was almost as though the Indians felt that they had to just put it up and wickets would come. There was none of the "come at the batsmen all the time" attitude that won us the game at Durban.
Anyway, the man who pulled India back was Sreesanth -- figures can lie, he went for 13 in that over, but it was actually a good over. Amla hooked him for six of a very good bouncer that Amla was lucky to keep down. Next ball edged through gully in the air off the leading edge. Then a genuine nick that flew short of the vacant 3rd slip and another bouncer that was well hooked for a single. Zak bowled his one good over where he beat Amla twice, but generally he was extremely poor. And then India got a bit of luck -- Amla pulled a long hop and just hit it poorly and swatted it down Pujara's throat. That was a huge relief for India -- Amla was taking the game away from India, but still hooking with two men on the fence was not a high percentage shot. Amla seems to be a man in a hurry -- what happened to the patient man we saw in India. I think -- as an opposition fan -- I prefer this Amla. This version gives you a lot of chances.
At 124/3 the session was well poised. Harbhajan would be key as this would be a long session -- if he could keep one end bottled up, and put pressure on the bats as he had done in Durban, that would help. Instead Bhajji just fired it down at 86-87 kmph and was worked for easy singles. A couple of times he floated it up at 82-83 kmph and troubled the batsman, but mostly he bowled flat & quick.
Sreesanth bowled well, and got deVilliers eventually when AB's patient grew thin and he drove at a ball that he had been defending to edge to Dhoni. 150/4 and it was anybody's game. Sreesanth then hit Kallis and there was a huge appeal -- the umpire turned it down, as would I. In real time, I had some thought that it might be too high, but Hawkeye showed it smacking into the top of leg stump.
Anyway, what I found really bad was the shameless "homer"ism of Pommie Mbangwa (yes, I know he is not South African, but he lives there). When Sreesanth appealed loudly he said, going down the leg with authority. As I said, it looked very adjacent. On the reply, Pommie said again "no chance, way down the leg side" again, clucking disapprovingly at Sreesanth's huge appeal and saying Dhoni was moving down the leg side. Clueless, when a fast bowler is bowling, when the ball cuts even, even if it would be at or above off stump, the take would be
well down the leg side. Then when the replay showed it slamming into top of leg stump, neither of the comms said a word. In Durban the comms replayed the Zaheer lbw and the AB lbw (which seems very similar to this one) about 20 times it seemed, complaining about the bad umpiring and how South Africa was badly hurt by the lack of UDRS. This time, it wasn't replayed once while I was watching, and there were no comments on how India could have used the UDRS here; such biased commentary takes the fun out of watching.
That was that. Kallis was greatly troubled by Ishant who bowled very well in two spells -- hit him several times and beat the bat many times, but no edge. Kallis batted very well, and was well supported by the underrated Prince. But fundamentally, the Indian bowling failed to ask enough questions of the South African batsmen and a game that could have been won may have been lost. Brilliant sunshine bathed beautiful Newlands for the last hour and a half, and Indian hopes vanished as quickly as the dark clouds that had hung over the pitch all day.
I had opined that if India could dismiss the big 3 (Amla, Kallis and deVilliers) twice each for 300 totals runs (6 dismissals) they would win. Right now the tally is 166 runs for 2 dismissals (Kallis 81*). India are still in with a chance. The new ball is just 6 overs away, and there will be some life early. If we can get Kallis early and get a couple more wickets with the new ball, then we can dismiss South Africa for under 350, which will get us back in the game -- for that Zaheer will need to bowl as he can, not like the shambling stiff slug we saw today. Right now RSA is looking at 400+ and batting India out of the game. Should be an absorbing morning's play!
Bharat
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