India Vs. SA 2nd Test, Day 1

Graeme Smith tried to do what Rahul Dravid did on the occasion of first test, bat first and seize the initiative. The decision almost backfired as South Africa was reduced to 28/3 in less than an hour and it looked as if the SA batsmen were headed for another catwalk session to the pavilion.

Zaheer Khan started the proceedings for India in typical fashion. He bowled a good line and length and in the process scalped the SA skipper, the usual stuff! Smith tried to hook his way out of bad form only to find Sachin Tendulkar completing a good catch in the square leg region. Zaheer struck again in his fourth over to dismiss Amla and Shreeshanth finished off AB de Villiers’ resistance reducing SA to 28/3 and making a mockery of their decision to bat first.

But SA found their saviors in a demoted, but determined Herschelle Gibbs and some reluctant umpires who forgot what the LBW rules were all about. At least on three occasions, the batsmen looked plumb in front but the umpires didn’t budge. Edges were flying away in the vacant slip areas and the Indian team slowly promised to get out of the match as fast as they got in it. To add insult to the injury, Smith, who was tentative to start with, started putting bat to ball and played some breathtaking strokes to every bowler in sight. On the other side, Ashwell Prince gritted it out with the help of the umpires who turned down every LBW against him as a matter of policy.

After a sumptuous lunch and a healthy scoring rate, Gibbs’ confidence was soaring high and when Sreeshanth returned to bowling, he decided to take his revenge against the young seamer. In Sreeshanth’s fourth over after the lunch Gibbs had an almighty heave at a short pitched delivery outside the off stump only to edge it to first slip. A diving Dhoni completed the catch but umpire Benson, who was daydreaming in his own little world, refused to lift his finger. Finally, even Gibbs got bored and he walked out by himself, leaving Benson to slump into his daydreaming again.

But Mark Boucher, who came in after Gibbs was not daydreaming at all. He continued from where Gibbs left and played some scintillating strokes. With a stubborn Ashwell Prince on the other side, SA looked threatening enough to take the match away from India.

That’s when Sreeshanth struck.

It was an in dipping Yorker to which Boucher tried one of his customary flicks to square leg. The ball escaped Boucher’s bat and cleaned up two stumps opening the floodgates for India once again. Boucher had made a valuable fifty by then and SA desperately needed Shaun Pollock to carry on the good work.

He started off aggressively. Hit a couple of adventurous boundaries and then tried an ambitious shot to VRV Singh only to find Sehwag taking a sharp catch at Point. Then there were tail-enders and then there was Kumble. The master craftsman trapped Andre Hall and big-mouth Andre Nell in quick succession before the umpires woke up from their sleep and decided to offer the light to the batsmen, which was gleefully accepted, ending the day’s proceedings.

With SA 257/8 on Day 1, India clearly has the upper hand in the test. India will look to finish off the SA innings early on Day 2 and pray Sehwag and Jaffer find some form to give them a good start.

Let’s see if their prayers will be answered!