India Vs. SA Day 3
Indian Innings
The life is back to normal. After a splendid batting display in the first test, the famed Indian batting line up put up its feet when it needed to dig deep into its wealth of resources and prove that the first test was not a fluke. On a pitch that was much more conducive to batting Indians let the ghosts from the past haunt them and rob them off their place under the sun.
There were two good news for India early in the day. One, Sachin Tendulkar returned to form and another, umpire Benson retired hurt! We all knew yesterday that he was mentally and physically sick not to give some LBW decisions and today it was officially conformed!
The day began promisingly for Indians as Sachin played some exquisite shots, mainly on the off side. He threatened to take full advantage of the dropped catch and make SA pay for it dearly. The man who played such commanding shots to almost all the SA bowlers got out sheepishly trying for a non-existent upper cut over the slips and ended up giving a catch to wicket keeper Mark Boucher. His 63 runs (115 balls) consisted of 11 fours and the Tendulkar of the bygone had era had almost returned.
Almost
When Ganguly walked to the center, India hoped for another rescue act from the man in form. But he lasted only two deliveries. Caught in two minds as whether to defend or attack a rising delivery from Ntini, Ganguly didn’t do any of these and gave a simple catch to Gibbs at gully and returned to pavilion faster than he had arrived.
Dhoni came, he saw and he nearly conquered. He hit some, he edged some, he missed some and finally he nicked one! His stay was short, on the edge stuff. While Dhoni lasted, nobody knew what was happening the next ball and sadly, that included Dhoni too!
While all this drama unfolded, poor Laxman stood on the other side and watched it helplessly. He was the only batsman not troubled by the SA bowlers. He was not his fluent self but he was composed and he was lucky! Lucky because in the 45th over, there was a huge appeal against him for caught behind and our dear umpire Benson had just retired hurt (god knows what happened to him). The stand in umpire Ian Blackwell was in no mood for fun and he declined the appeal. But other than that, Laxman’s innings was calm and composed. He made his fifty and was not out till the end.
Shreeshanth, who made 28, played some courageous shots. On some occasions he came down the track to hit the fast bowlers and got a boundary off Nell very early in his innings, just to remind who was the boss! He got out attempting another shot down the track edging it to the keeper. VRV Singh came, hit a four, suddenly wanted to bowl and threw his wicket away!
So that was Indian batting, which revolved mainly around the patient innings of VVS Laxman while other showed flashes of brilliance. Overall, SA is all set to equal the scores in the second innings unless they do something really stupid in their second innings!
The SA Innings
Nothing much to write about the SA innings. They only had to play 10 overs. The highlight of the day being Smith not giving his wicket away to Zaheer Khan.
Well, there is always another day and another chance!
The life is back to normal. After a splendid batting display in the first test, the famed Indian batting line up put up its feet when it needed to dig deep into its wealth of resources and prove that the first test was not a fluke. On a pitch that was much more conducive to batting Indians let the ghosts from the past haunt them and rob them off their place under the sun.
There were two good news for India early in the day. One, Sachin Tendulkar returned to form and another, umpire Benson retired hurt! We all knew yesterday that he was mentally and physically sick not to give some LBW decisions and today it was officially conformed!
The day began promisingly for Indians as Sachin played some exquisite shots, mainly on the off side. He threatened to take full advantage of the dropped catch and make SA pay for it dearly. The man who played such commanding shots to almost all the SA bowlers got out sheepishly trying for a non-existent upper cut over the slips and ended up giving a catch to wicket keeper Mark Boucher. His 63 runs (115 balls) consisted of 11 fours and the Tendulkar of the bygone had era had almost returned.
Almost
When Ganguly walked to the center, India hoped for another rescue act from the man in form. But he lasted only two deliveries. Caught in two minds as whether to defend or attack a rising delivery from Ntini, Ganguly didn’t do any of these and gave a simple catch to Gibbs at gully and returned to pavilion faster than he had arrived.
Dhoni came, he saw and he nearly conquered. He hit some, he edged some, he missed some and finally he nicked one! His stay was short, on the edge stuff. While Dhoni lasted, nobody knew what was happening the next ball and sadly, that included Dhoni too!
While all this drama unfolded, poor Laxman stood on the other side and watched it helplessly. He was the only batsman not troubled by the SA bowlers. He was not his fluent self but he was composed and he was lucky! Lucky because in the 45th over, there was a huge appeal against him for caught behind and our dear umpire Benson had just retired hurt (god knows what happened to him). The stand in umpire Ian Blackwell was in no mood for fun and he declined the appeal. But other than that, Laxman’s innings was calm and composed. He made his fifty and was not out till the end.
Shreeshanth, who made 28, played some courageous shots. On some occasions he came down the track to hit the fast bowlers and got a boundary off Nell very early in his innings, just to remind who was the boss! He got out attempting another shot down the track edging it to the keeper. VRV Singh came, hit a four, suddenly wanted to bowl and threw his wicket away!
So that was Indian batting, which revolved mainly around the patient innings of VVS Laxman while other showed flashes of brilliance. Overall, SA is all set to equal the scores in the second innings unless they do something really stupid in their second innings!
The SA Innings
Nothing much to write about the SA innings. They only had to play 10 overs. The highlight of the day being Smith not giving his wicket away to Zaheer Khan.
Well, there is always another day and another chance!
posted by Raju @ 5:00 AM
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