The weather favoured South Africa with the umpires calling play off with the visitors on 115 for three on the fourth day of the second test against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
On a riveting day’s play India couldn’t manage wickets in a hurry but got three of them at regular intervals. Graeme Smith came out bull-headed and, along with Alviro Petersen, almost batted out the one-hour first session.
Five minutes before the break, though, Mishra got him with his first delivery. In the second session, Harbhajan Singh, looking menacing with almost every delivery, got Petersen early. Amla and Jacques Kallis looked pretty comfortable for 16 overs, but in deteriorating light Mishra got Kallis with a beauty minutes before the players walked off.
Hashim Amla, who had scored 367 runs in two innings before this, was made to dig deep into his patience and skill reserves, and will be hoping he has more in the tank.
India would have been much more comfortably placed despite bad light and rain had M Vijay held on to a sharp chance from Amla at backward short leg.
With clearer skies expected today, India will need one big push to reach their destination. For the coach who has helped turn things around, it’s a matter of playing the big moments well and playing with pride. “It’s amazing how Test cricket works,” Kirsten said. “Funny things happen. South Africa were 220 for one and we were able to turn it around. One thing this team has done really well is build pressure for a period of time and then make it count. We know in a two-Test series, one session can make the difference. It happened with South Africa in Nagpur and it happened with us here.”
South Africa 296 & 115/3 (35.0 ov)
India 643/6d
South Africa trail by 232 runs with 7 wickets remaining
South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 JP Duminy, 7 Ashwell Prince, 8 Paul Harris, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel.
India: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 M Vijay, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 S Badrinath, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8, Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Ishant Sharma.
179 – Scrumdown…….hahahaha.
172 – Blouste…….hehehe. You right too, they should..hahaha.
177 – Super, It was almost boet. Damn our top order let us down. Need to drop the out of form players now.
My nerves could feel my heart beating out my chest. Just too old for this……….hahaha. At least I have a strong heart…….hahaha.
If only hey!! Just wished that Boucher was there. We just may have done it. Parnell, Harris and Morkel all done their job the rest let us down.
Amla was outstanding in this series. No other words he was simply magnificent. What a batsman to have in our side. Hope that brilliant form keeps up for the WI tour.
Now better put in my bru picks. Almost forgot about them with the crici so exciting in the end there.
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