Jacques Kallis
The 3rd and final test match between South Africa and India is taking place in Cape Town.
Day one started with India winning the toss and electing to field first. A change in the Indian side took place with Gautam Gambhir returning after injury causing Murli Vijay to sit this one out.
All the players were pumped up, both sides. South Africa got to see first hand the change in character of the new Indian side and did not receive it too well. Ample sledging took place which rattled the South African’s a little too much; they obviously expected a reserved side and instead were greeted by Sreesanth.
In the first innings 3 main contributions were responsible for South Africa’s total, Amla who made 59runs of 80 balls, Prince who made 47 runs of 100 balls and most importantly Kallis for his brilliant knock of 161 runs in 291 balls which resulted in a healthy total of 362.
A good day for South Africa but a confusingly good day for India as well, the bowling attack was fascinating to watch. Sreesanth took 5 wickets that of Amla, AB de Villiers, Prince, Boucher on a duck and Morne Morkel. Sreesanth was the bowler of the day and was on a Hat-trick but missed it.
Pace attack being most effective, Zaheer Khan took 3 wickets that of, skipper Graeme Smith,Dale Steyn who was greeted with a brilliant ball by Zaheer Khan with him falling at 0 and getting a bitter taste of his own medicine and Kallis who at one point looked like he would cruse through but fortunately Zaheer stopped him.
Ishant Sharma took 2 wickets, that of opener Petersen on day one who made 21runs and the man who started all the sledging Paul Harris on day two who made only 7 runs.
The Indian 1st innings started with a few hiccups called Virender Sehwag who lost a mind battle against Dale Steyn, all credit given to him; Rahul Dravid was very shakey opposide Gautam Gambhir and after a while was run out on 5. Day two ended with a steady Gautam Gambhir at 65runs and Sachin Tendulkar at 49 runs.
With the first two days over, the match is pretty much even stevens at this stage. The pendulum can swing to any side at this point; all depends on which side fights harder. Let’s hope the South African’s continue sledging as it just pumps up the entire Indian team and shows us amusing sights like Harbhajan asking Sreesanth to calm down.
Tags: Cape Town, Cricket, India, Proteas, South Africa, Sreesanth, Test Match, Test Series, Zaheer Khan
