“Defeat was inescapable” says Dhoni
Indian skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 has come out to defend his team stating that the first innings deficit was too mammoth a task for them to deal with and hence defeat was almost inevitable after South Africa made an imposing total of 620 runs.
"The deficit was too much to handle, and South Africa got too many runs. It was a good show by the batsmen in the second innings. After they won the toss it was a job half done, but they had to bowl at the right areas and they did that. Their batsmen also
batted really well," he said.
India were dismissed for 459 in their second innings after the lower order and the bowlers could not survive the onslaught from the South African bowling line up. India did try to make a comeback in the second innings as their batsmen got good starts; however
they could not convert those starts into centuries and that has made all the difference. Compared to South Africa, three of their major batsmen went on to make centuries. Despite of having a lot of depth, the Indian batting seemed to be susceptible to the
South African bowling. The Proteas were very patient in their approach as they did not try to bring in a lot of changes. Their patience paid off and Indian batting line up slowly started to crumble.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028, however, said that there were positives from the match as well since Gambhir got off to a decent start to score 80 and Sachin Tendulkar scored a century. However, he was quick to admit that it was their bowling that eventually let them down at
the end.
South African all rounder Jacques Kallis who scored his first double hundred in 141 matches said that it was a very special moment for him. One of the leading run scorer in Tests, a double century had almost eluded him throughout his career. However, he
finally scored 200 as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 dominated the Indian bowlers who were poor.
"It took a long way to come but it was worth the wait. It was a very special moment. It was a good all-round effort from us, we put in a good performance on day one which put us ahead of the eight ball. Centurion is a big scoring ground and we came into
this Test looking to be very positive with both bat and ball," Jacques Kallis said.
Graeme Smith was highly satisfied with the result of the test match and said that his team now looked to extend the lead to 2-0 as they go in to play in Durban. When asked to comment on the 50th Test hundred of Sachin Tendulkar, Smith stated that
he had seen Tendulkar scoring centuries even before he can remember. However, he admitted that his teammates and himself were a little startled at how easy Tendulkar made it for the Proteas, since he allowed the bowlers to take the crease. Graeme Smith was
also dismissive of Harbajhan Singh and said that Paul Harris bowled with more control than Singh.
He said that Paul had a lot of critics and everyone had been writing him off; however his performance in the Test match proves the potential he has as a bowler. He said that Paul forms an integral part of the dressing room and always performs for their side
whenever it is required. The form of some Indian batsmen like Sehwag and Dravid is also under question. It is likely that they would look to pick some player from back up. Cheteshwar Pujara is one such player that has a lot of potential and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 could probably
play him in the next test.
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