India pull one back in Durban
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 as the three test match series, touted as the battle for the number one spot in test rankings, was squared 1-1 with one match left.
The last day saw an insipid performance from the Proteas with the bat as they wilted under the duress of a 300 plus run chase in the fourth innings. The hosts were dismissed for 215 to hand an 87 runs win to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men.
Resuming at the overnight score of 111/3 the hosts surrendered tamely losing the key wickets of Jacques Kallis, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 and Mark Boucher in the first session of the fourth day.
While Kallis got an unplayable ball from Shiv Sreesanth that reared off the good length, de Villiers and Boucher were victims of two extremely dubious umpiring decisions by Asad Rauf and Simon Davies respectively.
However, Smith refused to blame the umpires for the loss. He claimed that his team fared very poorly with the bat and were perhaps over confident after amassing 620 runs in the only innings in the first test of the series played at Centurion.
"We probably lost the Test match on day two. I don't think it was a 131 wicket. Getting bowled out for that just wasn't good enough," Smith said.
The hosts had bowled remarkably well themselves on the first day as a fired up http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn sent the tourists packing for 205 runs in the first innings.
The pitch at Kingsmead remained full of life as the hosts were blown away by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh for a dismal 131.
The 74-run deficit the South Africans had to deal with in the first innings proved decisive as the two teams struggled with the bat even in the second innings.
Smith didn't think India's batting was necessarily better than South Africa's. "It's not like India's batting set the house on fire, they got slightly more runs than us, and I guess that's what's needed in Test match cricket."
"It was tight going into today, and every day the game swung and was tense. That's what people want to see. Nobody wants pounded-out draws."
The closely-contested nature of the match was perhaps the reason why Smith remained unperturbed in the press talk after the match, he insisted that his team was not outplayed and had it in it to bounce back strongly and win the series with
a victory in the last match at Cape Town.
"They did slightly better than us at the key moments, and they won this Test match. We haven't played terribly, but we haven't played to our ability," he said. "It's always a great Test match to play in, and being one-all in the series
it's going to be even bigger now."
The final test match is being played in one of the most successful test venue of the hosts, the Newlands, where they have won 9 out of 14 tests.
The South Africans have done remarkably well in recent years and they would be hoping to carry on in the same vein and regroup to beat the top ranked team in the world in the longest format of the game.
The test match is set to attract thousands of cricket fans in one of the most picturesque venues in the world positioned next to the famous table mountain.
The Indians are on the other hand buoyant with their triumph and hope that they would continue to push the hosts on the back foot and win the unofficial battle for the top ICC test spot.
Tags: