India’s Tour of South Africa: India face an uphill task at the Centurion
The first two days of the first Test between South Africa and India clearly belonged to South Africa, and the trend continued on the third day. Despite a much better effort in the second innings from the Indian batsmen than the
first time round, at the close of play on day three, India still required another 294 runs to avoid an innings defeat with only eight wickets in hand.
The highlight of day three was Jacques Kallis’s double hundred. Many cricket fans will be surprised to know that this was the first Test double-century in the South African all-rounder’s entire illustrious career. Hashim Amla and
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 piled up 620 runs for the loss of just four wickets before declaring its innings. They had managed to score their runs
at 4.76 runs per over.
Kallis remained unbeaten on 201 runs, a score which came off only 270 balls. He struck 15 fours and five massive sixes in his marathon knock.
Meanwhile, Amla was dismissed on 140 off 202. His innings included 14 fours and a six. However, the best was yet to come for the home team as de Villiers came to crease and pondered the Indian bowling attack as if he were in an
extended practice session. He completed his hundred before lunch on day three. De Villiers scored 129 runs off just 112 balls with the help of 12 fours and five sixes. His innings demoralized the whole body language of the Indian team.
Harbhajan Singh and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 took a couple of wickets each for India but not before conceding 389 runs between them at more than 4.5 runs per over.
India started its second innings with a deficit of 484 runs. But this time round, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623 stuck to the task and gave India a solid opening partnership of 137 runs before Sehwag threw his wicket away off
the bowling of Paul Harris. He made 63 runs off 79 balls with the help of nine fours and a six.
Gambhir also played a wonderful innings although he had been looking quite shaky in the first innings. He was unlucky to be dismissed by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn as the ball kept low. He used up 124 balls for his 80 runs and struck 10 fours
in his innings.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 at 190 runs for the loss of two wickets.
Although it is an uphill task for India to save the Test with two days of play remaining, one can expect anything from the Indian batting line-up, which can be most devastating if the ball is not bouncing too high. And somehow
the pitch has lost its bounce since the second morning of the Test match. The Indian batsmen have done this kind of a job in the past. We’ll just have to wait till day four to see if they can do it again.
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