Twice in the past 12 months South Africa have dropped the ball when the No. 1 Test ranking was within their grasp. But now, with an innings-and-six-run victory over India, the Proteas are just one win, or indeed draw, away from taking back top spot off their own bats.
Will it be a case of third time’s the charm for South Africa as they head to Kolkata with a series victory on their minds?
The Proteas declared their first innings of the first Test against India at 558-6 and then dismissed the home side for 233 and 319 to seal the victory at Nagpur. Hashim Amla was named man of the match for his unbeaten 253, around which the tourists constructed what proved to be an insurmountable total for MS Dhoni’s side.
In most other circumstances, Dale Steyn would surely have taken the honours with 7-51 in the first innings, and a total of 10-108 from 34.5 overs for the match.
The equation now is simple for India: win the second match in Kolkata or relinquish the No. 1 Test ranking to South Africa.
While many of India’s batting woes at Nagpur, especially in the first innings, can be attributed to an impressive display of swing bowling from Steyn it’s unsurprising that the home side have signalled their intention to boost the available batting stocks for that match, and have added batsmen Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina to a 15-man squad for the second Test. The continued absence of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, automatic inclusions in the starting XI when fit, will still mean India enters the Kolkata Test with an inexperienced batting line-up.
However, Dhoni, who has now lost his first Test as captain since his appointment about a year-and-a-half ago, is still hopeful VVS Laxman will recover from the finger injury that sidelined him in Nagpur in time to bolster the batting attack in Kolkata.
It’s all very well for Sachin Tendulkar to notch a ton, his 46th Test century of an illustrious career, but when none of his teammates could crack 40 in the second innings it was in the end a futile resistance. Laxman’s presence especially could reasonably be expected to make a difference in that regard.
But what of South Africa? On home soil against Australia early in 2009 and then against England in the 2009/10 winter they had the chance to take the No. 1 ranking by winning the series and twice they failed.
In between times it was England’s Ashes victory over Australia that promoted the Proteas to the top Test ranking, but they’d lost it to India by the time the four-Test series against England began late last year.
Now, with the notoriously difficult task of defeating India on the subcontinent thrust upon them, South Africa are on the brink of achieving what they couldn’t on home soil. Truth is though, the Proteas have travelled well in recent times, as Test-series victories in Australia and England will attest.
And they also seem to have a knack for performing on the subcontinent. In the last 25 years, India have been defeated by an innings just three times on their home soil. All three of those defeats have come in the last decade, and all three have been inflicted by South Africa.
Of course, with South Africa’s track record of “choking” a lingering doubt persists about whether they can replicate the assured and attacking performance of the first Test when they travel to Kolkata.
As impressive as South Africa were in Nagpur, it’s still a case of seeing is believing that they can win back the No. 1 Test ranking on their own merits, even against what will again be a depleted India side.
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