With fog delaying start on the last three mornings, it was no surprise that there wasn’t a result in the game. Both sides also seemed to be sparring and circling each other and trying to find a weak spot in each other’s strategy and so no initiatives were taken to make the game more interesting than it turned out to be in the end.
The diversity that’s unique to India can be seen by the way the three pitches prepared for the last three Tests have behaved. If the pitch at Nagpur was a grassy one, which was heaven sent for the Australian quick bowlers, the one at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay was one that the spinners would like to carry with them everywhere and the one at Kanpur was a nightmare for the bowlers, so benign was it. It’s not just the diverse languages, culture, behavioral patterns and thinking but also the soil content that makes India’s pitches different from each other especially in the months of November to late January, where the weather plays a crucial part in preparation.
Remember South Africa have come with a new look side and so will be quite happy to go back with a drawn series for that will be a victory in itself. Apart from Pollock and Kallis, nobody has toured India before and so are short of experience on how to play the turning ball. The captain, Graeme Smith is a dogged customer who will battle it out and not surrender his wicket easily and the experiment of opening with Andrew Hall worked great as he went on to post his highest score while getting his first century in Test cricket. The debutant De Bruyn missed out on his century but has given notice that he will be a tough wicket to get.
India’s spinners tried hard but were defeated by the slowness of the pitch though Kumble once again showed why he is such a destructive bowler and but for some appeals going the other way could well have given India the start that they needed in the series. Losing the toss also meant that the Proteas batted when the pitch was at its best with little life for the new ball as well as the spinners.
The gains for India were the runs from Ganguly, Dravid and newcomer Gambhir. The left-handed opener was fluent and showed a pleasing range of shots and if he can work at knowing where his off-stump is and playing a little more close to his body, then he could be as consistent as he is at the domestic level. A left-right combination invariably creates problems for the opposition bowlers and with both he and Sehwag being natural stroke players the score gets moving pretty quickly. Dravid will be disappointed at missing out on a century but perhaps he was too watchful, which can happen if a player is short of runs and so cuts down on a few shots to be less error prone. For the captain, there was plenty on his mind when he went in to bat but he too settled in nicely to get a half-century. Though Tendulkar and Laxman failed, they are too good to do that regularly and should be among the runs soon.
South Africa will no doubt feel that they had the better of the Test and have won half the battle. Certainly by taking a first innings lead they have shown that they are not going to be the pushovers people thought they would be after the Australia series. It’s been a disappointing season so far for India and they will have to take the big steps and make the moves if they are to salvage some of their lost sheen.
