Mongia & Co show Safs shape of things to come

At close, the hosts were 320 for five, a lead of 94, with Mongia batting on 135 and Hemang Badani on 49 not out.

Except for the failure of Dheeraj Jadhav and Sadagopan Ramesh, other batsmen showed a positive spirit today as they put the South African bowling to the sword.

Gautam Gambhir (26) was fluent on both sides of the wicket in the morning before Venugopala Rao (29) teased the spinners with his wristy flicks in the afternoon.

For Graeme Smith, the day’s proceedings portended tough days ahead in the subcontinent as his slow bowlers failed to make any kind of impact.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa (First innings) 226 for 5 declared
Board President’s XI (First innings)
D Jadhav lbw Ntini 12, G Gambhir c Tsolekile b Pollock 26, S Ramesh lbw Hall 9, D Mongia batting 135, V Rao c Hall b De Bruyn 29, M S Dhoni c Tsolekile b Ontong 39, H Badani batting 49
Extras (b-2, lb-16, nb-3) 21
Total (for 5 wkts in 93 overs) 320
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-55, 3-61, 4-117, 5-208
Bowling: S Pollock 11-6-12-1, M Ntini 15-3-48-1, A Hall 17-4-54-1, J Kallis 3-1-6-0, J Ontong 19-1-100-1, Z de Bruyn 11-6-10-1, G Smith 6-0-31-0, H Amla 11-1-41-0