Pace-setters revive sinking India

At 69/5 and 55/5, there are a couple of questions that this four-day game has thrown up, and a few bright spots:

8226; Will you pull out the grenade pin, drop Virender Sehwag or Wasim Jaffer?

Sehwag hasn8217;t touched 20 on this tour yet, he failed twice over the last three days, falling for a duck in the first innings and 10 yesterday. Jaffer bagged a pair, after he limped off the field with a swollen toe which came in the way of a furious yorker.

8226; What about Irfan Pathan, who has become more of a batting all-rounder now, like Ravi Shastri in the second half of his career? Maximum runs on this tour, bowling going nowhere, will you play him as a batsman?

Pathan scored a standout 47 during the Port Elizabeth one-dayer, notched up the team8217;s first century of this visit on the first day here, then followed up with an unbeaten 40. 8220;Everyone has to accept that he is going through a lean patch in his bowling. But full credit to Irfan for the way he batted in this game. Over the last one-and-a-half years, he has done well with his batting. We will definitely consider that while selecting the Test team,8221; says Laxman.

Now, the bright spots 8211; Zaheer Khan, VRV Singh and Sreesanth. And the little matter of taking 20 wickets in three days for 362 runs.

With five wickets here, including a fantastic in-dipper that fooled and bowled rival captain and Test star Jacques Rudolph, Zaheer is now undoubtedly the spearhead of this Indian attack. Yet, it is the aggression of Sreesanth 8211; four wickets in the first innings 8212; and the pace of young VRV 8212; five in all 8212; that promises to drive the South African top-order wedge further apart.

In fact, so angry was Rudolph about Sreesanth8217;s constant chirping on the field that he said, 8220;There was a little bit of stupidity. Maybe, it was the inexperience of Sreesanth, we felt, at certain stages. Hopefully, he can back it up in the Test match with the bowl in hand, not necessarily his mouth,8221; he said.

On VRV, let8217;s hear Laxman. 8220;He bowled amazing. VRV was the quickest of the lot, he showed a lot of courage,8221; the skipper said. Not surprisingly, the bowlers have been given an off-day tomorrow. And batsmen? Back to nets, at 3 pm.

Brief scores: Indians 316/7 dec and 142 Irfan Pathan 40, A Thomas 7/56 beat Rest of South Africa 138 and 224 Jaarsveld 66, Kemp 53, Z Khan 3/36, Harbhajan Singh 3/39, VRV Singh 2/41.