Ceremonious opening

Then as the fours dried up,everything went wrong for South Africa. De Villiers ran Peterson out for 68 in the 25th over. In the 31st,Peterson8217;s replacement JP Duminy,the form man for SA,was trapped leg before by Jadeja for 14. In 32nd,de Villiers threw his wicket away needlessly on 70. And in the 33rd,du Plessis managed to run out David Miller,without him facing a ball. SA: 155/2 to 188/6.

So then,the du Plessis boundary off Yadav was not only the first boundary in a long time,but also the first non-wicket over in a long time. The 34th,however,not only broke that pattern,it also smashed open the boundary dam.

As Suresh Raina took off his jumper to commence the 35th,and with no signal yet from his dressing room,du Plessis knew that overs 36 to 40 would see the mandatory implementation of the batting powerplay.

First ball,McLaren swept Raina for four. Fourth ball,McLaren reverse-swept Raina for four. And off the last ball,du Plessis cracked a mighty one over midwicket for the third boundary. With the five powerplay overs about to begin,SA were 212/6. India,at the same stage,were 213/2. This surely was still possible. All they had to do,then,was make the vacant outfield count.

They very nearly did.

It was high drama in the first powerplay over,the 36th. Yadav8217;s third ball,his first to du Plessis of the over,was worked rather easily away off his pads for four. Perhaps knowing fully well that du Plessis now in great nick would be looking to play full blooded strokes,Yadav took the pace off the next ball. Du Plessis mistimed it back to the bowler,but the power in the stroke ensured that it wasn8217;t latched on to. Could this be the luck that the Proteas needed? Yes said du Plessis,top edging the next ball over MS Dhoni for four more.

Ups and downs

If the Yadav over went for 10,the next from a stop-starting Ravichandran Ashwin went for 11. When McLaren began the following Ishant Sharma over with a sizzler four straight back down the ground,SA were well and truly in the hunt. At this point,they needed 99 runs from 77 balls. Far stranger and miraculous rescues had been pulled off and here,there was still one proper batsman. That proper batsman got on strike and promptly got out.

Du Plessis hadn8217;t learned from the life he earned in the Yadav over. As Ishant spun the ball like an off-spinner towards him,du Plessis mistimed yet another stroke in the air,but this time Suresh Raina got under it. What would have happened had he stayed is anybody8217;s guess. But the fact that the Proteas tail with Morne Morkel batting on one foot got them to 305 should give you an answer.

The big difference at the Sophia Gardens between the two sides on Thursday was the start to their respective innings. While SA openers Hashim Amla and Colin Ingram were back in the hut within the first four overs,their Indian counterparts batted longer. A lot longer.

A start,finally

In Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan,India had a opening stand of over 100 runs for the first time in 25 matches since Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had done so in that record breaking match in Indore. Rohit and Dhawan complemented each other nearly as well.

It was Rohit and not Dhawan who got India off to the start they needed. He punched a delicious cover drove off the backfoot as his first boundary shot in the second Tsotsobe over and everything just looked to flow. Plenty of trees and gallons of ink have gone into printing theories of just how a rare talent has gone waste. But on days like these when Rohit gets it right,none of the soothsaying seems to matter. Rohit was unable to keep pace with his big strokes,out in the 22nd over for 65. But by that point,India had already scored 127. And at that point,Mr Dhawan was just getting warmed up.