Safs in reverse swing, India in reverse gear

‘‘Basically’’, Jennings continued, relishing his moment, ‘‘there’s been one batsman who’s batted really differently in this Test match. That’s Virender Sehwag, who played a lot of one-day cricket out there. The rest of the Indian batsmen looked like they had fallen asleep. We’ve put a stop on the momentum they had yesterday.’’

True. The match is still in India’s grasp, they have a 54-run lead and the bowlers to turn things around. But they let themselves down today against a team which made up in sheer preparation and commitment what it lacked in skills.

Almost from the start of play, Sehwag, overnight 82, resumed from where he’d let off, with a six over long-on off Pollock. But the Safs had his number. Ntini found the chink in his armour with a well-directed short-pitched delivery, which Sehwag had to play. The ball flew nicely into Graeme Smith’s hands at first slip.

First blood to Proteas, and the tone set for the day.

Enter Sachin Tendulkar, and his very pronounced black elbow protector. He hasn’t scored a Test century at home since 2002-03 against the West Indies and it never looked like he would end that streak here today. For the 90 minutes he was at the crease he was circumspect, searching for the ball and displaying his rustiness.

He played away from the body too many times and that was ultimately his undoing. As he tried to drive a ball too far away, it just took a neat little edge and crashed back into the stumps.

At the other end Rahul Dravid was carrying on manning the order, now supported by the skipper. They managed to restore some order and Ganguly even timed his shots well but at no stage did they display the command, the fluency, the control they are capable of.

Dravid, in particular was just too slow, his 80 runs consuming 247 deliveries in 328 minutes.

By the time Ganguly was out, to a dodgy leg-before, the ball was in reverse swing mode and the South Africans opted to continue with the old ball.

VVS Laxman, back on the track where he made history, once again flattered to deceive. Once again, credit to the visitors for working out Laxman’s strong scoring areas as they kept testing him with short and wide balls. Finally Laxman took the bait and was caught at point.

The somnolence was lifted at the end only by the sight of two young men with great potential: Irfan Pathan and Dinesh Kaarthick in a seventh-wicket stand that’s already yielded 51 runs. They will be severely tested tomorrow morning, when the new ball is taken.