Safs top order be warned, says Lorgat

After South African captain Graeme Smith had walked away from the cameras, his convenor of selectors Haroon Lorgat stepped in to deliver a grim warning.

After South African captain Graeme Smith had walked away from the cameras, his convenor of selectors Haroon Lorgat stepped in to deliver a grim warning.

Lorgat said he will have a serious chat with the team management about the opening combination 8212; Smith and Herschelle Gibbs 8212; for the next Test starting December 26 at Durban. 8220;It8217;s just not Herschelle Gibbs, I think it8217;s the top opening pair. And I think we have got to talk hard about what our alternatives are for the top of the order,8221; said Lorgat.

Obviously, it has been a nightmarish four days for Smith, who scored just 15 runs in two innings here. But the tall, well-built 25-year-old struck a brave front after the match, promising a fightback in the two games to come.

Round One: 1st innings: They got too many runs in the first innings. The wicket started quite slow on Day 1 and on Day 2, it quickened up quite a lot, the seam movement was a lot quicker. Still, to get bowled out for what we did was not good enough. Credit to them, they were a lot more precise than us. They were a bit more hungry than us. Congratulations to India.

Yes, hurting badly: It8217;s hurtful for all of us. The way we performed, it has been disappointing. I think that8217;s what hurts the most. We have let ourselves down. I think we have to improve a helluva lot going into Durban for the second Test. The team knows that we have got to take our pain from this defeat. We are going to get a lot of criticism in the first few days, and we are honest enough with ourselves to really stand up and say we messed up this one.

Top order troubles: Both teams have to look at it, both teams have struggled in this game. But it8217;s not an excuse, we just need to get away and work on it.

Different India now: They were pretty hungry in this Test match. Mentally, they have got a little bit of more experience in their line-up, especially in the middle order.

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Ganguly googly: After being out of the game as long as he has, he obviously wanted to do well very badly. So we didn8217;t expect him to come and give us anything. Him and Laxman at No 5 and No 6 have brought great stability, experience and confidence for them. They were three-four down also early on, and the experience in that middle order really helped things, has really helped India. They were a bit soft there in the one-day series.

And the VRV whirl: On the partnership between Ganguly and VRV Singh in the first innings that took India from 205 for nine to 249. Those 50 runs were massive in terms of the scores that were scored in the game. But even at 200 for nine, they got a little bit too much.