The tough get going

Interestingly, the seemingly unfair track has presented quite a balanced game. South Africa took all of Friday to score 265 and India fared a little better today, finishing Day Two on 288 for nine.

The hosts have their noses ahead, but it’s just the tip of it. Or in South African coach Micky Arthur’s words: “Maybe they are two to three per cent ahead of us.”

For purely statistical reasons, this cat-and-mouse game might see the pitch being ‘sporting’ in an unconventional way.

Bat and ball have battled hard. The first centurion of the game is still awaited; so is a fiver from a bowler. Out of the 19 wickets to fall in this Test, 10 have fallen to pacers and nine to spinners. There have been just a couple of hard-earned half-centuries in each of the two innings played so far in this Test. For long we have lamented the batsmen’s overwhelming domination of the game. If for once there are a couple of Bowlers’ Days, no one should regret it.

Arthur too saw the lighter side of the debate.

“If we were in their situation in South Africa, we would have left grass on the wicket. We expected India to prepare a pitch like this,” Arthur said. “In a funny sort of way, a wicket like this will provide a very exciting result.”

Twists and turns

There were enough twists and turns in this fascinating duel to suggest that the climax will be exciting. With the constant threat of the ball exploding off the surface, or reaching the wicket-keeper after a couple of bounces, batsmen were put to the test. Sourav Ganguly passed with distinction, with VVS Laxman a close second. Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni too had first-class knocks.

Ganguly had a slight advantage since South Africa’s main spin option — Paul Harris — happened to be a left-armer. At times when he got too bogged down by working the ball around, he stepped out to loft the ball over the in-field.

Earlier, Laxman too had a similar agenda. He and Rahul Dravid looked set to forge another memorable partnership. But after they had put on 78 runs, Dravid got an unplayable ball from Morkel. From the good length spot, it reared up and hit Dravid on the wrists before popping up to AB de Villiers. His name went on the long list of batsmen dismissed thanks to the unpredictable pitch. Incidentally, the sight of Dravid walking back to the pavilion in pain ensured that the drawbacks of such a pitch got highlighted as well.

Morkel’s next victim was Laxman, who played across to one that straightened, but Ganguly held fort after that. With Yuvraj and Dhoni for company, he helped India take the lead. But with India 14 runs ahead, Ganguly mistimed a lofted shot to be caught by Amla. Now it is up to Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth to increase the lead and give India some cushion.

One would have thought that the cracked surface at the Green Park would be a poor advertisement for Test cricket, but at the end of two days, there’s a different spin to it.

StatpackKanpur: Day Two

• Sourav Ganguly’s seventh Test 50 against South Africa is his 34th overall. Ganguly equalled his previous highest score against South Africa. He scored 87 in the second innings of the Ahmedabad Test last week as well.

• He’s now the only Indian batsman to have scored seven 50s against SA.

• VVS Laxman rattled up his highest score in Kanpur, eclipsing his nine against South Africa in 2004-05. His 33rd fifty (50 off 103 balls) is his fifth against South Africa.

• Yuvraj Singh (32 off 57 balls) recorded his highest score in six Test innings. In his previous five knocks, he had made two against Pakistan, 0, 5, 12 and 0 against Australia.

• Dale Steyn is now the first bowler from South Africa to capture 15 wickets (ave.18.46) in a Test series in India.

• India (288/9) established a record for most runs in a day’s play against South Africa at Green Park, surpassing the 263 for four on Day Three in 1996-97.

• Yuvraj Singh’s first four off Morne Morkel during his 32-run knock was his 150th in 23 Test matches.

ScoreboardInd vs SA: 3rd test: Day 2

South Africa (1st INNINGS) 265

India (1st INNINGS)

W Jaffer lbw b Morkel (34b, 3×4) 15

V Sehwag lbw b Steyn (14b, 2×4) 8

R Dravid c de Villiers b Morkel (106b, 4×4) 29

VVS Laxman b Morkel (103b, 7×4) 50

S Ganguly c Amla b Steyn (119b, 9×4, 1×6) 87

Yuvraj Singh c de Villiers b Harris (57b, 6×4) 32

MS Dhoni st Boucher b Harris (54b, 5×4) 32

Harbhajan Singh lbw b Steyn (21b) 6

P Chawla c Smith b Ntini (12b, 1×4) 4

S Sreesanth not out (8b, 2×4) 9

I Sharma not out (3b) 0

Extras (B-8, Lb-4, W-1, Nb-3) 16

Total (9 wickets; 88 overs) 288

FoW: 1-18, 2-35, 3-113, 4-123, 5-188, 6-248,

7-268, 8-279, 9-279

Bowling

Dale Steyn 16-1-60-3

Makhaya Ntini 19-6-41-1

Morne Morkel 13-1-57-3

Paul Harris 29-7-89-2

Jacques Kallis 9-1-23-0

Hashim Amla 2-0-6-0