They defied the odds, upset hotel bookings

This South African tour of India was all about learning to readjust and improvise and it worked like a charm. After their second innings exp...

This South African tour of India was all about learning to readjust and improvise and it worked like a charm. After their second innings experience in Jaipur, South Africa knew they needed a batting plan to counter India8217;s spin threat in this two-Test series.

It worked well enough in Kanpur because of the pitch conditions and Andrew Hall8217;s commitment. After all, the side had been seriously written off before they arrived as being one of inexperienced babes in the woods, not fit to play a Test series against India. Even advice coming out of South Africa was not to book the hotel room for longer than four days.

Instead it took India until near the end of the second session of Day 10 in the series to bring about the inevitable capitulation at Eden Gardens today.

The pupils learnt fast. Even defeat by eight wickets only tells part of the story of a team that decided to take India on upfront and their young captain, Graeme Smith, discovered a lot more about South Asia in his first visit to the subcontinent than the previous three tours 8212; to India8217;s three neighbours 8212; over the past 20 months.

This is where the new national coach Ray Jennings played his role as a selector as well as coach and mentor. There was also a noticeable mindset change from the side that toured Sri Lanka in August to this one and this was important.

It was very much the way the teams behaved when led by Kepler Wessels and Hansie Cronje; they were doing things for each other to make sure the support was always there. It was a positive approach and some credit here must go to Jennings. He has a lot of positive ideas and some of this came through from the time the team was selected for the Kanpur Test.

With the players at the disposal of Smith and Jennings, it meant hard work; anyone who failed to appreciate that ethic was going to be lost in the system.

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They also went for batting depth, the 8216;8216;safety in numbers8217;8217; plan, and it worked well, a team where everyone batting down to 10 having scored a first-class century. It might have worked a second time but for the brilliance of India8217;s spinners.

All this is not at all bad for a team with 11 players that had not played in India before, or had no frontline spinner such as Nicky Boje 8212; now diagnosed with a non-malignant growth in the thyroid gland 8212; who might have made a difference to the bowling.

When they arrived about 21 days and a few hours ago, there was much written and said about their overall weaknesses. It was labelled as being on a level with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. That theory was swiftly consigned to the garbage tip.

Now there is a chink of light somewhere in the fog of uncertainty.