South Africa explodes off the blocks

After the 6-1 drubbing of Sri Lanka the Indians received a hard lesson in tough cricket from South Africa. The South African bowling aggression and peerless fielding completely surprised the Indian batting line up and the top order was blown away for next to nothing. It was only due to the courage of Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh that India was not bowled out for an embarrassingly low total. Feeding off Pathan’s forthright batting, Yuvraj settled down to rescue India with a wonderful century and take them to a more than respectable total of 249. But, it wasn’t enough as Graeme Smiths pyrotechnics at the top of the order provided enough cushion for Jacques Kallis to play a measured innings of clinical efficiency and economy of effort to guide South Africa to a win in the opening game of the five match one day series.

The pitch had some juice on it in the morning and Smith had no hesitation in inserting India in to bat. Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini were outstanding in their opening spells, offering no width at all to the Indian batsman. Pollock was getting bounce and movement in his first over and beat Tendulkar a couple of times with away movement. But, it was Ntini who struck in the next over as Sehwag swatted one towards point only to see Ashwell Prince diving to his left to take a brilliant catch. Pollock then suckered Kaif with one that jagged back in and catching him dead on the crease. In his next over Pollock removed Tendulkar with another outswinger and India was being embarrassed by some great bowling by the South Africans. Just when it looked as if Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj had weathered the early morning juice in the pitch, Andre Nel steamed in and cut one back appreciable between Dravid’s bat and pad to take out the off stump. Nel’s right foot moves alarmingly to one side in his delivery stride, and it looks as if he will pick up an injury soon, but he is definitely is fun to watch as he huffs and puffs his way into the batsman’s face. India had to use Gautam Gambhir as the Super Sub, sacrificing Murali Karthik, but it failed as Gambhir played an ambitious cover drive only to edge it through to the keeper. Half the side was gone and it was only the 12^th over. Dhoni was shunted down the order to save him for the end, and Irfan Pathan was sent in.

Pathan played some bold shots from the very first ball and took the fight back to the South Africans; instead of succumbing to the pressure he played his lofted strokes over the infield to the boundary. It was a refreshing batting display by the young man. Meanwhile, Yuvraj was leading a charmed life and all his edges flew past a diving second slip and one top edged hook off Ntini went for a six. Pathan calmly lofted Ntini over mid off, punched Nel over cover and his partnership with Yuvraj steered India away from embarrassment. Johan Botha was given his first spell in International cricket and did pretty well on debut. A former medium pacer who converted to off spin bowling, he had picked Harbhajan Singh’s brain during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and today he proved that he was a good student. Pathan tried to dominate him, but Botha never caved in. Even though Pathan collected three boundaries off him, he was never able to get on top off Botha. Pathan was beaten in flight as he came down the track, and poked at the ball only to miss it and get bowled. Dhoni came in and started off well with a sweetly timed backfoot punch for four off Botha. Dhoni ran hard collecting a lot of two’s but played pretty cautiously. With less than 15 overs remaining Yuvraj decided to take control of the situation and opened his shoulders. He sent a full pitched delivery from Kallis over long on and followed it up with a cut shot to the third man boundary. Dhoni continued to run hard, but perished while attempting another two. Nel’s pick up and throw came right into Boucher’s gloves and he took the bails off in a flash, it was only a matter of centimeters but Dhoni had to go. The Indian lower order was not going without a fight, and Ajit Agarkar built another useful partnership with Yuvraj by playing straight and running hard. The pair added 39 runs for the eighth wicket before Agarkar holed out to midwicket. Harbhajan was in next and watched Yuvraj reach his century with a six over long on and a four to the point boundary off Nel. Bhajji showed that he was in good touch with a flick down to the fine leg boundary. He followed it up with a stunning straight hit down the ground for a six. Ntini was the bowler to suffer as he couldn’t get it up in the block hole. Yuvraj foolishly ran himself out with 2 overs still remaining and one thought India had lost the opportunity to reach 250. Harbhajan proved everyone wrong as both Nel and Ntini couldn’t get their length right and Harbhajan tucked Nel’s full tosses to the mid wicket boundary and smashed Ntini full pitched balls to and over the long off fence. India finished on 249 and it was a remarkable comeback by a team that had lost half its side for 35.

It didn’t prove to be enough as Graeme Smith blazed away at the top slaughtering a wayward Pathan. Pathan bowled on both sides of the wicket and Smith smashed him all around the park, being especially strong square of the wicket. Agarkar bowled another good opening spell and took the wickets of AB DeVilliers and Justin Ontong to keep India in the game. Smith somehow dragged a wide RP Singh delivery onto the stumps and the game was wide open. But, Kallis and Prince played extremely cautiously knowing that they were well ahead of the required rate. Harbhajan was treated with the utmost respect and the run rate slowed to a crawl. The Kallis-Prince partnership continued and India really missed their fifth bowler today, especially since they were defending a moderate target. Pathan was brought back, but proved expensive in his second spell too. Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj filled in the overs for the fifth bowler but they were non threatening. The accurate Bhajji finally got a wicket as Prince stepped down and tried to hit him over the top, but South Africa never panicked even when Boucher slapped a full toss from Sachin to short midwicket.

Jacques Kallis was like a rock at the other end and their new finisher, Justin Kemp, played with a cool head to ease them to a comfortable win. Dravid brought the field up and tried to use the slower bowlers to force a mistake from the batsman, but today all of Sachin’s googly’s were full tosses that were punished and the pressure couldn’t be maintained on the South Africans.

India did well to come back into the game after a horrible start, and they would have quickly realized that the South African new ball attack is far more potent than the Sri Lankan one. But, they shouldn’t fall into the trap of playing them with extra care and focus only on how to prevent top order collapses, because then they will be playing the same way Sri Lanka did, trying to catch up from behind. The answer as Pathan showed lies in meeting aggressive bowling and fielding with aggressive batting. It will be a good test for the Indian team, but Chappell & Dravid have the tactical nous to counter the South Africans and this five match series promises to be a very competitive one.