The weather favoured South Africa with the umpires calling play off with the visitors on 115 for three on the fourth day of the second test against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
On a riveting day’s play India couldn’t manage wickets in a hurry but got three of them at regular intervals. Graeme Smith came out bull-headed and, along with Alviro Petersen, almost batted out the one-hour first session.
Five minutes before the break, though, Mishra got him with his first delivery. In the second session, Harbhajan Singh, looking menacing with almost every delivery, got Petersen early. Amla and Jacques Kallis looked pretty comfortable for 16 overs, but in deteriorating light Mishra got Kallis with a beauty minutes before the players walked off.
Hashim Amla, who had scored 367 runs in two innings before this, was made to dig deep into his patience and skill reserves, and will be hoping he has more in the tank.
India would have been much more comfortably placed despite bad light and rain had M Vijay held on to a sharp chance from Amla at backward short leg.
With clearer skies expected today, India will need one big push to reach their destination. For the coach who has helped turn things around, it’s a matter of playing the big moments well and playing with pride. “It’s amazing how Test cricket works,” Kirsten said. “Funny things happen. South Africa were 220 for one and we were able to turn it around. One thing this team has done really well is build pressure for a period of time and then make it count. We know in a two-Test series, one session can make the difference. It happened with South Africa in Nagpur and it happened with us here.”
South Africa 296 & 115/3 (35.0 ov)
India 643/6d
South Africa trail by 232 runs with 7 wickets remaining
South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 JP Duminy, 7 Ashwell Prince, 8 Paul Harris, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel.
India: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 M Vijay, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 S Badrinath, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8, Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Ishant Sharma.
Strange game this.
If we can stand out this session, it will belong to SA.
Meaning we only “won” two sessions effectively in the test match, but managed to save the game and claim the series and #1 spot…
Ashley !!!
Is that gloves on, or moer like a “Hallo Blouste”… 😆
O moer…
Should be MORE 😳
blouste @ 32
more like hello blouste
but
i’ve only answered your question @ 28
(seems its only you and me on here …. same as the last batsmen left, wouldnt you agee?)
from cricinfo
…
“Right now, it’s pretty bright out there and the sun is out.”
..
not what i want to hear, though!! 😯
28 – Steyn, Harris and Morkel.
35 – Ash, So your rain dance never worked buddy? 😆
We still in with a shout. As long as Amla and Parnell can stay there.
2 overs gone … no runs, but more importantly NO WICKETS!!
PUMA @ 36
steyn’s out, buddy
puma @ 37
naaah, but maybe i did the “bad light quite early” dance by mistake?
A good defensive block shot has never looked so beautiful 😆
Puma… Steyn has done it for us before…
Ok see # 39…
So who is left ?
Wicket…Shyte !!!
the estimation by most guys is that we need to bat out another 20 or so overs as we’ve lost overs to bad light througout this test …. now, can we get there?
Parnell gone…
Harris in…
Now…
Can he come to the party ?
#44
Time will tell.
Sure as hell hope so…
Think the dream is over for us with Parnell out. He was standing well there with Amla.
Only a hour and a half to go or just one a hour hope they can stand that long there. Need Harris to play like Parnell did. Hoping like crazy.
Come on Harris…
Take 5 balls of the over on your body if you need to…
Get stuck in and fight it out guys…
puma @ 49
believe we can still get there …. not gonna be easy, but we may still do it!!
Parnell faced 64 balls now that was something the top order never even done. Mayby Prince did. He faced 80 balls. Need Harris to focuse and fight now.
puma @ 52
exactly!!
amla, of course, will now have to face the majority of the overs left for us to be in with a chance!!
51 – Ash, We may. I thought with Parnell we had a very good chance. Now he is gone. He done well too faced 64 balls and was there over a hour with Amla. Why could none of the others do that? AB should have been able to do it? Prince faced 80 balls before going out. All Harris must do is just focuse now. Still another 26 overs I think. That is a lot of overs to face with only one more batsman to come in.
They should call for a new bat, gloves etc.
Use another 5 minutes 😆
54 – Ash, he has too but if he goes we are gone. Then if Harris goes we are gone too. Don’t see Morkel standing for long. Hope Harris can.
Now if only just one of our top order batsman stood with Amla we would be drawing this test. Damn man, they let us down.
Now the lower order is fighting the fight with Amla.
56 – Blouste let it rain…..hahaha. If only. It gave us plenty time yesterday the rain.
This is such gripping stuff…
Well done Harris…
Keep it up !!!
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