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.
flok, hoe lykie lig manne?
There is a minimum of 90 overs per day, but you may bowl more than that if there is time
Come guys…just hang in there a little more…
WTF?
Nie sleg genoeg nie Ash…
Nou kom krap ou stinkvis ook nog hier rond 😆
Heart pumping out my chest now……hahaha.
152 – Snoek it just does not seem fair. Hope the Kolkata smog comes in fast now.
17 minutes left !!!
Wat raas so in my oor? Bleddie blou vliee……..
As die Proteas hier staan…. gaan mens paar skewe samoosas sien vanaand…
Plus minus 24 balle !!!
Now they are saying there is 17 min left. 3 or 4 overs left.
Crikey going to be the longest 17min of my life. Nerves going like a cracker now. 😀
Out………………..
Daar kak ons !!!!!! SHIT !!!!
Fark… India win…. LBW
Donner, donner, donners!
Fok………….
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MORKEL GONE. BLOODY DAMN DAMN DAMN. We got sooooooooooooooooooooo close to lose in the last few overs. Blame it on the top order batsmen that lost it for us. Not Morkel he done his job.
Amla is my new Hero too.
So close but soooooooooo far!
Choked again…………. First Innings was kak.
En daar trek ons weer aan die korste end…. net soos teen die Ingelse.
Daar moet bietjie gekrap word in daai top order…
Kolwers ons die toets gekos !!!
Well, the series is shared 1 / 1 against the No 1 Test Team in the world…
To my mind our new coaches are doing OK…
Well done Amla.
Hell, well done Harris,Parnell,Morkel etc.
Hope the batsmen must serve their beers tonight !!!
Wearing a sighn that reads… “sorry we are so crap, you showed us how”
gbs
Could’ve won it !!!
Not taking anything away from India, well done to them.
Our top order dropped us big time.
Some out of form okes must be delt with now…
Yip, Parnell, Harris and Parnell done their job. It was our top order batsmen that let us down.
AMLA WAS BRILLIANT. My new hero. Will crack something open tonight and have a toast to him.
Batted for more than 23 hours in this series. Never to be done before. Awesome.
Maybe they must just reverse the batting order 😆
Hashim Amla’s series average is 494.
How’s that ?
Congrats man !!!
Eish guys i watched the last 10 overs , my breath is back, i survived a near heart attack…….., just wished we had Boucher in there somewhere.
AB you are barely fogiven, just because you kept wicket for 2 days. Duminy eff off please, very far too. Prince your crown does not exist anymore, gaan soek aspoestertie…
Lekker Amla, man of the match and seires…..you goooooo boyeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
Fark this. I’m going to look for someone to fire in the factory.
Okay pleased now to see Amla get mom and man of the series.
So close but just too far. We almost got a draw there.
Remember we missed Boucher too. Maybe with him there we just may have held on.
Have to think serious now who to take to WI. Need to win there as see Oz on our tail in the rankings. Who to drop and who not too. Have to look at the out of form players. They both Prince and Duminy need to go back to domestic crici for awhile to get their form back. Like Fanie says let Petersen drop down to 6th and let him bat there and bring in JR to open with Smith.
Test cricket nothing like it. Who says it is boring???? Never it was superb right down to the wire there.
Go Proteas good luck for WI. See India coming here at the end of year. Hope we get one back on them here.
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