India tour of South Africa, 3rd Test: South Africa v India at Cape Town, Jan 2-6, 2011
South Africa 361 & 341
India 364 & 166/3 (82 ov)
Match Drawn
India won the toss and elected to field
Australia 280 & 281
England 644
England won by a Innings and 83 runs and wins the Ashes Series 3-1
| South Africa squad | |
| GC Smith*, HM Amla, MV Boucher†, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, PL Harris, JH Kallis, R McLaren, M Morkel, WD Parnell, AN Petersen, AG Prince, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe | |
| India squad | |
| MS Dhoni*†, V Sehwag, R Dravid, G Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, VVS Laxman, PP Ojha, CA Pujara, SK Raina, WP Saha, I Sharma, S Sreesanth, SR Tendulkar, JD Unadkat, M Vijay, U Yadav | |
South Africa v India, 3rd Test, Cape Town
The entire series changed in a Durban minute, transferring the momentum India’s way after their humiliation in Centurion. The moment that signaled India’s ascent was the fall of Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s best batsman, in the second innings. Sreesanth’s ball reared up from short of length, darted in towards the batsman’s throat and flew to gully. A familiar sight to Indians from a previous era, but with one huge twist: it was an Indian bowler who made a classy batsman hop, fend and get out.
South Africa’s batsmen were looking good in Durban. Until Ishant Sharma got his fingers to a straight drive to accidentally run Kallis out in the first innings, the Indian attack looked lacklustre. It seemed that Zaheer Khan, much like Kapil Dev in those days, would end up with four or five wickets and the rest would simply leak runs. But the Indian bowlers seized the moment and South Africa collapsed. Twice.
And so the teams head into the Newlands tied at 1-1 and the series at stake. The pitch is supposedly batsman-friendly with spin expected to play a part later. The home batsmen should put up a better fight, while it will be interesting to see how their bowlers fare. Lonwabo Tsotsobe picked up a few key wickets but it seemed like it was a result of Indian batsmen trying to attack him after they saw off the tougher challenges from Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. If they don’t repeat the same mistakes, the burden of wicket-taking will fall upon Steyn. Will Morkel, whose forte is bounce, be as effective in the decider as he was on friendlier surfaces earlier in the series? Can Paul Harris do more than just a holding job?
Zaheer’s presence makes a big difference to India. Sreesanth and Ishant grew under his wing, and India will hope they can learn to fly on their own without Zaheer’s presence at mid-off. Gautam Gambhir is expected to return and Virender Sehwag, who threatened to really take off in the second innings in Durban, is due for a big knock. If the surface plays out as the curator thinks it would, the bowlers could be the deciding factor.
Pitch and conditions
The curator predicts a pitch with tennis-ball bounce, which will be good for batting – particularly on days two and three – and offer spin on days four and five. When the famed table-top mountain isn’t visible to the folks down on the streets, it usually means there will be swing on offer. Rain is predicted for New Year’s day, but the sun and the mountain peak should emerge during the match days.
Team news
Their batsmen might have flopped in the second Test but this South African unit has functioned well for some time now and they are unlikely to change the combination.
South Africa: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Ashwell Prince, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Paul Harris, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Gautam Gambhir’s return for M Vijay is expected to be the only change in the Indian XI.
India (probable): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Cheteshwar Pujara, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sreesanth
Australia v England at Sydney, Jan 3-7, 2011
Teams
Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Steven Smith, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Michael Beer, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Chris Tremlett, 11 James Anderson.
The Ashes test only starts tomorrow. I wonder why they did that,because now the game starts on a Monday.
@ Winston:
Yes it starts a hour after midnight today. Dont know why, maybe they thought they would need the whole new years weekend to celebrate 😆
SA game starts within the hour.
9.45am Are you guys up for this? The deciding Test between the top two teams in the world. There was rain in the morning in Cape Town, and it remains overcast, but we could still have an on-time start.
10.00am Shock! MS Dhoni has actually won a toss. India choose to bowl. Gautam Gambhir returns to the XI, taking the place of M Vijay.
@ superBul:
MS Dhoni has won only one toss in 14 Tests, will that trend continue today? And how crucial will the toss be? India managed to win after Smith called correctly in Durban, but they couldn’t come back from the damage done on the first day in Centurion.
I think it will be better for us to bat first because it’ll give the bowlers some more time to rest,this is a good batting pitch,if we get in we can score some big runs.
@ Winston:
the fact that they are willing to bat last sends a message to Harris, show them my boy they think you are a roll over.
Harris wont win us this match,he is just there to hold up an end. Steyn and Morkel are they key. Smith’s technique against Zaheer is horrible..
Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Fark, I’ve been lazy the last few days, just ate myself into a stupor!
Freegin hell, score is just 21 / 1… rain has delayed everything for very long
So Biff is out yet again…. he either hits a moooooooooooooosa large score or gets out for virtually nothing…
Biff was out for 6
Now Alviro Petersen is out for 21
SA 34 / 2
Looks like a difficult pitch to bat on Gbs and the pitch is green and under done..
SA now 141 / 3
Amla has also departed a while ago, but Kallis and De Villiers now at the crease and doing well.
13@ Winston:
Pitch does look difficult… you’re right.
By the way, Amla was out for 59.
We look like a deer in the headlights, Gary Kirsten know exactly our mindset, we must break out and bat like the Aussies did a few years back. This way we might last a few overs but end up all out for 250. Break the blooming shackles do brave stuff, come on Proteas.
Fall of wickets1-55 (Hughes, 29.3 ov), 2-105 (Watson, 44.3 ov)
Australia RR 2.32
To keep the Australian team below 3.5 runs per over is a great day so far for England. The Aussies are determined to bat long, funny how that is now fine, but when other teams batted this way the Aussie commentators had a mouthful.
This Test will be great one, if rain does not win the battle.
Play resumed after the rain, the new playing conditions are 86 overs to be bowled for the day, with a new stumps time of 6.30pm. It could go longer than that to squeeze the overs in, but rain and light will probably be more of an issue.
I am off to work , to check scores click on the link
wat sê die mense vannie Kaap? hoe lyk die weer? gaan ons 10 uur begin?
21@ Tripples:
Hello Maiki…. hoe was jou laaaaaaang vakansie?
Oooh was heeeeeeeeeerlik!!! het dit geniet hoor, was my ouers se goue herdenking en als so was baie lekker, en joune?
volgens cricinfo:
9.40 am Welcome to the second day of the decider. It’s bright and sunny out there in Cape Town. Play to start at 10.00 am.
23@ Tripples:
Man, het so af en aan vakansie gehou…. ek en BonzaiGBS het gaan jag middel Desember, ons eerste bokke ooit geskiet, lekker biltong en droeë wors gemaak…
Erg familiekuiers gehad oor Kersfees en Nuwejaar..
… maar my vakansie begin eintlik eers Donderdag 6 Januarie…. ons gaan weg van 6 – 23 Januarie…. gaan so 3500km doen…. klompie lekker plekke… die HELE tuinroete… ensovoorts.
Kallis & Prince doing bloody well with the old ball this morning but the New Ball is due in just over 2 overs…
Kallis getting close to his TON now…. come on Kallis, we want not only a TON but a DOUBLE TON!
Ashwell Prince out for 47
SA now 262 / 5
Mark Boucher now in to bat with Kallis
Boucher out for a golden duck!
Fark!
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