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.
Shreesanth doing the damage to both…
Damn, now they’re fully into the SA tail, with Dale Steyn coming in…. damn, double damn!
SA batsmen falling like flies now… Dale Steyn was out for a duck too, now Morkel has perished.
Kallis has his TON… but he’s quickly running out of partners!
I think Kallis now just needs to bat aggressively and pile up as much as he can….
Harris now in with Kallis… only the Tsotsie to come after him….
Harris out, SA’s last batsman now in with Kallis.
Kallis is batting more aggresively now.
SA at the moment on 318 / 9.
Lunch
Kallis 140
Tsotsobe 3
SA 335/9
SA were all out for 362, with Kallis getting over 150.
Kallis carrying SA once again.
Boucher has been shocking with the bat in the first 2 tests and today out first ball…. maybe time to drop him.
Seems where we ALWAYS had a very short tail, we now only effectively bat till No 6…. after that it’s all tail!
India already 28 / 2
Both Sehwag and Rahul Dravid out cheaply…
We must get them out cheap… maybe even cheap enough to enforce a follow-on…
Nee fokkit…. now the Indians are batting well..
92 / 2
Tendulkar as steady as ever
This partnership saved Australia’s face and made England look ordinary.
Fall of wicket: 265/9 (99.5 ov); Partnership: 76 runs, 14.5 overs, RR: 5.12 (Johnson 47, Hilfenhaus 22)
Last Bat AJ Strauss b Hilfenhaus 60 (58b 8×4 1×6) SR: 103.44
Fall of wicket: 98/1 (22.2 ov); Partnership: 98 runs, 22.2 overs, RR: 4.38 (Strauss 60, Cook 31)
Time to work again ,
SA bowl them bloody out and catch the bloody ball. You can not give the Master chances again.
GO SA , and Go England.
Another quick wicket for Australia, after a great start by England , for 98/0 to 99/2
Come on Kevin Pieterson come show them some SA fighting spirit 😆
Another quick wicket for Australia, after a great start by England , for 98/0 to 99/2
Come on Kevin Pieterson come show them some SA fighting spirit 😆
Of you go SBul work calls
Bullscot and Bluebird you and the Queen must be happy with the way England is grinding the Aussies. Australia is struggling to keep them at bay.
We have one hell of a battle on our hands to keep Harbajan Singh and his partners off our backs. This is one of the most evenly contested Tests for a long while. The only problem is we have one of our kingpins injured.
Tendulkar, Singh, Kallis and Steyn are the best in the world now. What a great contest. Best batsman against the best bowler, Sachin vs Dale. Best all rounder ever Kallis vs The best Team in the world India. No wonder we ended almost tied after the first innings, India led by 2 runs only.
I think if we can negotiate Harbajan today we might stay in the game, that is a big , big task.
England just lost AN Cook
AN Cook c Hussey b Watson 189 (342b 16×4 0x6) SR: 55.26
Cook is getting a standing ovation all around the SCG, what a magnificent series he’s having. He has 766 runs for the series, and may not have to bat again thanks to the work he’s put in here in the first innings.
hmmm, what about kallis coming in to bat today and become only the 2nd person to reach 40 centuries (after tendulkar’s 51 centuries)?
@ superBul 44:
Hello man, yes it is good to see England in yet another dominant position against the Aussies at the close of play as they have been for a big part of the Ashes. You must have been reading my mind cause at the same time I was thinking that this morning I thought that SA have been battling most of the series against India, apart from that innings at Centurion, just never seem to have got in a position again where you have felt that they are dominating. I guess it shows how strong India and England have become. To be honest I wouldn’t fancy SA’s chances against England at the moment, there are more good performances from throughout the England team as opposed to SA relying on a handful, at most, of start performers. Going to be an interesting day at Newlands, hopefully the batsmen can show some more form and score big and quickly enough, but signs aren’t good if Harbajan has already taken wickets.
SA 65/4 good grief, game aint over until Harbhajan Sings!! 🙂
Oh dear I guess thats all over then, will this one even go into day 5.
hope Kallis and AB can keep going for a while and we can put up some kind of total!!!!
friggin hell dont think our spinners are able to do what Singh does
I think that we might just not win this test.
35C at Newlands, went there yesterday, and nearly got toasted, if it wasn’t for The Oaks and Castle Corner.
If Kallis can’t get us to 200 or so today, we are toast too….we are in deep shyte here, dropped catches yesterday cost us.
@ Pietman:
Should be catches missed, not dropped….
India is deservedly at the top of Crickets ladder, they where robbed last time in Australia otherwise they would have been further ahead. But the SA guts and glory is keeping us alive, you never know maybe just maybe, we have a bowler who wants to steal the limelight.
It is 42 degree’s in my garden.
Brilliant stuff well done yet another century for King Kallis!!! Come on guys hang in there till the close of play.
Lunch Unremitting misery for Australia. England lead by 356 after hurtling along that session. Matt Prior advanced to a first Ashes hundred and England added 148 runs in the session to end level with their highest ever score in Australia. One thing that might be able to force a smile in the home side is that the pitch is looking very flat. That could, however, just be the Australian bowlers, which would understandable after 176 overs
Fall of wickets1-98 (Strauss, 22.2 ov), 2-99 (Trott, 23.3 ov), 3-165 (Pietersen, 43.2 ov), 4-181 (Anderson, 53.3 ov), 5-226 (Collingwood, 68.3 ov), 6-380 (Cook, 115.3 ov), 7-487 (Bell, 139.4 ov), 8-589 (Bresnan, 167.6 ov), 9-609 (Prior, 170.6 ov)
The 6th, 7th and 8th wicket partnerships is murdering the Aussies. 154, 107, 102. The annoying 9th was 20 and 10th still going on with 27* taking them into lunch. Strauss have them guessing whether he will declare during lunch or not. I would bat on.
Partnership: 35 runs, 6.5 overs, RR: 5.12 (Swann 22, Tremlett 12)
England lead by 364, and Watson and Hughes run off the field to get padded up for what will be an interesting second innings. Clearly there are plenty of runs in the pitch, but they cannot win from here, and sometimes that changes the mindset.
congrats to kallis on becoming only the SECOND player to reach 40 centuries. tendulkar of course is on 51 centuries, but i think, depending on how long tendulkar keep playing, that kallis will eventualy replace him at the top of that list!!
….
hmmmm, mayb the secret for it all lies in that new hairstyle of his? 😀
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