ABSENCE OF ‘WALL’, MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

The South African team scored an easy winnings win over India in Nagpur test. Having won the toss, the SA captain, rightly decided to bat first. Zaheer Khan struck early to send both the openers cheaply. The all weather specialist, Jacques Kallis and emerging player with right kind of test temperament Hamish Amla,upset the Dhoni’s calculation of winding up of SA’s innings early. Hamish went on to score unbeaten match winning double century, while Kallis scored a superb 173 runs. SA scored a formidable score of 558 runs before declaring the innings. India failed to reply strongly. Barring Sewag’s century and Badrinath’s half century the India’s response was poor. Dale Styen, speed and swing master did the maximum damage to India by claiming seven wickets. Indians were all out for 233 runs in the first innings and were unable to avoid the follow-on. The SA task become easy, since the Great Wall of India (Rahul Dravid) was not playing in the test because of injuries. Rahul Dravid, definitely would have stretched the India’s first innings, thus avoiding the follow-on. Then it would have been a different story. Though, Sachin scored a century in the second innings, the other batsmen failed to score. Unexpected support came from tail enders - W Saha, Harbajan and Zaheer, all scoring thirty odd runs. We need consistent performance from our bowlers, if we want to defeat SA. One only hopes they deliver something better in Kolkata test. Good luck to Team India.