South Africa do unto India...

The track had been wetted by rain, heated up by the sun, and then frozen by overnight cold that saw the players coming out this morning with two, three sweaters bulking them up. The result -- wide cracks appearing on the pitch, around the back of a length spot to give pause for thought for the team batting last.

India's overnight 372/7 represented a tremendous improvement in the side's overseas performance -- on average, touring Indian sides on overseas wickets have managed 282 in the first innings, while the opposition has averaged 377. Which, in turn, means that on average, India has at the halfway stage been behind the opposition by a good 100 runs -- a fact that goes a long way to explain why India has won just 16 overseas Tests out of 162 played, against 73 losses and the same number of draws.

What the side would have looked for was the psychological edge of topping the 400 mark -- but Shaun Pollock, with a ten-overs old ball, ensured that the tail didn't get ambitious. It took 21 deliveries this morning for the first run to be scored and soon after, the SA skipper took out Dasgupta with a line just around off seaming away, Dasgupta's attempt to push the forcing shot beaten by line and movement for Boucher to dive and snare the edge.

Dasgupta, in the side by default, walked back with 34 to his name -- and as much as the runs themselves, the value lay in the assurance with which he batted on the first evening, freeing up Virendra Sehwag to do his own thing following the loss of Tendulkar's wicket.

From then on it was predictable -- Zaheer Khan, softened up by a good-morning bouncer from Pollock, had a wild swing at a ball later the same over, backing off all the time to leg, and got the edge through to the keeper. Javagal Srinath, in Hayward's next over, decided he wanted to check out for himself whether all the talk of Herschelle Gibbs' fielding prowess was true. It was, as Gibbs showed when Srinath stood in place and tapped a catch to the right of point for the fielder to run, dive, stretch, and snaffle.

India had added 7 runs (four of them courtesy an overthrow) off five overs and one ball this morning for the loss of three wickets. Overall, the most noticeable facet of the Indian innings was the 240 runs that came off boundaries (57 fours, two sixes). That figure clearly underlined the fact that barring Pollock, none of the bowlers had the nous to build, and sustain, pressure on free-flowing shot-makers.

What India needed was incisive opening spells to put pressure on the Proteas -- with a wicket or two before lunch being the icing on that cake. What it got, was a few good deliveries from Srinath, tight bowling marred by a touch too much no-balls (7 no balls in the morning session) from Ashish Nehra, and a wayward spell by Zahir Khan who, even more than Nehra, seemed to be feeling the effects of his layoff combined with general unfitness.

Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten were circumspect initially, but figured soon enough that there was no sustained threat in the bowling and gradually, began coming onto the front foot and playing with the full flourish. Like the South Africans on the first afternoon, the Indians here provided a decent quota of short, wide four-balls, and Gibbs with his natural flamboyance, and Kirsten with his emphasis on percentage play, took toll.

Anil Kumble came on earlier than you would have thought given the presence of three seam bowlers, in the 18th over, without finding too much early assistance off the deck.

The 50 partnership for the first wicket came off 84 balls. And South Africa went in to lunch on a solid 91/0 in 19 overs -- a scoreline that told you that the pressure had swung right back onto India.

Post-lunch Session

The afternoon session got off to a quiet start, with Srinath and Kumble bowling with tight control. Around this period, you began to realise why the Gibbs-Kirsten pairing has been successful -- to the tune of a 46.7 average, including four century partnerships. There was complete ease in the way they promptly buckled down to ride out the rough, content to take 21 balls to score the first run after the break, content to accord the bowling the respect it deserved and to wait for their turn.

Given Srinath's propensity to tire quickly, that turn came soon enough. Once the seam bowler got wayward, Gibbs and Kirsten quickly seized the moment, turning the pressure back on the bowling side. Against Kumble, both batsmen were content to play very straight and wait for the odd ball dropped short to hit. Nehra and, to a greater extent, Zahir Khan made the mistake the Protean quicks had made on day one, of dropping short too often -- and against a batsman like Gibbs in particular, that was gratuitous gift-wrapping.

Kirsten was the quiet accumulator, Gibbs the assassin, hitting the pulls and cuts with venomous power and when length afforded, flashing into exquisitely timed drives on the rise through the V.

The 150 of the partnership came off 231 balls and shortly thereafter, Zahir Khan -- coming back to see if he could do worse in his second spell than he had in his first -- sugar-coated a short ball on off for Gibbs to pull the six and get to his 100 (140 balls, in a score of 187/0).

The one ray of hope for the Indians, during this period, was that Kumble began looking more threatening as the ball got older, and he began tossing them up more. Kirsten came under a bit of pressure and looked to relieve it in time-honoured fashion, going down on one knee to swat the leggie over the on side. The top spinner straightened and hurried off the deck to beat the shot and crash into the stumps, Kirsten going for 73 off 132 balls in a team score of 189/1.

Srinath came back to dispel the Zahir Khan nightmare -- and Gibbs, a touch loose after completing his century, drove without quite getting on top of a good length ball to present Zahir with a catch at mid off. The opener's 107 had come off 145 balls -- incidentally, his first hundred on home soil -- during which he dominated the Indian attack and played it as he pleased.

South Africa went in to tea at 213/2, at the end of 48 overs -- the second session having produced 122 runs off just 29 overs, almost matching the pace Tendulkar and Sehwag had set around the same time on day one.

Post tea session

One over before tea from Sachin Tendulkar pretty much set the tone for the opening of the final session, as Ganguly finally realised that his seamers weren't bringing him much joy and teamed the regular leg spin of Anil Kumble with the non-regular stuff dished out by Sachin. With the one firing in top spinners like they were going out of style and the other turning them a mile at will with the odd off spinner thrown in just to spice it up a bit, Neil McKenzie and Jacques Kallis -- surrounded by three catching -- found themselves pegged back.

The nudge and the nurdle became the preferred scoring options -- but the slower pace of run-making did not detract from the fact that each run chipped away at the Indian total. The 50 partnership came off 86 deliveries. And simultaneously, the 250 came up in the 59th over -- which meant that for the second day on the trot, runs were coming at a most un-Test like rate.

Zaheer Khan, brought back for a late evening spell, finally found the right line -- or it could be that in his earlier overs, he had pretty much bowled every wrong line and length in creation, and this was merely trial and error. Ganguly in fact opted for rapid bowler rotation in the evening session -- and the two Protean batsmen settled themselves down to the task of grinding out the runs. Thanks partly to their ability to work the ball around and run like hell, and partly to the devastation of the second session, the scoring rate stayed over the four an over mark.

McKenzie, playing within his limitations especially against spin and maximising his advantages against the seamers, got to a fighting 50 off 91 deliveries.

Kumble -- predictably -- was the most overworked Indian in the field, and did his part with no sign of the erstwhile shoulder problems. You'd have to say that on balance, barring one great spell post lunch by Srinath, Kumble was hampered by lack of support at the other end.

Intriguingly, given the mastery the South Africans achieved over the Indian bowlers, Ganguly opted not to try either his own medium-paced swing which, given the fuller length he bowled, could have been more effective on this deck than the back of a length stuff dished out by Nehra and Zahir Khan, or the off spin of Virendra Sehwag.

Ganguly opted not to take the new ball at the fag end of play -- and Anil Kumble obliged, with a top spinner that skidded in to Neil McKenzie, who was trapped in front without offering a shot. The Proteas, like India the previous day, got a setback to end play.

If India won two of yesterday's three sessions on points, then today was all South Africa. By close, the Proteas had all but overhauled the Indian total -- which, given the batting still to follow, put them in a very formidable position.

If the home side can take two more good sessions tomorrow, and rattle up a rapid 200-250 run lead, then India will, despite the derring-do of Tendulkar and Sehwag, find itself fighting to save this game on an increasingly wearing pitch that should start acting up by day four.

Detailed Scorecards:
Indian innings
South African innings

Day One: Tendulkar, Sehwag stun with tons

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