It's Gibbs' turn under the spotlight

By G. Viswanath

BLOEMFONTEIN, NOV. 4. Hershcelle Gibbs lit up the second day afternoon of the first Test with the fourth century of his career, his first on home soil, and Gary Kirsten played the perfect foil at the Goodyear Park.

South Africa could not have put two better heads at the top order than Gibbs and Kirsten, who also open for the same province in the ruthless class championships of the country. They stretched the first-wicket stand as far as up to the halfway mark (189) of the Indian total, after which Jacques Kallis, unconquered for a world record 17 plus hours of the Test series against Zimbabwe, and Neil McKenzie firmed up the home team's position with a century plus (130) stand.

The course of the South African first innings seemed to be safe in the hands of the two openers, who came into the first Test of the Castle Lager/MTN series with a combined experience of 105 matches. Dismissing either of the openers seemed as tough as finding a needle in a haystack before leg- spinner Anil Kumble, playing his first Test in 19 months (his last was the second and final Test against the Hansie Cronje-led South Africa at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore) got the left- hander swishing across and inner-edging a ball onto the stumps.

There can rarely be a dull moment when Gibbs is in the middle. He does not necessarily regard batting in the short version of the game and the five-day version much different from one another. He is essentially a striker of the ball, often completely outwitting the bowler. It is not just because Kirsten (he has not figured in only 11 of the 87 Tests South Africa has played since the one-off Test against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1992) is more of a conventional Test batsman that makes Gibbs appear aggressive. Gibbs is a naturally gifted batsman, who got the best tuitions in cricket even in the days of apartheid.

Kirsten is a past master in building partnerships. He was one of the batsmen - the other being Andrew Hudson - who figured in the first-wicket stand of 236 against India at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta five winters ago. It looked likely that that record would go down on Sunday with Gibbs and Kirsten looking firm and well settled.

As is his wont, Gibbs punished the loose balls from Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, though he began with a 4 off Javagal Srinath - three short of 200 wickets in Test cricket - opening the face of his bat and steering the ball wide of gully. Srinath invited a full-blooded shot from the right-hander when he pitched short and wide, but it was off some ordinary bowling from Nehra and Zaheer that both Gibbs and Kirsten prospered for over three hours.

The two left-arm seamers looked rusty and short of match practice. Though Nehra looked the better of the two, he still went for 19 off his first four overs, 24 from the next three and 23 from his third spell of three overs. Zaheer was slaughtered. He gave away 19 in his first four and 36 in his second spell, Gibbs whacking him for a 4 and 6 over mid-wicket to reach his first century against India.

In the circumstances skipper Ganguly had to look to his best seamer of the day, Srinath, and Kumble to get the breakthroughs that India had been unable to get for three hours since Shaun Pollock and Mornantau Hayward had hastened the end of India's first innings in exactly 30 minutes of play. India added just seven runs before Gibbs sent the last man, Srinath, back, converting a catch from nowhere.

The end of India's first innings made it mandatory for its bowlers to bowl 82 overs in the time left. With just one spinner in Kumble (who bowled 23 overs in his first spell) in the ranks, it would have been asking too much from the likes of Srinath, Nehra and Zaheer to meet the requirement in the scheduled time.

There was a phase - immediately after the lunch interval - when Srinath and Kumble bowled three maiden overs and appeared to have struck a rhythm. But it was during this phase that the South African openers played a tactical game, eschewing all risks. A thundering drive by Gibbs portrayed a flagging Srinath, who in his fourth spell was scored off at four an over.

Even as it appeared that South Africa would take tea without the openers being separated, Kumble dismissed Kirsten. Soon Gibbs drove straight and high into the hands of Zaheer at widish mid- off. This was Zaheer's only positive contribution on a day when his bowling and fielding was appalling. He made amends though in his last spell of the day, but this did not prevent Jacques Kallis and Neil McKenzie from dominating the Indian attack, though there was the enticing sight of the batsmen hemmed in by two short-legs, a slip and a silly point, in addition to the wicketkeeper.

But McKenzie, more than Kallis, occupied the centrestage. He looked quite busy for more than two hours and not afraid to go after the Indian bowlers. He did not offer a shot to Kumble's fifth delivery of the last over of the day and umpire Asoka de Silva responded quickly to an appeal from the Indians who never had any doubt that McKenzie was plumb in front.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA - 1st innings

S. S. Das b Hayward                 9
(55m, 50b, 2x4)
R. Dravid c Kallis b Pollock        2 

(17m, 10b)
V.V.S. Laxman c Boucher b Hayward  32
(45m, 30b, 4x4, 1x6)
S. Tendulkar c McKenzie b Ntini   155
(233m, 184b, 23x4, 1x6)
S. Ganguly c Kirsten b Kallis      14
(23m, 18b, 3x4)
V. Sehwag b Pollock               105
(271m, 174b, 19x4)
D. Dasgupta c Boucher b Pollock    34
(115m, 71b, 5x4)
A. Kumble c Boucher b Kallis        6
(22m, 27b, 1x4)
J. Srinath c Gibbs b Hayward        1
(23m, 10b)
Zaheer Khan c Boucher b Pollock     0
(3m, 4b)
A. Nehra (not out)                  0
(1m, 1b)
Extras (lb-7, w-7, nb-7)           21
                                  ---
Total                             379
                                  ---

Fall  of wickets: 1-7 (Dravid), 2-43 (Das), 3-51  (Laxman),  4-68 
(Ganguly), 5-288 (Tendulkar), 6-351 (Sehwag), 7-372 (Kumble),  8-
378 (Dasgupta), 9-379 (Zaheer).

South  Africa  bowling:  Pollock  27-8-91-4  (6nb,  1w);  Hayward 
20.3-5-70-3;  Kallis  22-6-87-2  (1nb,  6w);  Ntini  14.4-2-71-1; 
Klusener 6-1-32-0; Boje 5-1-21-0.

SOUTH AFRICA - 1st innings

H. Gibbs c Zaheer b Srinath       107
(204m, 145b, 16x4, 2x6)
G. Kirsten b Kumble                73
(198m, 132b, 12x4)
J. Kallis (batting)                49
(140m, 94b, 7x4)
N. McKenzie lbw b Kumble           68
(145m, 134b, 7x4)
Extras (b-11, lb-4, w-1, nb-14)    30
                                  ---
Total (for 3 wkts.)               327
                                  ---

Fall   of   wickets:  1-189  (Kirsten),  2-197   (Gibbs),   3-327 
(McKenzie).

India bowling: Srinath 17-4-59-1 (1nb); Nehra 12-1-77- 0  (11nb); 
Zaheer  Khan 16-2-76-0 (1w); Kumble 29.5-6-73-2 (1nb);  Tendulkar 
7-0-27-0 (1nb).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Doubles camp fruitful: Sidek
Next     : Tendulkar crosses the 7,000 milestone