Kallis puts South Africa in box seat

By G. Viswanath

PORT ELIZABETH, NOV. 18. The Indian team must have been pleased to return to the change room on Sunday evening when fourteen overs remained to be bowled. The floodlights were simply not bright enough for play to continue. Surprisingly Jacques Kallis (batting 84) and Shaun Pollock (batting 38) took the `light' offered by the umpires Russell Tiffin and Ian Howell. The South African batsmen's decision shocked a handful of former South African cricketers. Pollock defended his decision explaining that a part of the stands in the background made it difficult to sight the ball. To make up for some of the lost time, play will start on Monday at 10 p.m. (1. 30 p.m. Indian time), but what became sure on Sunday evening was that India will face an imposing fourth innings target in excess of 400.

Peculiar was the third day's play of this second Castle Lager/ MTN Test at the St. George's Park when things appeared to be proceeding at a crawling pace until the likes of Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock began to dispatch deliveries straight and long of offspinner Harbhajan Singh. The first act of a sort of a slow start was seen in the form of left arm spinner Nicky Boje, who had to complete an unfinished task of bowling the remaining three balls and the 55th over of the Indian first innings. Then not a run was scored off for over ten minutes with India's overnight batsmen, Laxman and Kumble, playing out 15 balls -- nine from Boje and six from Hayward.

The trend changed after tea with Kallis and Pollock providing the much needed acceleration and by the end of the third day's play South Africa took a firm grip of the second Test. The cricketing world might have seen things going topsy- turvy, the most recent example being Butcher's magnificent match winning century against the Australians, but if India's immediate recent past results are an index to its performance, then a certain defeat in the Test and the series is at its doorstep.

The batsman who has placed South Africa in such a secure position is Kallis. His presence in middle was necessitated as early in the last ball of the fifth over of the South African second innings because Srinath was once again able to decisively exercise his individual supremacy and outsmart left hander Kirsten. It turned out to be such an ordeal for South Africa's highest run maker in Test cricket in the fourteen minutes he stayed in the middle. When the lights were offered to his team by the umpires Kallis had batted for four hours and 26 minutes, faced 201 balls. The way he has so far batted should take him to his century on Monday morning.

Srinath's stock ball, which is the incoming delivery bowled from over the wicket, was responsible for the edge speeding into the hands of Laxman who did well not to take his eyes of the ball and to attempt with two hands because, Sehwag too was diving in the direction of the catch. To get Kirsten out cheaply was a big breakthrough though South Africa began its second innings with a first surplus of 161 runs after bowling India out for 201 in the first innings.

The conditions right through on Sunday were just about made for the practitioners of seam bowling. The outfield had received a drenching following a sharp showers late on Saturday evening, but it did no damage to the outfield for play to even delay the advanced start at 10. 07 a.m. on Saturday. Srinath was on the spot from the very first ball he bowled. His long haul in the first Test in Bleomfontein made him appear sharper in the first innings here when he took seven wickets.

The remarkable thing about Srinath's bowling was that he did not appear to flag in his first spell of eight overs at the end of which he snared Neil McKenzie, who did not have the answer for the delivery that almost took the shoulder of the bat to the wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta. Srinath finished his first spell at 8-6-4-2. The early runs had come for South Africa off Agarkar. Kirsten put away a fuller length and a widish delivery to the point fence and Gibbs flicked and cut two loose deliveries from Agarkar for fours.

But it was Agarkar, bowling a tight first spell, got rid of India's chief tormentor Gibbs, his delivery coming in sharply to hit the top of the off stump. At 26 for three, the Indians had reason to be happy with the way things were going for them, though they were down by 161. It was from hereon that Kallis who played a responsible role revealed his grasp of the fundamentals, stretching his left foot far and defending and leaving and swaying nicely from short deliveries and bouncers.

That he curbed his natural style was evident in the fact that he had not struck his first four until the 49th ball he faced in 70 minutes. And when he hit his first four, class was written all over the shot, though the bowler was Tendulkar. Then he hooked Agarkar beyond the reach of Srinath at long leg for a six. Dippenaar gave him company for seven minutes excess of one and a half hours. They added 65 runs before Ian Howell adjudged Dippenaar caught at silly point by Sehwag.

Television replays did not indicate the ball having hit the bat or the gloves on its way to Sehwag. A little later and after Klusener had made a quick 29, Howell adjudged him caught in the same way as Dippenaar. But at 139 for 5, South Africa had an aggregate of 300. Apart from Srinath and Agarkar to an extent, no Indian bowler looked like having the speed or skill to take a wicket. Ganguly, missed a third specialist seamer. He overstepped thrice in his first over and bowled a few more overs. Tendulkar tried his slow medium pace stuff without any gain.

The result of which was a unbroken 80 run stand for the sixth wicket between Kallis and Pollock who earlier in the morning bowled one over, picked up his fifth wicket. The stand between Kallis and Pollock has put the home team ahead by 372 runs.

Ganguly was short on seamers, but not a specialist bowler. That he ushered in Kumble only in the 51st over when South Africa's score was 143 for 5, was baffling.

Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA - 1st innings: 362

INDIA - 1st innings:

S. S. Das lbw b Pollock                  1
(16m, 11b)
D. Dasgupta b Ntini                     13
(79m, 60b)
R. Dravid b Pollock                      2
(15m, 11b)
S. Tendulkar c Klusener b Pollock        1
(10m, 4b)
S. Ganguly b Pollock                    42
(69m, 46b, 7x4)
V.V.S. Laxman lbw b Pollock             89
(182m, 121b, 12x4)
V. Sehwag c Kirsten b Kallis            13
(42m, 29b, 3x4)
A. Agarkar c Boucher b Kallis            1
(8m, 6b)
Harbhajan Singh (run out)                0
(2m, 2b)
A. Kumble c Kirsten b Hayward           28
(99m, 86b, 4x4)
Extras (lb-3, nb-6, w-2)                11
                                       ---
Total (in 62 overs)                    201
                                       ---

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Das), 2-13 (Dravid), 3-15 (Tendulkar), 4-47 
(Dasgupta),  5-69 (Ganguly), 6-111 (Sehwag), 7-119 (Agarkar),  8-
119 (Harbhajan), 9-199 (Laxman).

South Africa Bowling: Pollock 16-3-40-5 (nb5), Hayward 17-5-45-1, 
Ntini  14-3-49-1,  Kallis  10-2-50-2  (nb1,  w2),  Boje  4-2-8-0, 
Klusener 1-0-6-0

SOUTH AFRICA - 2nd innings:

H. Gibbs b Agarkar                    12
(34m, 23b, 3x4)
G. Kirsten c Laxman b Srinath          5
(21m, 17b, 1x4)
J. Kallis (batting)                   84
(270m, 201b, 6x4, 1x6) 

N. McKenzie c Dasgupta b Srinath       2
(21m, 17b)
B. Dippenaar c Sehwag b Harbhajan     28
(97m, 75b, 4x4)
L. Klusener c Sehwag b Harbhajan      29
(46m, 32b, 3x4)
S. Pollock (batting)                  38
(51m, 67b, 4x4, 1x6)
Extras (b-3, lb-3, nb-7)              13
                                     ---
Total (for five wkts in 71 overs)    211
                                     ---

Fall  of wickets: 1-14 (Kirsten), 2-22 (Gibbs), 3-26  (McKenzie), 
4-91 (Dippenaar), 5-139 (Klusener).

India  bowling:  Srinath  15-9-19-2;  Agarkar  19-2-63-1   (nb3); 
Ganguly 5-0-17-0 (nb4); Tendulkar 4-0-10-0, Harbhajan  20-2-79-2, 
Kumble 8-0-17-0.

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