South Africa completes humiliation

By G. Viswanath

CENTURION, NOV. 27. Two fine deliveries did the trick for South Africa which won the Castle Lager-MTN five-day match by an innings and 73 runs, nine minutes after lunch.

The home board and the home team are not regarding this match as an official Test, though the second team in the match may keep on insisting to the contrary.

Things began to happen after Jacques Kallis bowled a maiden over to Sachin Tendulkar, both of whom were engaged in a tussle afterwards. In between, stand-in captain Rahul Dravid, thumped Mornantau Hayward for three successive 4s for a snappy start to the fifth day's play.

So, even as Dravid was looking forward to occupying centrestage as captain of the Indian team for the first time, Hayward bowled a gem that surprised himself and his team and bamboozled the batsman. Hayward's delivery bowled over the wicket held its course, beat Dravid's across-the-line shot and hit the top of off-stump.

The first breakthrough set into motion South Africa's push for a win, which became inevitable after Makhaya Ntini, who used the cloudy conditions exceptionally well, bowling from both sides of the wicket, avenged the assault carried out by Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings of the first Test in Bloemfontein.

But before Tendulkar made the slightest error of judgment in not offering a shot, the attention was riveted on his duel with the magnificent allrounder Kallis. Tendulkar was batting at the end where Kallis had troubles in the course of making a century. Many a time he had had to bring the bat swiftly down to defend deliveries that literally shot through and did not rise above ankle height. Tendulkar also faced similar problems.

Tendulkar, though, had his moments against Kallis, whose short delivery he promptly despatched over backward square- leg for a 6. The ball travelled a long way and when it was retrieved by the yellow-jacketed security personnel, skipper Shaun Pollock took the permission of umpire Rudi Koertzen to clean it.

Tendulkar followed up his first boundary shot with a scoop over the slip cordon for a 4. It was during this enthralling battle that Kallis saw a chance put down by Gary Kirsten near the gully area.

It was another instance of the pitch `misbehaving'; this time the ball kicked up from a spot to take Tendulkar completely off guard. The ball lobbed up taking the edge of the bat, but Kirsten, usually a safe fielder, saw the ball bounce out of his hands. Tendulkar's score was 16 then.

Thereafter he struck four 4s - two each off Kallis and Lance Klusener - before Ntini produced the delivery that caused the error of judgment, prompting Tendulkar to leave the ball, which hit the top of the off stump, leaving the Indian maestro quite embarrassed.

The partnership between Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman was the best for the Indians on the last day of their tour. They added 58 runs. Laxman followed Tendulkar edging Ntini to Gibbs at point. Typical of his style of batting Harbhajan made an entertaining 30 with six 4s. He too had his slice of luck when Jacques Rudolph bowling leg-spinners - the last genuine leg- spinner to play for South Africa was Denys Hobson during a rebel tour match against the West Indies and before him was Glenn Hall - saw Pollock put down a catch at slip.

Pollock was declared `Man of the Match' and Herschelle Gibbs Man of the Series. A United Cricket Board Official (UCB) said that only the captains of the two teams were asked to be present for the prize distribution function and that the South African team was at the ground only because a group picture had to be taken.

India's coach John Wright said the Indian team played the match like a Test. ``South Africa is a formidable team and the attitude had to be like playing in a Test match. If we had not, the match would have been over in three days. I think it was a combination of factors that resulted in having three sets of openers for three matches. I thought Srinath bowled exceptionally well. It was important to bowl well on the second day of the first Test in Bloemfontein. We did not. We allowed them to score over 200 runs in 45 overs,'' said Wright.

South African captain Shaun Pollock said his team had been playing well as a unit for a long time and the preparations had been good for the series in Australia. ``I think it's got to do with the Centurion. I think the century I made against Sri Lanka last year was like the century I scored here,'' he said.

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