Donald blitz puts India behind eight ball in Durban

Prem Panicker

To get into a good position takes enormous toil and sweat - ask Srinath and Prasad.

To throw it all away is the easiest thing in the world - ask the Indian batsmen, who folded for just 100 runs after having bowled out South Africa for a low score of 235.

And speaking personally, I have my foot firmly in my mouth, having ended yesterday's report predicting a good batting performance from India and now having to explain why the tourists find themselves staring a possible defeat in the face.

But then again, there's this - even Nostradamus would have goofed on this one...

Oh well, no help for it, so here goes with the description of the day's proceedings.

The Indian innings

W V Raman is a good opening bat, technically competent, sure of where his off stump is, and possessed of strokes all round the wicket. If he has a flaw, it lies in his tendency to be a shade mentally relaxed at the start of his innings.

After Rathore played out one over from Donald at the start of the second day, Raman took strike to Pollock. And rather lazily brought his bat down to an in-swinging yorker that sneaked beneath his bat and made a mess of the timber to reduce India to 8/1.

Ironically, that ball - swinging late, pitching on perfect yorker length - was the best ball Pollock was to bowl all day, the carrot-haired new ball bowler generally tending to stray all over the place during the rest of the innings. But that first ball of the morning was a beauty, and it got the wicket it deserved.

Rathore takes his bat and goes walking across the stumps like a guy strolling in the park with his girlfriend. Facetiousness apart, what this does is make him a dicey proposition outside his off stump - and Allan Donald, bowling as fiery a spell as anyone has ever seen him bowl, proved that at this level the tall opener is a pushover with one that stood up from a length on off stump, taking the edge of Rathore's bat for Hudson to hold comfortably at third slip. Regulation dismissal by the fast bowler, exploiting the batsman's weakness of playing with bat away from body. India 22/2.

Saurav Ganguly showed every sign of being in perfect touch. His driving on the off was silken as ever and when the SA bowlers tried to exploit his known weakness for the ball coming into his body, the Indian southpaw showed that his hours in the nets was paying off as he played glances fine off the hips, picking the singles with ease. And then Pollock bowled a wayward delivery, pitching short on middle stump and swinging away down the leg side. Ganguly, judging by appearances, decided that he would play a firm shot on the leg side to show the SA bowlers that he wasn't to be tied down in that territory. In the event, all he managed was to get under the ball and scoop it to Lance Klusener on the square leg boundary, getting out in as silly a fashion as you could hope to see and, in the process, negating the hard work he had put in by seeing Donald off.

Sachin Tendulkar came in ahead of Azharuddin, at number four. A good move, as this wicket is ideal for the Indian skipper's brand of strokeplay. Early in his innings, Sachin looked to be taking his time to guage the pace of this wicket, and when he got his bearings, cut loose with a superb extra cover drive on the up off Donald, followed by a lovely square drive to the next ball, played down on one knee and hit sweetly through the arc.

Cronje had brought Donald on for a brief burst just before lunch, and the move seemed likely to fail when the SA spearhead produced the dream delivery. Ball three was pitched on off stump, bowled at express speed, swinging in late and then moving further in off the seam. Sachin was beaten by the pace and movement of that ball - as superb a delivery as you will see a fast bowler bowl - and found his stumps flying.

Mohammad Azharuddin, with his new open stance, fancies his chances on these kind of bouncy wickets. A couple of wristy flicks for twos, a hard hit off drive that a diving Cronje just managed to stop from inflicting damage to the hoardings on the line, and a perfectly played hook to a McMillan bouncer indicated that Azhar had decided to play his shots and ride his form for all it was worth. But then came the fatal error - Cronje moved an extra man backward of square, the trap was obvious and McMillan baited it with another short pitched delivery, Azhar hooked, failed to control it and gave Bacher an easy take on the line backward of square. That stroke, played on the stroke of lunch by a batsman of Azhar's experience, was bad cricket - the fact that he walked into the most obvious of traps only made it worse.

Post lunch, a refreshed Donald steamed in at express speed and bowled as fast as he is capable of. Mongia, however, had no real excuse for chasing a ball outside off and seaming further away, pushing at it with bat well away from his body and giving Richardson some regulation catching practise.

And immediately thereafter, came the first of three umpiring errors by Steve Dunne. Donald, first up to new man Srinath, bowled a superb bouncer. The delivery was bowled at express speed, and climbed steeply from just short of good length, homing in on the batsman's helmet. Srinath reflexively put his hand up to save his face, the ball hit the forearm protector and ballooned behind the keeper, Cullinan at first slip turned and dived full length to grab a good one. The only trouble was, the ball was neither off bat or glove, but Dunne ruled against the batsman and Srinath was gone.

Johnson managed to avert the hat-trick, digging out the predictable yorker. Meanwhile, Dravid who had been playing with calm assurance at the other end attempted a glance off a ball from McMillan pitching on off and middle and seaming further in. The ball rapped him on the pad, looking to go past leg stump, but again, the LBW was asked, and promptly given.

Johnson's idea of playing in a crisis situation was to close his eyes and swipe blindly at everything. Donald's response was another fast bouncer, beating the batsman's flailing bat and hitting him a painful blow on the shoulder. Up went the ball, Bacher held it at short square and bowler and fielder reflexively appealed - and the umpire as reflexively upheld it, while an aggrieved Johnson rubbed the spot on his shoulder where he had taken that Donald express.

Kumble, who of late has been spending more time in the nets working on his batting than his bowling, showed that practise does produce near perfection as he got behind the line to everything thrown at him and played Donald with calm assurance. And when McMillan drifted way down off side, Kumble thrust a foot out, swung his bat through the line and hit the ball clean and flat over cover for six.

Kumble, by virtue of being the Karnataka skipper, has also been keeping an eye on team-mates Prasad and Srinath and forcing them to concentrate on their batting. But in the event, Klusener, who all along had looked pedestrian at best, managed one that stood up from off stump and Prasad's outer edge was inevitable, Richardson not even needing to move to pouch that and end the Indian innings exactly on 100 runs.

As for the South African bowling, what does one say? Donald was magnificient, pure and simple. He bowled with genuine pace, and he alone managed to keep the ball consistently up and on a good line, forcing the batsmen to play at him all the time. Top quality pace bowling from a star bowler, that.

But Pollock, McMillan and Klusener all erred in keeping the ball too short, and mostly out of the line of the stumps. And therein lay the tragedy, for the South African bowling was vulnerable given the waywardness. The Indian batsmen needed only to see Donald off in each of his spell, concentrating on the other three for some relatively easy pickings - but in the event, thoughtlessness and lack of application hurried the tourists' downfall, and when they walked back to field before tea, having been bundled out in less than 40 overs and, by giving SA a first innings lead of 235, having negated all the hard work of the first day, they had only themselves to blame.

The S'African innings

Say what you like for Steve Dunne's competence, he is at the least impartial. Gary Kirsten looked totally at sea against Srinath's blistering pace and Prasad's movement in the air and off the wicket, but when he took one on his pads for Dravid to dive forward and hold, in the process bowling over Kirsten with a rugby style tackle, he had every reason to look totally amazed when umpire Dunne pointed the way to the pavilion.

Hudson was, as per usual, tentative to start with. Prasad and Srinath meanwhile bowled at their best, posing all kinds of problems for both him and Bacher, beating them time and again for pace and movement. But as so often happens in this game, the best bowling goes unrewarded. And when the opening bowlers tired and Johnson came on, Hudson and Bacher prospered, the latter in particular taking charge with some very good strokeplay on both sides of the wicket, racing to his debut fifty and looking good for the ton.

If the best bowling goes wicketless, then the most undeserving of deliveries gets the wickets. Kumble bowled one short, on the middle stump, Bacher could have put it away anyplace he chose but ended up playing a lazy flick that scooped the ball into Tendulkar's hands at midwicket. The youngster had obviously relaxed a shade, mentally, after getting to his fifty - and at this level, an instant's relaxation can prove fatal. SA, though, appears to have found a very good number three in this youngster - and impressive though his strokes were, what most caught the eye was his absolute calm temperament at the wicket, and an absolute surety about where his off stump is. Valuable gifts both, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see him move into the opener's slot before too long.

Darryl Cullinan has obvious talents - but a capacity to use his head and concentrate is not one of them. The swish he played at a short, wide ball from Prasad outside off was as atrocious a cricketing shot as anything the Indians came up with - and Prasad, who had bowled superbly with no success earlier on, found to his surprise a rank bad ball getting him the wicket.

Hudson compounded things by playing a vague pull at another short, straight ball from Kumble that deserved to be despatched out of the Kingsmead stadium. A very lackadaisical shot, and again the ballooning top edge comfortably held by Tendulkar at mid wicket.

South Africa, when Bacher and Hudson were going good, really had India on the ropes. At the rate of scoring, the home side should have been looking at putting up in excess of 300, 350 by end of play tomorrow, and having set India a next to impossible target, gone for the kill over the last two days. Instead, silly cricket reduced them to just under 100 for four wickets, and though a tentative Cronje and a nervous Gibbs survived various alarms to take the home side through to 164 for four at close, it must be said that South Africa deserved more from its batsmen, three of whom went out to rank poor shots.

As for the Indian bowling, Srinath and Prasad were again top drawer stuff. Johnson, again, was too wayward in line, too short in length, to impress. And Kumble, his two wickets notwithstanding, never really threatened - the leggie continues to bowl flat and fast, not giving the ball any air and therefore losing out on the chance to make it turn and jump off the grass covering the pitch. Towards the end of the day, Kumble did look as if he was getting his act together, tossing the ball up more - so presumably the bowler has finally worked it out and will try more of the same tomorrow.

Talking of tomorrow, where's this match going now?

For South Africa, the equation couldn't be better. Already up by 299, with six wickets in hand, its task is obvious - to bat with application, taking up most of the third day and aiming at setting India a target around the 475, 500 mark. In other words, adding another 175, 200 runs tomorrow, which is certainly on if the batsmen are sensible enough to play Srinath and Prasad out and concentrate on the weaker bowling of Johnson and Kumble, with Ganguly bowling a few in support. That sort of a total will shut India right out of the game, and in the process put so much pressure on the touring side as to force them totally on the defensive, a la Calcutta, with possibly similar results.

For India, the equation is equally simple. Look to a refreshed Srinath and Prasad to exploit early morning conditions and bundle out the last six batsmen for another fifty, sixty runs. And then bat with calm application, taking the runs as they are offered and playing with the realisation that they have all of two, maybe more, days to chase the target in.

What is interesting to note here is that the grass, green on the first day, has already been burnt brown by the sun and lost much of its spring. Another morning of sun tomorrow, and this should begin easing into a nice batting track - which brings the suspicion that though India are down in this game at the moment, they are not out of it, yet.

Rank optimism, or a reading of the conditions, allied with the fact that Donald alone among the South African quicks is a real danger on this wicket?

We'll know soon enough, won't we?