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Proteas blast India hopefuls

Some teams treat warm-up games -- especially if there is only one of them ahead of a Test -- as a sort of extended nets.

Obviously, South Africa is not such a team. Nor Hansie Cronje, such a captain.

Cronje's intent seemed to be to get that adrenalin flowing nicely ahead of the Wankhede Test -- and thus, first thing this morning, he declared at the overnight score of 293/6, rather than opt to give himself and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher batting practise.

And then the South African quicks showed that there is no such thing as an easy-paced wicket, not if you have the pace and te ability to make the new ball work for you. And in the process of demonstrating how quality pace can work even in adverse conditions, messers Donald and Hayward, and later spinner Eksteen, blew away the aspirations of several hopefuls playing in the Board President's XI.

Wasim Jaffer, for one, would have expected to be picked to open the innings for the Indian team. He could still be picked -- but his innings today, terminated by Klusener who beat him for pace and trapped him in front of the stumps, indicated that he is not too comfortable against the short rising deliveries, nor too sure of where his off stump is.

Arun Kumar for his part didn't last long enough out in the middle for us to form any kind of opinion about his abilities. He did score two boundaries in his very brief innings of 9, but there seemed a touch of the -hit-out-or-get-out air to his batting, which is not what you expect to see from an opener in the longer version of the game.

That brought Mohammad Kaif to the wicket. There is a lot of expectation around this lad, the consensus being that he will play for India sooner rather than later. Here, he faced 74 deliveries, and in scoring 23, showed a few things -- one, that he has the nous to hang in there and not give it away easily, preferring to put a premium on his wicket; two, that he can hold his own against the short pitched stuff and not lose heart by obvious intimidation; and three, that technically, he does have a way to go, especially his backfoot play (understandable, given that on Indian tracks, he has had very few opportunities to develop backfoot play -- and a flaw that can be corrected with well planned nets time).

Mohammad Azharuddin walked in to tremendous applause. And spent 51 mostly uncomfortable minutes at the crease, during which he faced 35 balls and managed 9 runs. The South Africans had obviously figured out that Azhar doesn't like it when it is short and lifting on the stumps, so he got a steady diet of that line and length. Equally obviously, the South Africans were working on damaging his confidence, and judging by the way Azhar was forced to hop about, they appear to have accomplished that task.

The ordeal ended when Hayward produced another lifter -- on off, jagging in off the seam and getting Azhar hopping. The ball kept climbing into him, and cracked him a nasty one on the fingers, jamming them against the bat handle. Azhar, in obvious pain, walked off. And the word is that there is blood clotting and he has been advised complete rest for 48 hours at least.

Another player who had many eyes -- including that of the selectors -- on him was Ajay Jadeja. 2 runs off 18 deliveries, never at ease against pace at any point, is what Jadeja produced. It really is strange how a batsman who looks so much at ease against both pace and spin in the one day format contrives to lose the plot so completely when it comes to batting in the longer form of the game -- but that is 'Kunwar' Ajay for you.

Nayan Mongia flung his bat around, to some effect. And Harbajan Singh, apparently deciding to give as good as he got, launched an amusing assault on the Protean bowlers, pace and spin, and ended up blasting 38 runs off 44 deliveries with 7 fours. Making a pitch to be considered an all-rounder, perhaps? It was, at the least, an interesting innings, Harbajan top scoring and ending up giving the crowd something to cheer about.

The BPXI innings lasted just 53.2 overs, folding with the score on 172.

And in the time remaining, the Proteas, playing with a touch of carelessness> put on

The only point of note in the Protean second innings, really, was that Mongia, making a bid to get back into the team, further blotted his copybook when Harbajan Singh drew skipper Hansie Cronje a long way down the track, beating the bat with one that held its line, and the keeper fluffed the take and let a simple stumping get away from him.

At close, South Africa were 93/3. with Harbajan having taken out two wickets and Mohanty being lucky to get an LBW shout against Kirsten off a ball clearly missing off stump.