India faces grim struggle on final day

Rather surprising thing about this second Test of the Castle Lager series, thus far, has been that despite being played on as good a batting track as you would like to see, it has already produced more twists and turns than any self-respecting roller coaster.

And there is still a day left to play, what is more - a day on which India, chasing a target of 375 on the last day or, alternately, needing to play out 90 overs with seven second innings wickets in hand, find themselves trapped between the risk of losing wickets by attacking, or allowing the bowlers to dominate by defending.

Here's how it all happened...

The South African innings

On day four, South Africa resumed on 24/2, looking to consolidate through the first hour and then mount an assault in search of a monumental score. India, meanwhile, had the goal of getting quick wickets to pressure the SA batting lineup, and either bowl them out for a low score, thus setting up a manageable chase or, alternately, keep them defensive and delay the declaration as long as possible.

In the event, India began the day right, prising out first innings centurion Lance Klusener very early. Srinath, bowling well this morning, was the man responsible as he challenged the batsman with a series of angled short-pitched deliveries into the body, cramping Klusener for room on the hook. The batsman went for the shot off one that hustled through faster and climbed higher, and ended up top-edging for Dravid to hold well at midwicket. Klusener caught Dravid bowled Srinath 12, Fall of Wicket: 3/33.

That early success, however, was negated by a combination of factors. The first was the fever Prasad was running, which left him less than on par in the seven overs he bowled this morning before leaving the field. The second was the catching, which again continued to let the bowlers down, with the fielders grassing Hudson and Cullinan, both off Srinath who, without Prasad's usual incisive backing, had to work twice as hard. Kumble, to compound the confusion, for some reason lost his biggest asset - accuracy; and tended to stray down leg so often that all the batsmen had to do was keep out the odd good ball on the stumps, certain that there would be two, three deliveries in the over when runs could be made.

But the biggest negative was the ground fielding - lethargic is a mild word for the way the Indian fielders moved in the field, giving away easy singles, never attacking the ball and, in the process, letting the pressure off the batsmen. 33/3 seemed a good time to go on the attack but instead, the Indian skipper found himself forced, in the circumstances, to set a defensive field and watch as the runs mounted.

Again, post lunch, two wickets fell - and the only way to describe them is that they happened against the run of play.

In the very first over, Cullinan - who, for all his immense talent, finds the silliest ways to get out - stepped well away from his stumps to slash a ball of full length. Silly cricket, that, for the stroke would be defeated by the ball going straight through, which is all that Kumble was bowling on the day. Sillier still, when he could so easily have made runs just moving into line and playing it in front of him. In the event, the ball crashed into the stumps. Cullinan bowled Kumble 55, FOW: 4/127.

Srinath had, in the morning, bowled superbly without luck. First over of the afternoon, he produced a rather ordinary ball, straightening just outside off stump, and it was Hudson's turn to select the wrong stroke, trying the cut though the ball was not wide enough and, therefore, he would be cramped for room. In the event, he ended up inner-edging onto the stumps. Hudson bowled Srinath 55, FOW 5/133.

Hansie Cronje was saying, before the game began, that he wanted a long innings here, if only to break a rather prolonged lean trot with the bat. But here, he seemed caught between the initial hesitancy that is characteristic of his batting, and the need to push things along. And the upshot was that his rather tortured tenure at the crease ended in an equally needless fashion, poking his bat at a straight ball from Kumble outside his leg stump, which he could have either glanced fine or left alone, for Dravid to take a good reflexive catch at short square. Cronje caught Dravid bowled Kumble 18, FOW: 155/6.

To use racing terminology, the best way to sum up thus far was that India was ahead at the turn - after all, the batting side were down to the all-rounders, keeper and tail, and if India could take the remaining four wickets out quickly, then anything would be possible from there on.

In the event, the fielding let things drift, fatally. Pollock was very nervous to start with, but the Indian fielders kept letting him off the hook by conceding needless singles and letting him get to the non-striker's end, rather than apply pressure by keeping him at the business end and making him play. Kumble compounded the problem by going round the wicket and angling across in the fashion of a medium pacer, when the obvious line was over the wicket, landing the ball in a large crack opening up in that area, making the batsmen tentative. Prasad was off the field. And Srinath for once lost it. Bouncing Cronje was good strategy, it was with a series of short lifters that Srinath unsettled him in the first innings and did for him. But McMillan was different - in the second innings at Durban, the big all-rounder had looked ill at ease against the ball pitched up to him, but when Srinath and Prasad dropped short, he blazed into a series of hooks and pulls that took the game away from India. And it happened again here, as Srinath time and again dropped short, with the old ball on this unhelpful track, and was cut, hooked and pulled out of the attack. Which left Tendulkar no option, really, but to give the ball to Kumble and Raman, wheel away, and hope that Cronje would take his time over declaring.

In the event, the SA skipper declared about 10 minutes after the tea break. McMillan at the time was not out 59, Shaun Pollock batting on 40, his highest Test score to date. South Africa had totalled 256/6 declared - interestingly, the seventh wicket pair had again added over a 100 runs after India had got the first six out relatively cheaply, and this inability to finish things off is costing the tourists dear in game after game.

Presumably, the Indians will do a post-mortem of the game, at some stage. It might be interesting to see if, as and when that happens, they remain content with the usual cliches of "bad batting", "Prasad unwell" and such, or put their finger on the real problem here - atrocious fielding, which not only gave lives to all frontline batsmen, but thanks to absymal work on the ground, made run-getting very easy. If this department is not attended to at the earliest, India is going to find rival sides consistently putting up mammoth totals, no matter how well they bowl.

The Indian innings

India went in facing a target of 427 to win or, looked at another way, 28 overs to play out today and a further 90 tomorrow.

In that situation I am not sure if it was wise to send out Mongia, who had been keeping through the day in the heat and humidity, and would obviously be a very tired man. Chances were he would be liable to fall early, and that would mean that the number three batsman would in any event have to come in virtually as opener.

Take that argument a step further, keep in mind that Raman had thus far on tour shown no sign of coping with the conditions here, and innovative strategy would have dictated holding him back as well. For instance, India could have gone in with Tendulkar and Dravid - the latter anchoring, the former playing his natural game as he did in the first innings.

This would have also meant that the fielding side, for once, would not begin with the certainity of a quick wicket, possibly two.

But in the event, it was Mongia and Raman. Both had obviously been instructed to stay calm, do nothing stupid, let things be outside off stump. Mongia did precisely that, though his natural instinct is to poke his bat out at the ball just outside off. And then Donald produced the unplayable delivery, as he does so often at the beginning of a spell - an absolute blinder, bowled at top pace, just short, curling in off the seam and beating the defensive bat to uproot off stump. It was a delivery that would have done in the best of openers - and that is a description Mongia does not qualify for. Mongia bowled Donald 2, FOW: 7/1.

Raman, at the other end, played as well as his limitations allowed him to, patiently letting everything go outside the stumps, depending on the firm pushes to score runs and keeping vigil for all of 48 deliveries. In that time, he saw off Donald and Pollock, the main dangers, and should just have been changing gears, looking for singles and moving things alone a shade more briskly. Instead, he chose to undo all his earlier good work, succumbing to his suicidal urge to stick his bat out, outside off, for a ball from Pollock in his second spell to find the edge and present Richardson a good catch low down to the left. Raman caught Richardson bowled Pollock 16, FOW: 26/2.

Dravid, coming in at number three, looked as every solid. Refusing to touch anything outside his off stump, playing behind line to everything on the stumps, he was to all appearances settling into the role Gavaskar, in the Star Sports commentary box, envisaged for him in this innings - and anchorman, around whom Ganguly, Tendulkar and Azhar batted with freedom, knowing that one end would be kept going. In between, he did make one blemish when he took on the fast bowler's trap of short pitched deliveries with a backward square leg - one powerful pull went to the fence, the next ballooned and, to his luck, fell behind the fielder.

And then came a tragedy of sorts, Paul Adams bowling a bad ball outside leg stump, Dravid glancing and missing, the ball hitting the thigh pad en route to Richardson's gloves for debutant umpire Rudi Koertzen to give a caught behind decision against the batsman. One does budget for these umpiring errors, even as one regrets the fact that they do occur. In the event, the scorecard reads Dravid caught Richardson bowled Adams 12, FOW: 3/44, and that I suppose is that.

Tendulkar came out himself, rather than send the nightwatchman in, and till draw of stumps, looked as solid as he did in the first innings. With him is Ganguly, who too looked competent, though if he is to play the long innings India will need from him, he will first have to get over the delusion that he can hook. Ganguly's technique is to go under the ball and lift it up, the bat facing the sky when he plays the stroke, and that is calculated to have the fielder on the square leg fence licking his chops in anticipation. Thus far, a couple of such strokes fell short of the fielder, but that sort of luck doesn't last, and Ganguly would be well advised, when he resumes tomorrow, to go under the lifter rather than help it down someone's throat.

Which brings us to the final day. Realistically, chasing 375 more to win in 90 overs, with three frontline batsmen already in the pavilion does not look feasible. But then, India would do well to profit from the wisdom of Barry Richards, who once said that when he goes out to bat, he tells himself that he is an international player and, as such, capable of taking ten runs off any bowler in the world. That ten gathered, he puts it out of his mind, and concentrates on adding ten more. And so on...

Point is, this is a batting wicket. The first hour, with Donald in particular steamed up, could be hard to handle, but then international cricket is about facing good bowlers and bowling to good batsmen. If the two not out batsmen can see that first hour off, then they can settle down to calm, controlled run-gathering, leaving it till about say the hour after lunch to decide whether or not they want to try the kind of blitzkrieg Azhar and Sachin mounted in the first innings. But for such an effort, or even for India to force the draw, Tendulkar and Ganguly will need to bat through the first two hours of play tomorrow.