Its Only Cricket

3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

It's 50/50 with 3 days remaining : Ind v SA 3rd test, Day 2.

Filed under India's tour of South Africa.

When we started the South African tour, everyone wanted Team India to do well, but also knew we actually had very little chance of beating South Africa in their own den.

We lost the test series 4-0 and only consolation came in a twenty20 match. The script for the test series Ganguly on Day 2.jpg

wouldn't have been different, had surprize package - S Sreesanth, along with rest of 10 "rejuvenated" players made an upset at Johannesburg.

South Africa came back in the second test to tie the series 1-1, but the fact is - a draw series against India at home is no less than a loss for the African team, who set really high standards for themselves...!!

So what exactly a team like India should aim for remaining 3 days in South Africa?? Do they want next Indian team to South Africa (April 2008) to be seen similarly as this 2006 team did, or they want to set an example for all future tours of South Africa?

Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer's opening wicket partnership had made sure we put a good enough total on board while batting first, and that partnership will serve us well all throughout this Cape Town test match. We failed to capitalise on that, but South Africans are still 270 runs behind... on a pitch which is not getting better for batsmen anymore.

Our first target is to get those 9 wickets. But that doesn't mean we must set all fielders at catching positions. 3 days of test match cricket is a lot of cricket and dot balls are also attacking cricket. South Africa made sure we had only a run rate of 3.16... and our game-plan shouldn't be different. Remember Smith On Day 2.jpg

- South Africa will go for win at any cost, because they need to win this match.. whereas we also have the option of playing on their patience.

A lead of 60 to 90 will be almost perfect. What South Africa made sure that Anil Kumble didn't bowl a single maiden over in his 12 over spell on Day 2, when he has bowled nearly 3 maidens every 10 overs in his International cricket career. I am not saying our bowlers did a bad job today, but Dravid must look at blocking runs as well because those are going to be very premium on this Newlands pitch.

One more thing - South Africans play seamers well. Tendulkar and Sehwag must be used no less than Kumble because they flight the ball over the eye line of the batsmen and make them feel for the ball. Even 5-10 tight overs from Ganguly won't be any bad. Our Indian captain is blessed with as many as 3 good seamers who can reverse the ball, one World class spinner, two "very good" part time spinners and a nagging bowler in Ganguly... 90 tight overs (and some belief) for the sake of South African glory is the only thing we need.

India vs South Africa 3rd test End of day 2 scorecard

India : 414 all out in 131.1 overs	South Africa : 144 for 1 in 41 ovs
Wasim Jaffer 116, R Dravid 29	De Villiers C Karthik B Sreesanth
Dinesh Karthik 63, Laxman 13	Graeme Smith not out 76 off 111
Sachin 64, Sourav Ganguly 66	Hashim Amla not out 50 off 128
Virendra Sehwag 40 (50 balls)
	Anil Kumble : 12-0-39-0
Shaun Pollock : 29-9-75-4	S Sreesanth : 11-4-36-1
Paul Harris : 37-3-129-4	Munaf Patel : 7-3-19-0.