Proteas sink in Kanpur Dust Bowl |
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Monday April 14, 01:04 AM
Kanpur, April 13: The pitch crumbled, as did the South Africans. Two days of evenly poised action in this Test, and nine days of super performances by them in the series were undone in one appalling session of play as the visitors handed an eight-wicket win to India on Day Three of the third Test at the Green Park here on Sunday.
From 90/4 in 39 overs just prior to tea, the visitors collapsed to 121 all out in 55.5 overs, spanning just an hour-and-a-half of play. Set a target of 62 to win, India broke no sweat in clinching the game and levelling the series 1-1.
Sourav Ganguly had talked about how imperative a good performance was on the third day. The team thereafter put his words into action. A deteriorating surface notwithstanding, India’s last pair of Ishant Sharma and Shantakumaran Sreesanth put on 46 feisty runs, stretching the lead to a nifty 60.
From the overnight score of 288/9, the duo edged and pushed for 70 more balls frustrating the South African captain Graeme Smith who would have been hoping for a quick mop-up from his bowlers.
Ntini and Steyn were wayward and Harris was negotiated without much ado. To their credit, though, Sreesanth and Sharma had their share of luck, with a combined total of four edges managing to evade the fielders and a catch held off a no-ball.
When the Proteas came in to bat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni played offence starting with Harbhajan Singh from the first over. The offie operated with four close to the bat besides a long on and deep mid-wicket ensuring that the batsmen were never able to score quickly against him.
But it was not until the 12th over that the hosts got their first breakthrough when Niel McKenzie made the mistake of playing across the line to a Sreesanth ball that did not rise.
It rapped the pads dead on target, giving the bowler his 50th wicket in 14 Tests. Harbhajan got Hashim Amla in the very next over to leave Proteas uncomfortably placed at 27/2 at lunch.
Ishant too had his moments, but despite getting two wickets in one over at a later stage, he was rendered ineffective by Smith early on. The batsman got his first boundary with a paddle sweep off Piyush Chawla’s first over after 67 balls and then stroked two more through covers against the spin in his next.
Runs started to flow and just when India started to feel the pinch of missing ace leg spinner Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag soothed frayed nerves with two wickets in as many overs before tea.
It was all downhill for the visitors from there on. The South African lower half struggled to put bat to ball, and ran at the slightest chance.
Three off the four Harbhajan victims came to timid bat-pad catches while Ishant’s bowling in channels with unpredictable bounce troubled them no end. The two polished off the rest of the batting order in a jiffy while Sehwag removed the number 11.
India romped home in just 13.1 overs with Sehwag blitzing 22 off 12 balls. Rahul Dravid hit the winning runs, paddling Harris for a boundary at fine-leg to cue joyful scenes in the dressing room.
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