The second day of the first test saw South Africa continue the run feast. The visitors were never troubled by the bowlers and the pitch. Centurion Hashim Amla definitely wouldn’t rate this innings as his best as he never had to fight for runs. The Indian bowling attack which brought the mighty Aussies onto their knees not very long ago, seemed tired. The pacers could not muster anything off the pitch and the spinners were helpless too. It is pitches like this that aid to the downfall of Test Cricket.
Wicket keeper Mark Boucher also came to the party with a fluent knock of 70. Morkel too added fuel to the fire with a gritty 35. But the Indians managed to knock off the tail without giving much runs, for a change. Harbhajan Singh did his reputation no harm, with a five wicket haul under testing weather conditions. The South African rampage was brought to a halt finally at a score of 540 – massive, except that even this total could prove insufficient on this belter of a pitch.
It was time for the Indians to have their say and Viru and Jaffer went about their business in style. Viru was back to his plundering ways and notched up a quickfire 50. Jaffer’s brisk start didn’t continue for long. He was back to his defensive best towards the fag end of the day. The onus is on India to make this match lively. If they could step up the pace and get a sizable lead, then the SA players will have to face the music from our spinners on the fourth and fifth day. But the Indians currently have to play catch up.
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