A scintillating double century partnership for the third wicket between Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, both of whom scored their second centuries of the series, appeared to be taking the match away from the Proteas on Day 2 of the second cricket test between India and South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. But the visitors struck with three late wickets to bring the contest back on an even keel.
South Africa resumed play in the morning with the last pair of Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell at the crease, after a collapse in the final session of the opening day had seen them tumble from a position of strength at 218/1 to 266/9. Morkel and Parnell threw their bats around a bit finding the boundary on 4 occasions in the four overs they batted before Zaheer Khan wrapped up the innings by picking up a deserved fourth wicket.
India came out to bat cheered on by a packed house at the Gardens, and Sehwag as is his wont provided some early fireworks as India raced to 50 in just 7.1 overs. A promising opening stand of 73 was cut short by some poor calling as Sehwag ran his long time partner and good friend Gautam Gambhir out when calling for a non-existent second run and then sending Gambhir back too late.
Murali Vijay failed to excite the scorers, falling caught behind to Morkel for just 7. AB de Villiers deputizing for the injured Mark Boucher taking an excellent sharp catch diving to his right. The massive partnership that followed almost never was as JP Duminy fielding out of position at first slip (usually reserved for skipper Graeme Smith) dropped an easy chance off Sehwag when the Delhi dasher was on just 47.
What followed was the best three hours of batting that you could ever wish to see anywhere in world cricket today. Sehwag mixed leaving the ball well alone with moments of sheer brilliance peppering the offside fence with a multitude of boundaries. Tendulkar at the other end was the perfect mentor accumulating runs with a hunger that only centuries quench, and getting in the ear of the impetuous Sehwag when the situation warranted it.
All the bowlers came in for some stick as India's run rate was above five for most of the day's play and only started dipping after tea when Steyn started reverse swinging the ball. Paul Harris, who had tied the batsmen into knots in Nagpur found no turn from the yet to emerge rough when bowling over the wicket, and was called for 12 wides as the Umpires refused to let the negative tactics slide.
Sehwag (165 off 174 balls) was his normal carefree self in scoring his 19th century at this level. He does take outrageous risks at times but his execution has stood the test of time and he is a very difficult opponent to contain when he is in full flow. Tendulkar went on to score his 47th century and his fourth in successive Test matches. He is undoubtedly the most technically pure batsman of his generation and remains a joy to watch whenever he steps on to a cricket pitch.
The match looked to be going away from the Proteas as their first innings total of 296 was passed with eight wickets still in hand. But South Africa managed to find a second wind in the form of the late introduction of JP Duminy, surely the best stand breaker in the game at the moment. His second ball accounted for Sehwag and then Tendulkar (caught at slip by Jacques Kallis off Paul Harris) and S.Badrinath (Steyn's first wicket of the match) followed in quick succession.
It left the home side on 342/5 at the close for an overall lead of 46 runs, VVS Laxman was batting on 9 with night watchman Amit Mishra for company. What will encourage the Proteas is the fact that the Indian lead has been restricted to a manageable total at this stage and that the second new ball is just four overs away. If they can restrict India to a lead of 100 runs they will still be very much in the contest.
The pitch is still pretty flat and full of runs and the opportunity will be there for the Proteas to bat big in their second innings and put India under pressure batting last in the match.
South Africa resumed play in the morning with the last pair of Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell at the crease, after a collapse in the final session of the opening day had seen them tumble from a position of strength at 218/1 to 266/9. Morkel and Parnell threw their bats around a bit finding the boundary on 4 occasions in the four overs they batted before Zaheer Khan wrapped up the innings by picking up a deserved fourth wicket.
India came out to bat cheered on by a packed house at the Gardens, and Sehwag as is his wont provided some early fireworks as India raced to 50 in just 7.1 overs. A promising opening stand of 73 was cut short by some poor calling as Sehwag ran his long time partner and good friend Gautam Gambhir out when calling for a non-existent second run and then sending Gambhir back too late.
Murali Vijay failed to excite the scorers, falling caught behind to Morkel for just 7. AB de Villiers deputizing for the injured Mark Boucher taking an excellent sharp catch diving to his right. The massive partnership that followed almost never was as JP Duminy fielding out of position at first slip (usually reserved for skipper Graeme Smith) dropped an easy chance off Sehwag when the Delhi dasher was on just 47.
What followed was the best three hours of batting that you could ever wish to see anywhere in world cricket today. Sehwag mixed leaving the ball well alone with moments of sheer brilliance peppering the offside fence with a multitude of boundaries. Tendulkar at the other end was the perfect mentor accumulating runs with a hunger that only centuries quench, and getting in the ear of the impetuous Sehwag when the situation warranted it.
All the bowlers came in for some stick as India's run rate was above five for most of the day's play and only started dipping after tea when Steyn started reverse swinging the ball. Paul Harris, who had tied the batsmen into knots in Nagpur found no turn from the yet to emerge rough when bowling over the wicket, and was called for 12 wides as the Umpires refused to let the negative tactics slide.
Sehwag (165 off 174 balls) was his normal carefree self in scoring his 19th century at this level. He does take outrageous risks at times but his execution has stood the test of time and he is a very difficult opponent to contain when he is in full flow. Tendulkar went on to score his 47th century and his fourth in successive Test matches. He is undoubtedly the most technically pure batsman of his generation and remains a joy to watch whenever he steps on to a cricket pitch.
The match looked to be going away from the Proteas as their first innings total of 296 was passed with eight wickets still in hand. But South Africa managed to find a second wind in the form of the late introduction of JP Duminy, surely the best stand breaker in the game at the moment. His second ball accounted for Sehwag and then Tendulkar (caught at slip by Jacques Kallis off Paul Harris) and S.Badrinath (Steyn's first wicket of the match) followed in quick succession.
It left the home side on 342/5 at the close for an overall lead of 46 runs, VVS Laxman was batting on 9 with night watchman Amit Mishra for company. What will encourage the Proteas is the fact that the Indian lead has been restricted to a manageable total at this stage and that the second new ball is just four overs away. If they can restrict India to a lead of 100 runs they will still be very much in the contest.
The pitch is still pretty flat and full of runs and the opportunity will be there for the Proteas to bat big in their second innings and put India under pressure batting last in the match.
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