India beat the Rest of South Africa by 96 runs on the third day of their four-day match at Sedgars Park on Saturday.
With rain and lightning threatening, and the light becoming increasingly gloomy, India wrapped up the Rest of South Africa’s tail-end, with the last three wickets falling for just six runs. ”The collapse once again by our top order is a concern, but victory by nearly a hundred runs gives us confidence going into the first Test,” said Indian captain VVX Laxman. ”I thought our bowlers did a superb job.”
India resumed their second innings on their overnight score of 93 for seven.and were all out for 142 about 40 minutes before lunch, for an overall lead of 320. Man of the Match Irfan Pathan, who made an undefeated century in the first innings, was once again top scorer with an unbeaten 40.
Laxman said Pathan was going through a lean patch with his bowling, but his batting had been excellent.
”It’s amazing the way he batted in both innings, and I think he has improved a lot. But he is a bowler, and will be selected as a bowler,” said Laxman. ”Full credit to him -‒ he has worked very hard on his batting, and has shown a lot of potential as a batsman. We’ll definitely take that into consideration.”
Alfonso Thomas added two more wickets to the five he collected on Friday, to finish with impressive figures of 56 for seven off 21,4 overs.
The other wicket to fall on Saturday was taken by Friedel de Wet. Although Morne Morkel did not take any wickets to add to the four he took in India’s first innings, he bowled very well at an economy rate of 2,5.
Jacques Rudolph was out first ball when he was bowled by Zaheer Khan, but Alviro Petersen and JP Duminy took the Rest of South Africa safely to lunch without losing more wickets.
Three wickets fell after lunch. Duminy was bowled by Khan for 20, and VRV Singh struck a double blow when he dismissed Petersen (lbw) and Morne van Wyk (bowled) with successive balls.
Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Justin Kemp gave the home side some hope, with a century partnership off 94 balls, but no sooner had they reached this milestone than Van Jaarsveld was run out for 66.
Kemp was on strike, just one run short of his half century, and the two batsmen hesitated before setting off for the run, giving Sreesanth time to toss the ball to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who knocked the bails off at the striker’s end.
Van Jaarsveld’s 50 came off 44 balls, and included ten boundaries and a six.
Kemp reached his half century off 48 balls, but with Van Jaarsveld gone, he became bogged down, and managed just three more runs off another 14 deliveries before he was caught behind by Dhoni off Khan, and India’s victory became inevitable -‒ it was just a matter of when.
Paul Adams -‒ newly recalled to the Test squad -‒ went out a duck after facing three balls. Thomas and Morkel put on 35 runs for the eighth wicket before Thomas was caught by Sourav Ganguly off Harbhajan for 15.
De Wet was out lbw off the next ball.
By this stage, the umpires had conferred about the approaching storm, and had warned Laxman not to use his fast bowlers.
Virender Sehwag took the last wicket when Morkel skied a ball -‒ Dhoni ran to backward point and waited for the catch, and the South Africans were all out for 224. Minutes after the players left the field, the rain began.
”It was obviously a little disappointing for us,” said Rudolph. ”We had planned to bat until lunchtime tomorrow. We had them on the ropes at one stage -‒ especially with that partnership [between Van Jaarsveld and Kemp], but we lost a wicket through a silly run-out. That basically stopped our momentum.
”But we achieved what we wanted to do, which was to put the batsmen under pressure and send them a message before the first Test. One of our objectives was that they shouldn’t spend a lot of time at the wicket, and we achieved that too,” said Rudolph. – Sapa