A four-wicket haul by Dale Steyn helped South Africa stage a brilliant fightback on the fourth day of the third Castle Lager Test at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday. At close of play, South Africa, chasing a target of 211 for victory, were 55 for the loss of two wickets.
There was plenty of excitement in the first half hour of play on an action-packed day.
The drama began in the second over when Virender Sehwag, having dispatched Dale Steyn to the boundary, slashed wildly at the last ball of the over, only to be caught behind by Mark Boucher.
Not to be outdone, Makhaya Ntini struck two balls later, when Wasim Jaffer, who made 116 in the first innings, was caught in the slips by AB de Villiers for two.
His dismissal was followed by unusual scenes, as the South Africans waited, and waited, and waited for India’s fourth man in. South African skipper Graeme Smith was heard to ask umpire Darryl Harper ”What are the regulations? How long can he take?”
”There’s a legitimate reason for the delay, and I appeal to you not to appeal for a time-out,” responded Harper.
It was a full six minutes before Sourav Ganguly made his way onto the field. ICC regulations require the next batsman to reach the crease within three minutes.
The official explanation was that because Sachin Tendulkar had spent time off the field on Thursday, he could not go out to bat for a specified period. The message reached the Indian dressing-room just one ball before Jaffer’s dismissal, which meant that an alternative batsman had to get padded up in a hurry.
Asked about his frame of mind when he had to scramble out of his tracksuit and go out to bat, Ganguly was philosophical.
”I couldn’t afford a state of mind,” he said. ”I had to go out and bat for my country.”
Dravid and Ganguly brought some sanity to proceedings with a third-wicket partnership of 84, an Indian record against South Africa.
But once Dravid had gone, caught by Herschelle Gibbs off Jacques Kallis, Indian wickets began to tumble. Four wickets fell in the afternoon session, and South Africa succeeded brilliantly in drying up the runs. Only 48 runs were scored between lunch and tea.
The last four wickets fell in just over an hour after tea. Dinesh Karthik, who was part of the opening partnership of 153 with Wasim Jaffer in the first innings, did his level best to keep the runs coming.
Two of the Indian batsmen, VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan, were run out because of horrible indecision and some very good fielding, but it was Dale Steyn who wrapped up the Indian tail, taking three wickets for 15 runs in three overs, with the last two falling off successive balls, and Karthik was left stranded on 38 off 48 balls. India were all out for 169.
Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers made a good start to the run chase, putting on 36 runs before De Villiers was caught behind by Karthik off Khan for 22. Smith and Hashim Amla took the score to 55, but in the final over of the day, Amla was given out lbw to Anil Kumble for 10. South Africa still needed 156 to win the Test and clinch the series.
”We have a big battle on our hands,” said Proteas assistant coach Vincent Barnes. ”It will be a true test of character.”
Steyn said that although South Africa knew the spinners were going to make very good use of the rough patches, it was a matter of patience.
”We have our game plans for bowlers like Kumble and Tendulkar,” he said.
”They have to take wickets, they can’t afford to just bowl a negative line and length, so we just have to be patient and wait for the bad balls, which will come.
Ganguly said he believed it was still anyone’s game. ”We need to take early wickets. If we can get Jacques Kallis early, that would be a great help. They are going to find if difficult; it gets harder to score runs when the ball starts getting softer.” — Sapa