da cassino： The Indian batsmen suffered another collective meltdown that took thesheen off a superb bowling performance on the second day of the tour gameagainst Rest of South Africa at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom
da dobrowin： The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran in Potchefstroom08-Dec-2006Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out
The Indian batsmen failed to compliment the efforts of the bowlers with another meltdown © AFP
The Indian batsmen suffered another collective meltdown that took thesheen off a superb bowling performance on the second day of the tour gameagainst Rest of South Africa at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom. Havingbowled the opposition out for 138 to earn a 178-run lead, the Indiansbatted dreadfully in the final session, finishing the day on 93 for 7, with anoverall lead of 271, though they still have the upper hand in the context of the game. Alfonso Thomas was the scourge this time, picking up 5 for 32 with accurate swing bowling.Morne Morkel had been the wrecking ball on the opening day, and though hebowled quite beautifully again, it was Thomas and Nantie Hayward thatdid most damage. Hayward saw off Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly inthe space of three balls, and it was a sad reflection on the proceedings, with the Indian top order coming apart. Irfan Pathan, following his unbeaten ton in the first innings under pressure, once again looked the most accomplished of the Indianbatsmen.VVS Laxman gritted it out gamely for 31, before falling to a stunningcatch at gully, but in the absence of the irreplaceable Rahul Dravid,there was no one capable of gluing the innings together. It didn’t helpthat the start was once again an appalling one, with Wasim Jaffer givencaught behind and Virender Sehwag caught statuesque on the crease.Tendulkar stroked two lovely drives before tea, but his own fallow runcontinued after tea when Hayward had him playing across the line to anangled delivery that would have gone on to hit the leg stump. Two balls later,Ganguly got himself into an awful tangle against a short-pitched ball,only gloving it behind to Morne van Wyk.Mahendra Singh Dhoni fared little better, ducking and weaving in ungainlyfashion against a succession of bouncers dished out by Friedel de Wet.When his patience was exhausted, he pulled De Wet for a four and six overbackward square leg, but a back-foot drive to Thomas only found the safehands of Justin Kemp at second slip.Pathan came in and caressed some lovely shots through the covers, adding38 for the sixth wicket before disaster struck again. Laxman had justflicked two splendid drives through midwicket off Hayward, but when hedrove uppishly at a wide one from Thomas, Jean Paul Duminy showed reflexesthat Jonty Rhodes would have been proud of. When Harbhajan Singh wastrapped in front soon after, Thomas had the five-for that Morkel hadmissed out on yesterday.
Sreesanth’s wicket-burst pegged the South Africans back early in the day © AFP
The Rest of South Africa’s batting had been just as abysmal. After theIndians had declared on their overnight total, Sreesanth started the slidein the second over of the day, getting one to swing away from JacquesRudolph’s bat and the edge was comfortably taken by Dhoni. And it was soontwice as nice, with the other opener, Alviro Peterson, edging Zaheer Khan tothird slip, where Gautam Gambhir – on the field for Jaffer – pouched thechance.Duminy struck a couple of gorgeous drives off an erratic Sreesanth, but itcould have been much worse for the South Africans if Harbhajan hadn’tspilt a chance at point after Vaughn van Jaarsveld, then on 1, had wafted at aZaheer delivery. Zaheer, however, didn’t allow that to dampen his spirits,trapping Duminy in front with a full-length delivery that the batsmanmissed completely.van Jaarsveld kept the scoreboard moving with some superb shots, takingPathan for four fours in an over that included some wonderfully timeddrives through midwicket. But there was little support from the other end.van Wyk made just six before Pathan trapped him leg before, and when thebig-hitting Kemp was sent back in similar fashion by VRV Singh, the South Africans had slumped to 90 for 5.van Jaarsveld carried on undaunted, playing a magnificent on-drive offSreesanth to get to his half-century from 56 balls, but the applause fromthe smattering of spectators had barely died down when the bowler got hisrevenge with a full delivery that crashed into the pads. And as vanJaarsveld started to trudge back, Sreesanth, never shy of expressing anopinion, had a few words.Thomas followed soon after, stuck on the crease to a VRV Singh deliverythat moved back, and the scoreboard made for pitiful reading at 94 for 7.Sreesanth added the wicket of Paul Adams in the penultimate over beforelunch, and after heroics from the batsmen in the final two sessionsyesterday, it was the turn of the Indian bowlers to bask in the limelight.de Wet and Hayward frustrated them for 40 minutes, adding 32 for the lastwicket and surviving some plaintive appeals from Sreesanth, but when Haywardedged one behind, it was all over. Unfortunately for the Indians, theirday wasn’t to get any better, with another diabolical batting display,giving the team management plenty of unpalatable food for thought.
