A Historic Test Victory

December 18 2006, a day to remember and cherish for the people of India. A historic test win, the first one in South African soil!!

Who would have thought India can post a win? No one even dared to dream an Indian win against the formidable South African side. Not many gave India a chance of winning a test match in the African soil. All one expected was India to timidly surrender 3-0, especially after South African white wash in the one-dayers.

Rahul Dravid won the toss for the first time on this tour and took a brave decision to bat first on a bouncy pitch. It really showed the confidence he had in his team and gave a warning signal to the opposition that they are ready for the challenge.

On the fourth day, some accurate bowling from Zaheer Khan who managed to trap Boucher in front of the wicket gave India an early break through. But some energized batting by Pollock and solid occupation of the crease by Prince looked like they might pull of a miracle. There came Kumble, a man who have bowled India to so many victories, yet again came to the party, rattling the South African lower order giving India an emphatic 123 run victory.

In spite of the delayed start due to rain, the Indians didn’t loose their focus and managed to put up a decent total of 156 for 5 at the end of first days play. Thanks to a good partnership between Dravid and Sachin. But the man who anchored the Indian innings was the comeback man Sourav Ganguly. One was able to witness his inevitable determination and self belief in his 101 ball knock, helping the team to post a good competitive total on the board. His innings was well supported by Laxman who was involved in a valuable partnership of 46 runs with Sourav before getting out on the last ball of the day’s play.

The wickets started tumbling at one end the next day as the South African bowlers made inroads at the start of play. But some hard slogging by VRV Singh with Sourav at the other end saw India reach 249.

A pleasing sight was to see Sourav playing comfortably; a flawless batting display, moving his feet well and facing deliveries right on the middle of the bat. His timing was simply superb and to see him hitting those trade mark cover drives from the sweet part of the blade only confirmed that he is all set to play a long stint for the country. His determination and relaxed approach was evident from the statement he made before the test match, “In the last 10 months I understood that cricket in not the only thing in my life.” One was also got to see a few glimpses of his destructive batting that made him bowlers’ nightmare in earlier days of his career, when he positioned himself to pulled a short of good length delivery outside the off stump form Makhaya Ntini for a six!!

A year back people complained about his ability to play short pitched balls. And to all those who still think so, here is some interesting stats for you. Combining both the innings he faced 28 short pitch stuff, piled on 25 runs out of it, which shows his confidence. Team India coach Chappell is in all praise for Dada said, “He was a mentally different batsman to the one dropped from the side 10 months ago. He's got a will and a desire to play for India that is very strong; it showed through in Potch and in this Test."

When whole of India was all praise for the Bengal Tiger, it was the young pro from the land of Gods who steeled the show. Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan scythe through the South African batting line-up, whose wickets started falling like nine pins. The surprising part was to see South African batsmen had no clue of how to survive in their own conditions.

Sreesanth’s impressive bowling performance, especially his seam position, the line of delivery and the control he had throughout the test match was praised even by greats like Allan Donald and Wasim Akram who where present there as tv commentators. To my knowledge I don’t remember such a penetrating pace bowling performance from any Indian team of past. This shattered the African hopes and enlightened a new hope among Indians of winning the test match.

After taking165 runs lead in the first innings, Indian top order once again collapsed, Laxman and Sourav had to do the repair work, piled on runs at good pace taking India to 110 for 4 form 25 overs. The beauty of this partnership was they didn’t fail to hammer the loose deliveries, scoring 51 runs from just 61 balls with 10 boundaries. They were cool and composed and theirs being a left – right combination further troubled the bowlers to get their line right.

Having said this, the partnership that helped to extend the lead to 400 was the one between Laxman (73) and Zaheer Khan (37). They added 70 runs for the 8^th wicket which actually delivered the knock-out punch. Zaheer’s display with the bat was a sensible innings and the enormous patience he showed is something that should be appreciated.

Both perishing in the same Ntini over, one thought the entertainment and the fight was over. But it wasn’t; Nel bowled a short of length delivery to Sreesanth who completely missed it, the ball whooshing above the stumps leading to exchange of words between them with Nel saying “show me the heart!” One wonders what will be Sreesanth’s reply and to everyone’s surprise he moved out of his leg stump, came down the ground and hit the ball above the bowler’s head for a straight six!!! It didn’t stop there; he started celebrating with his jig, a typical Kerala flavor. And it came as no surprise that his sister is an actor, his brother-in-law a singer and Sreesanth a professional dancer himself.

Yet another impressive point to note down was Rahul Dravid, the skipper, making right field settings and bowling changes keeping the opposition batsman under check all the time.

On the other hand South Africans have to rethink about their strategy. They where really handicapped in their bowling department having no variety. They missed the trick in not playing Paul Adams, the lone spinner in the squad. There was no variety within their pace attack too, with just pace and bounce being their only weapon. Shaun Pollock was the only stand out bowler for them tacking 7 wickets in the match, ending up with 401 test victims. To make the matter worse Dayle Steyn pulled his muscle after bowling just 10.1 overs.

In the South African 2^nd innings Zaheer was right on the button inviting Gibbs for a tempted cover drive getting the outside edge, a catch well taken by Sachin at first slip in the only over that was bowled before lunch. Their batting was a complete disaster with Smith playing an aloof short away from the body, a superb catch taken by Sehwag at point, with Prince alone showing some resistance in both the innings.

Indian players showed lots of patience and didn’t get carried away with temptation of a sighing victory. Instead they were very focused on their job on the 4^th day and completed the formalities.

For Team India, a test match win will be bigger than the one day series doing a world of good. This will induce a big transformation in their approach, especially after a lean patch for the last six months. Indian players are full of beans, celebrating one of the most significant achievements of Indian cricket. It will be interesting to see, how South Africans will respond to the challenge. This win can well change the course of the series and will even be a great one, if India can pull a series win.