JOIN USFamiliar conditions await spirited India
The Protean belief that India were susceptible to sheer pace and steepling bounce encouraged them to prepare surfaces in Centurion and Durban that their three-strong pace attack could thrive on.
At various stages, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and the seemingly harmless Lonwabo Tsotsobe – who has the happy knack of picking up huge wickets with ordinary deliveries – did make serious inroads into the Indian batting, but the visitors somehow summoned the skills to string together competitive totals after their first-innings rout in the first Test.
Having made the most of the best batting conditions of the series in SuperSport Park, South Africa themselves came a cropper at Kingsmead, skittled for 131 and 215 to go down by a whopping 87 runs in a low-scoring match which yielded just 779 runs over four innings.
Tempting as it might be for the home side to write off the second Test drubbing as a one-off performance, they will know in their heart of hearts that the quality in the Indian batting is complemented by the thrust and parry of the Indian bowling, which too thrives in favourable conditions.
India don’t have men who bowl at above 140 kmph consistently, but they are wonderful practitioners of the fading art of swing bowling. In Zaheer Khan, they have quite the complete package, while S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma are able understudies when the master is around, and nothing excites Harbhajan Singh more than the bounce that was on offer in considerable measure at Kingsmead.
As Newlands in Cape Town beckons for the decisive Test starting on Sunday, much interest revolves around how the 22-yard strip there will behave at what has been a recent bastion of the Proteas.
Four years back, when the teams arrived in Cape Town locked 1-1, it was construed as India’s best chance of winning their maiden series in South Africa. The Newlands track has traditionally been sub-continental in nature, and it was no different in 2007. India did all the early running, but caved in for 169 in their second innings to slump to a five-wicket defeat.
That triggered an exceptional run for the Proteas at Newlands. Since then, they have won three further Tests on the trot, and were only denied by the last-wicket pair of Graeme Swann and Graham Onions, who batted out 11 overs to earn England a remarkable draw in last year’s New Year Test.
Pacers and spinners alike have thrived at Newlands, as have batsmen with an appetite for runs. Ashwell Prince, who laboured to an unbeaten 39 in the second innings in Durban – the second highest individual score in the match – has had the most consistent run in Cape Town as South Africa have batted second in four of the last five Tests there, the only time they batted first being in that drawn game against England.
Newlands was where skipper Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin exhilaratingly put on 222 for the sixth wicket in 1997 on a day when Nelson Mandela arrived at lunchtime to greet the teams.
India have generally batted well there, and if they can somehow get their captain to win a toss and post big runs on the board, history could yet be made over the next week.