|
Kallis' all round
efforts has India crash to a demoralizing defeat |
November 22, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 Indian
batsmen surrendered to the pace and bounce of
the Durban track to lose the Second ODI by an
embarrassing margin of 157 runs. Even more
shameful in the Indian defeat was that they were
bowled out for a paltry 91 in just 29.1 overs.
The batsmen showed the reality that they were no
good once the ball came over their waist height
at a brisk speed. For the Proteas, the Man of
the Match was Jacques Kallis who not just scored
an unbeaten century but also took three wickets.
When South Africa were restricted for 249 for 8,
many believed that the Indians were in with a
great opportunity to register a victory. But
once the inroads were made by Pollock, it was a
totally different contest, a wicket here and
there and the match was well over. The main ones
were that of Tendulkar and Dravid who were the
only batsmen to have experience in these
conditions. Coming back to Shaun Pollock's
inroads, the first of which had come in just the
third delivery of the innings as debutant Wasim
Jaffer chopped one onto his stumps after going
for his favourite backfoot punch. A third ball
duck was all Jaffer could achieve after he had
come into the side following Sehwag's hand
injury.
 Mohammad
Kaif hung in there for a while but he soon
perished trying to force Pollock off the
backfoot and once the ball got big onto him, all
he did was to slice it to backward point. The
score was 39 for 2 but there was enough hope for
the chasing side with Tendulkar showing good
form in the middle. Whether it was pitched short
or pitched up, Tendulkar was up to it in a
flash. His partner Dravid added the solidity and
these two needed to calm the nerves of their
players by putting on a solid partnership. Just
when they were looking good to do the same,
Charl Langeveldt came up with an absolute
cracker that jagged back to sneak through
Dravid's defence in the last ball of the 16th
over. Just a couple of deliveries after that
Andre Nel produced an incoming delivery to which
Tendulkar had got an inside edge onto the stumps
after looking to drive it through covers. These
two wickets were enough to say that India were
gone in this match at 62 for 4.
 Mahendra
Singh Dhoni might have scored some unbelievable
knocks in his career, but manufacturing such
innings on this wicket and against this bowling
was an unrealistic one. But Dhoni did show the
courage initially as he slowly got the measure
of the bounce. At the other end, Suresh Raina
was all at sea facing the seamers, he wasted
little time as he edged one Andre Nel delivery
into the slips. In the same over, Andre Nel
forced Dhoni to glove his short delivery behind
the stumps to have India at 83 for 6. Dinesh
Mongia did not do anything spectacular and like
others threw away the challenge without any
fight and the visitors with that were skittled
out for 91 as they lost their last six wickets
for just 9 runs in 42 balls! Tendulkar was the
top scorer with 35 from 51 with 5 fours followed
by Dravid who got to 18 and then Dhoni the only
other batsman to have got into double figures
with a score of 14.
Andre Nel had a great outing with 4 for 13 from
his 8 while Kallis picked up three for 3 in 4.1
overs! The damage at the top was done by Pollock
through a 7-over spell on the trot with the new
ball where he took 2 for 17.
The toss was won by Graeme Smith early on and
South Africa took first strike. They went with
an all-pace attack while India had one spinner
in Harbhajan. There was no place for Anil
Kumble, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth. The comeback
pacer, Zaheer Khan began well by nailing Graeme
Smith and Loots Bosman, the two openers. Both
batsmen were lbw to the left armer. Munaf Patel
who returned for a second spell inside the
Powerplay overs got rid of Herschelle Gibbs to
see the homeside struggle at 63 for 3. However a
sensible partnership between Kallis and de
Villiers took the initiative away from the
bowling side. Kallis had raced away to a fluent
fifty and de Villiers just started to gather
some momentum with his sweep shots off
Harbhajan. The off spinner had to be taken out
of the attack following figures of 0 for 35 in 5
overs. Tendulkar who was bowling seam up did a
fantastic job though at the other to dry up the
boundaries. AB de Villiers threw his wicket away
in the 34th over after missing to connect a
reverse sweep off Mongia to lose his balance and
present an easy stumping for Dhoni. The right
hander put on 87 with Kallis for the 4th wicket
and had got 41 from just 47 which included a
sweep for a six off Harbhajan.
South Africans couldn't blast on all cylinders
even though they had reached the slog stage.
Their cause wasn't helped by the three wickets
of Boucher, Kemp and Pollock. With Kallis unable
to break free despite getting past his 14th ODI
hundred, it looked unlikely that SA would hit
the right target of 260 plus. A late cameo of 22
from 12 from Andre Nel changed that in the end
to take South Africa to 248 for 8. Kallis
remained unbeaten on 119 having consumed 160
balls, his innings had consisted of 15 fours.
The three main seamers for India took a couple
of wickets each. Tendulkar was the best although
he didn't take any wicket; he conceded just 33
in his 9 overs.
For his all round efforts, Jacques Kallis was
the obvious choice for the Man of the Match. It
was a heavy defeat for the Indians and it is a
preview of what they can expect in this part of
the world. The third ODI is at Cape Town on the
26th.
Top of the Page |
