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December 15, 2006 (Link to Scorecard)

The first day of the opening test match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg was full of action even if it was a truncated one. For the first time on the tour, the Indian batsmen stood up to the challenge posed by the South African seamers who as expected bowled well under helpful conditions. The advantage in this test match is slightly in favour of the homeside as they got India reduced to 156 for 5 before bad light brought an end to the drama in the 57th over.

It was a bright morning at the Wanderers, the crowd was all geared up to see the first ball of the match to get underway. But the toss and the start of play was delayed due to wet patches on the wicket which was a result of the usage of a damp hessian used by the curator to minimize the widening of the cracks. The curator made a huge mistake with excessive sweating taking place under the covers overnight and because of that there was no play in the middle for 90 minutes! After the spots were dried, it was India winning the toss for the first time on this tour and deciding to bat first, a brave decision considering that the pitch had lot of moisture in it. South Africa left out Andrew Hall who was injured while India went in with three seamers and the one spinner in Anil Kumble. Irfan Pathan had to sit out for VRV Singh.

The start from Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag was appropriate till the 10th over when Jaffer had paid price for padding up an incoming delivery from Ntini. His opening partner, Virender Sehwag followed him back in the hut in the space of six deliveries, hanging his bat to a delivery outside his offstump from Shaun Pollock. It was only an hour-long session but India had already got Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar out in the middle. It's the same old story for the tourists when they play on the fast and bouncy tracks, losing the openers cheaply and exposing the middle order to the new ball. Dravid and Tendulkar could carry their side to lunch at 19 for 2 with 14 overs bowled with some sort of difficulty. After the break, the experience of Dravid and Tendulkar was handy in watching out the tough spells of bowling from Shaun Pollock in particular and Dale Steyn who was very quick but not that consistent in making the batsmen play. Tendulkar was much more comfortable than Dravid and was soon driving the ball sweetly in the gaps to build India's first innings score. He came on top of all the seamers except for Jacques Kallis whom he had edged into the slips with the bowler generating the extra sting off the wicket. Tendulkar fell six runs short of a fifty taking India to 14 for 2 to 83 for 3 in the 36th over. Had this partnership carried on, India would have made giant strides in putting the pressure on Graeme Smith's team. In the 40th over, dark clouds had forced the players to get off the park and tea was taken 10 minutes earlier.

During the tea break, it rained enough to cause an interruption of more than one hour. Once play got restarted, India got into further trouble losing Rahul Dravid to Kallis. The Indian Skipper who battled hard for his 32 was induced in playing a false drive to a perfect outswinger from Kallis. Dravid's departure had brought in Sourav Ganguly in the middle and all eyes were on him. Calm and confident, Sourav Ganguly left all the deliveries that were slanting across his off stump and had come beautifully behind the line of the short balls that he had to play. He took the singles whenever he could drop his pushes softly into the gaps. Laxman was slightly loose in his game but decided to stay positive to bring up three boundaries off Kallis. There was plenty of noise in the slip cordon and there was plenty to say from Andre Nel to Sourav Ganguly, but the southpaw remained unfazed by all that and had replied with a gorgeous cover drive that had timing in its purest form followed with a cracking square cut. India were rocking through the partnership between Laxman and Ganguly, it also helped that the ball had lost most of its shine and hardness. But Makhaya Ntini coming back for a last spell of the day had changed the plot of the game by bowling a terrific delivery that had held its line to force a nick from Laxman. When Dhoni had walked in to join Sourav, the Umpires checked their light meters and had immediately offered the light to the batsmen. That was stumps for the day and India would be utterly disappointed for losing VVS Laxman in what became the last ball of play. Laxman had scored 28 out of the 46-run partnership with Ganguly which had come under testing conditions under artificial lights! Ganguly has remained unbeaten on 14 having faced 42 deliveries.

South Africa's hero with the ball was Jacques Kallis who got the big wickets of Tendulkar and Dravid in his 9 overs. Makhaya Ntini also picked up two but the best bowler was Shaun Pollock who looked threatening in almost every ball that he had bowled. The bad news for South Africa is that their fastest bowler, Dale Steyn had pulled off in completing an over due to a thigh muscle strain which might keep him out of the remaining part of the match!

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