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December 16, 2006 (Link to Scorecard)

India has played nine tests on South African Soil prior to this opening test match at Johannesburg and have never won a match. They came close to winning a Test Match in the late 90s but rain had betrayed them on that final day at the Wanderers. This time around in 2006, there is no escape for the Proteas who are in a big jail with India already piling up a 311-run lead with still five wickets in hand, there are still three full days left in the Test Match! Now what can save South Africa from going down 0-1 in this 3-Test Series?? The pitch has been one of the most difficult pitches ever in Test Cricket and the homeside were in for a massive shock when they were bundled out under 100 leaving India a huge first innings lead.

All in all, it was an eventful day at the Wanderers with as many as 20 wickets going down and the batsmen had struggled completely. But not the experienced Indian batsmen who applied themselves in the middle, had survived the good deliveries and had cashed in on the loose deliveries. The result was there to be seen with the tourists in a wonderful position to grab a victory following a dreadful batting collapse from Graeme Smith's team. It was Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the overnight batsmen looking to stretch their team's total to 300. But a rank bad shot from Dhoni on the up which was incredibly caught by a fully stretched Pollock set the tone for the rest of the day's play. A day which saw some breathtaking catches!

The useful lower order batsmen Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth couldn't support Sourav Ganguly who looked to be stranded. But he got VRV Singh, the last man and India's fortunes changed with that. Ganguly got the criticism for taking singles too early in the over and exposing VRV to the bowlers. But that move had paid off with VRV Singh showing that he was no rabbit with the bat as he backed away from his stumps to play lots of meaty shots that thudded into the boundaries. Ganguly had enough support to reach his 26th fifty which was worth a century on a better track. His last wicket partnership with VRV Singh was 44 runs which got the Indians to almost 250, to be precise a total of 249 in 80 overs. Vikram Singh who is better known as VRV Singh smashed 29 off just 19 balls which had six boundaries, all of them cleanly struck. Ganguly remained undefeated on 51 having survived for 101 balls, his innings also had a pull shot off Ntini for a six. Shaun Pollock was the most successful bowler finishing with 4 for 39 which got his wickets tally to 399!

South Africa had about 30 minutes or so to bat before the lunch break, the first session had started 30 minutes before to make up for the lost time in yesterday's play. Sreesanth sharing the new ball with Zaheer bowled a magnificent inswinger that trapped Graeme Smith right in the crease. Zaheer complemented that with the wicket of Gibbs who played a flashy drive away from his body and with that SA were at 5 for 2. At the same score, they lost their next wicket as well with Hashim Amla forced to nick a perfect outswinger from Sreesanth to be taken low in the slips by Laxman. At lunch on Day 2, South Africa were struggling at 21 for 3 after 7 overs. They could have easily been four down had Harper given Kallis leg before the wicket after he was struck on the backpad which was well behind in the crease of an inswinger from Zaheer Khan. While everyone thought that it was a bad decision from the umpire, the super slow motion proved that there was a tiny inside edge before the ball had struck the backpad! Kallis didn't trouble the Indians much as he fell soon after lunch as he was consumed by another perfect Sreesanth outswinger. The Kerala fast bowler was all the time bowling with an upright seam that had paid him dividends. The Proteas could never recover from the early inroads and had in no time got packed for just 84 in 25.1 overs! Ashwell Prince was the top scorer with 24 and Andre Nel provided some entertainment with 21 which contained a six. At one stage, SA were in an ugly state at 45 for 7, so 84 all out does sound slightly better! Sreesanth with the wicket of Shaun Pollock had captured his maiden five-wicket haul. Amazing thing was that Sreesanth had bowled just the 10 overs to take those 5 wickets and all of them were bowled on the trot! Anil Kumble who did get to bowl a couple of overs had taken the wickets of Prince and Ntini in consecutive deliveries before missing out on a hat-trick. Zaheer Khan did his job with his ease taking two wickets.

India were a confident lot when they came out to bat in their second innings after pocketing a big 165-run lead. They lost early wickets as expected with the track being a bowler friendly one in a big way. They were reduced to 61 for 4 with Andre Nel removing the openers and Shaun Pollock getting the key wickets of Dravid and Tendulkar. If there was one proud moment for the homeside then it was the wicket of Rahul Dravid who became Shaun Pollock's 400th Test Scalp. He became the first South African to achieve that feat! In the 61 runs total, Virender Sehwag had got 33 with six crispy boundaries. The South Africans were charged up after Tendulkar got an inside edge onto his stumps but they just couldn't run through the rest of the batting. The reason for that was a great partnership between VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly who were determined to bat the opposition out of the game. Ganguly coming after a well made fifty was positive and the scoreboard kept on moving because of that and also some classy VVS shots. Both the batsmen put on a crucial 58-run partnership before Ganguly had gone for a pull rather than a cut to a short delivery from Ntini that was slanting across him outside off to get an edge behind. Ganguly had come up with 25, which means that he has scored 62 runs in today's play! That was going to be the last wicket going down in the day's play with VVS standing like a rock and Dhoni mixing caution with aggression. Laxman is still not out on 42 with 8 fours and Dhoni has moved onto almost a run-a-ball 17. The Indians have raced away to 146 at the loss of five wickets in just 35 overs! They are in the driver's seat and tomorrow they could wrap up the test match if the bowlers can put the ball in the right spots!

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