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December 26, 2006 (Link to Scorecard)

A collective team effort from India has got South Africa tottering along in their first innings of the Second Castle Lager Test Match at Kingsmead. Rahul Dravid's team is in the Driver's Seat after reducing the homeside to 257 for 8 in the 73 overs that were possible on the opening day. It will be a crucial second day's play at Durban tomorrow with the Indians looking to drive home the advantage to set a platform to register a historical series win in this land. The Proteas are on an unknown territory, they will have to fight it out to save the series for the first time at home against India. This match looks to be a result bound one and South Africa most probably have the only option of going for a win. The Durban wicket hasn't been that quick or bouncy as it was in the past and batting does look relatively easy compared to the Jo'burg track!

A bad start it was for an already shaken up South African side this morning. They got up with the bad news of their most valuable player Jacques Kallis pulling out of the game due to back spasms. He was replaced with another all rounder of lesser abilities in Andrew Hall. The other change was the promising rookie fast bowler, Morne Morkel getting his Test Debut in place of the injured Dale Steyn. Morkel already showed the Indians his sting in the tour game at Potchefstroom. The Indians went unchanged with Munaf not able to make the cut as the management thought that he wouldn't last the five days. The toss was won by Graeme Smith who decided to bat first and bat along with a new partner in AB de Villiers. A rank bad shot from the struggling Graeme Smith in the 3rd over gave the first breakthrough of the morning. It was an attempted pull shot off Zaheer's short delivery from outside off which resulted in a skier which Tendulkar caught running backwards from slips. The homeside slipped to 28 for 3 with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers done in by the movement from Zaheer and Sreesanth respectively. While Amla was a dead duck after he was beaten by a late inswinger from Zaheer, AB de Villiers was induced in playing a false drive to an outswinger from Sreesanth.

Herschelle Gibbs who was dropped down the order made sure that he got his first runs in the series and he got the support from Prince to repair the damages. Prince survived a confident lbw shout from Zaheer just before the lunch break which could have gone India's way. The first session saw 63 runs on the board at the loss of three wickets with just the 23 overs bowled in two hours. A disciplined approach from Gibbs which saw him bat patiently and pick the runs from the loose deliveries got SA back on the track after lunch along with the stubborn and solid Ashwell Prince. However, Gibbs after he had got past his fifty got relaxed a touch and it caused his downfall. An ambitious pull shot to an a delivery that was seaming away from Sreesanth had got an outside edge to have South Africa at 122 for 4. Gibbs got his 23rd fifty and had made 63 from 88 with 13 fours putting on 94 runs with Prince. Boucher, the man in crisis for his side continued the fightback along with Prince and the two batsmen carried their side safely to Tea at 165 for 4 in 51 overs.

The last session saw the partnership between Prince and Boucher taking the initiative away from the Indian bowlers. There were few words exchanged between Sreesanth and Boucher at one point of time which had got the Umpires to have a chat to Rahul Dravid to caution about his bowler's over enthusiasm. Sreesanth was getting the ball to reverse swing at this stage and he had the last laugh in the intense battle with the South African wicket keeper batsman as he had got his inswinger to uproot the stumps of Boucher. Boucher fell at a personal score of 53, which was his 24th fifty and his partnership with Prince was exactly a hundred. A bad shot and a good catch from Sehwag at point saw Shaun Pollock's exit giving VRV Singh, a consolation wicket for his improved show in this match. Anil Kumble with two googlies foxed Andrew Hall and Andre Nel to have the Proteas slip down to 257 for 8. It was bad light that came to the rescue of the homeside, it also denied Ashwell Prince the opportunity to register his 5th test match hundred. Prince is unbeaten on 98 having batted for 181 balls, he just has the debutant Morkel and Ntini to bat with.

Among the Indian bowlers, Sreesanth was the most successful with 3 for 74 in 17, but he didn't look a hundred percent fit and didn't go all out in his efforts. Zaheer was the bowler who provided the inroads through a great control of moving the ball in both the directions, he couldn't add onto his two wickets at the start. At one stage, his figures were a terrific 2 for 5 in 8 overs! His figures have been spoilt towards the end with 2 for 61 from 18 overs. The advantage is with the tourists as the second new ball is just 7 overs away and there isn't much batting left in Morkel and Ntini. It is now almost up to the Indian batsmen to get cracking and complement their bowlers. The bowling from the Proteas will have the fire and hopefully a better show from them compared to the Johannesburg efforts is on the cards to make this a really tight test match.

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