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December 30, 2006 (Link to Scorecard)

Makhaya Ntini was too hot to handle for the Indian batsmen in their day of survival. The fiery fast bowler blew away the Indian batting taking his 15th five-wicket haul to bowl his side to a series-leveling victory. India lost the Durban Test Match by a big margin of 174 runs and the series will now be decided at Newlands in Cape Town.

The start of the day was extremely promising for India's chances of holding onto their 1-0 lead in the series as dark clouds arrived well before their usual time. The start of play was delayed for almost an hour. But when play did resume, it took Makhaya Ntini just the five deliveries to dislodge Sachin Tendulkar for a duck. It was just the first over of the fifth day's play and Tendulkar shuffling across and hopping to play a Ntini delivery was beaten by the pace to be struck on the pads. Asad Rauf got his lbw decision right with Tendulkar bending down to play that delivery which bounced normally. In his next over, Ntini was lucky to pick up his fourth wicket with Wasim Jaffer going nuts as he went to pull a delivery that was well outside his offstump to gift a catch to mid on. It was an unbelievable shot selection from Wasim Jaffer as common sense would say that there was absolutely no need to play such a kind of a shot when a batsman is looking out to help his team to a draw.

The early wickets from Ntini had got Sourav Ganguly in with VVS Laxman and both batsmen struggled to survive each and every delivery that looked good to take a wicket under overcast conditions. The Umpires came to the rescue by offering them the light which soon forced for an early lunch. India was tottering along at 47 for 4 but there wasn't much time left in the game as the weather conditions looked bad. But play started immediately after the break and Ganguly shocked everyone by going for a predetermined pull to get off the mark. He avoided a pair with a streaky pull off Ntini that went over the slips. He then had a close shave in the same over with an inside edge just missing the bails. Sourav didn't learn his lessons and had gone for another pull and this time, it was a top edge just eluding the fine leg fielder again the bowler being Ntini. It was just matter of time before he got out steering the same bowler straight to gully to end his struggle. Ganguly made 26 and he was followed by VVS Laxman who played right across a seaming delivery from Andre Nel to be clean bowled. Laxman reacted as if the ball had stayed very low just like Tendulkar but it wasn't the case!

With all the senior batsmen cooling their heels in the pavilion, the match was almost South Africa's. The only thing that could have saved India was a thunderstorm. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Anil Kumble had other ideas probably as they decided to battle it out and make the South Africans earn their wickets. The pair batted together for more than half an hour before Kumble got an unplayable bouncer from Hall which he fended off to short leg.  Meanwhile the clouds were blown away and the sun had come out much to the relief of the fielding side. Zaheer Khan, the next lower order batsman emulated Kumble and was successful in providing some stiff resistance along with Dhoni. The dashing wicket keeper batsman had disciplined himself from playing his flashy shots and at one stage was on 2 having faced 26 balls! But his patience finally paid off as he got  a series of boundaries from the change bowlers - Morne Morkel and Andrew Hall. With lots of fielders in the catching position, the partnership got to 50 runs in as many balls and had almost taken India to Tea. But Dhoni played a rank bad shot in the last over of the tea break, going for a booming drive on the up off Andre Nel to be caught behind the stumps. Dhoni was the top scorer for his team with 47 which had 10 fours.

It was almost a formality to be finished after the tea break with South Africa just the two wickets away from a victory. After tea, it was again getting dark but the light meter reading was still over 10. It needed to show something less than 8 for play to be suspended. Zaheer and Sreesanth fought it out with whatever they had. Sreesanth had also taken a nasty blow on his bowling hand which resulted in almost 5 minutes of stoppage due to physio treatment. The hopes of India just able to manage a draw at this stage had disappeared when Zaheer Khan was forced to edge Andre Nel into the slips. It was a great effort from Zaheer for battling it out for more than 80 minutes, he survived for 56 balls scoring 21 and most importantly getting in line of each and every delivery. Andrew Hall got the last wicket to fall to complete the victory after Sreesanth was unlucky to be given caught behind after his short delivery had brushed the batsman's shoulder on its way to the keeper. South Africa finished off their job in just over 40 overs to force the series to be leveled. The Man of the Match award was given to Makhaya Ntini who finished with 8 for 89. The third and final test match gets underway from the 2nd of January which means there is little time for the players to recover!

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