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January 06, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

Graeme Smith and his team just managed not to lose a test series at home to India by winning the third and final test match at Cape Town. The South Africans were made to work hard for the 150 odd runs that they had to score in the final day's play. The going for them was smooth for most of the time except for a long rain break which was followed by the loss of two quick wickets. But otherwise it was a comfortable 5-wicket win which also won the series 2-1 for the Proteas. There wouldn't be too many complaints from the Indian fans as this was a seriously good performance from their side as they became the first ever Indian team to win a Test Match in SA which they did at Johannesburg. What was commendable was the fact that for the first time, an Indian side has competed against South Africa in South Africa. All the three test matches saw good fight shown by the tourists who were always drubbed very badly whenever they played against SA in their den.

The start of the day was a shocker for India, they were mentally prepared to see Jacques Kallis to come out in the middle along with the lone overnight batsman Graeme Smith. The plan was to get Kallis out early which would have kept the homeside under pressure. But a googly was bowled by the batting side with the free scoring Shaun Pollock sent out instead of the methodical Kallis. The conditions were overcast today, a complete contrast to what it was for the four days of the match. There were thick black clouds hovering around and rain was only a few minutes away. Without wasting much time Shaun Pollock got going and Graeme Smith kept his tempo going with the ball being relatively new and hard and coming well onto the bat. The Indians just didn't have enough answers to the counter attack from the two batsmen and it was only rain that paused the game. With just 100 to get, a rain break for a couple of hours didn't mean much but it did cause a few anxious moment when it prolonged due to the breakdown of the super sopper! The groundstaff had to manually drain out the water that was collected on the huge covers! In the little play that was possible, almost 11 overs, SA had knocked off 56 runs without any loss of a wicket! Graeme Smith has moved onto 49 from an overnight score of 21 while Shaun Pollock has raced away to 25 with 3 boundaries.

When the match did resume, the South Africans lost their momentum with Zaheer Khan bowling an inspired spell. The left armer had raised his speeds to over 135kmph and was getting the ball to reverse both ways. He deserved the wickets of Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock which fell to his away going deliveries. Smith was terrifically caught by Dinesh Karthik who dived to his left to take a one handed catch as the left hander tried to steer Zaheer past the lone slip. For Graeme Smith, it was his third fifty in a row, he fell after making 55 out of the 211 target. Shaun Pollock was out 26 deliveries later playing a loose drive to be beautifully taken in the slips by VVS Laxman. Pollock made an important contribution of 37 which came with 5 fours. The new batting pair of Kallis and Prince were tight in their defence to keep the Indians away from the wickets. There was an unlucky moment for the tourists when Kallis was not given out when it appeared that he had got an inside edge down the legside to the keeper off Zaheer's bowling. Asad Rauf got yet another decision wrong, a wicket at this stage could have made things look different. By Tea, South Africa needed just the 49 runs to win.

Something drastic had to happen if SA had to lose from the situation at Tea. Not many runs to be scored and with the likes of Gibbs and Boucher yet to come, the match was almost sealed. The remaining part of the game was a formality once Kallis and Prince got through the early part of the post tea session. They got their side 13 runs short of victory when Rahul Dravid threw the ball to Tendulkar to bowl his leg breaks. The little master looked like a deadly bowler more than a deadly batsman as he bamboozled the two batsmen with his variations. Dravid was a nut for not bringing in Tendulkar much earlier in the day. With just two to get, Kallis (32) trying to knock off the runs with a pull shot was caught at mid wicket by Dravid to give Zaheer a consolation fourth wicket. Herschelle Gibbs came out in the middle to score the winning run off Zaheer but was hit on his stomach by a good length delivery that kicked off from the left armer. The honour of scoring the single run went to Prince who did it off Tendulkar, the left hander had deserved that as he had scored over 300 runs in this test series. Prince remained unconquered on 38 having worked hard for 103 balls. Zaheer Khan was the best among the bowlers with his 4 for 62 from 21 overs. The biggest disappointment was Anil Kumble who could only take the wicket of Hashim Amla, which fell yesterday. Kumble didn't bowl that badly, but he couldn't get the wickets which mattered at the end of the day.

The Man of the Match award had gone to Graeme Smith for his two fifties. The Man of the Series was given to Shaun Pollock who made his presence felt in all the three departments of the game in the series. Well its the end of a long tour for the Indians, while the One Day Series was a poor outing, the test matches were inspiring! The Indian team will only improve from here as they engage themselves for two One Day Series starting this 21st and then the World Cup. South Africa having worked very hard will kick off yet another test series which is against Pakistan from the 11th!

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