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Day 2: Dravid underpins India with 148 in nine hours

The circumstances were indeed different, but Rahul Dravid, last out with 148, his maiden Test century on his ninth appearance, made the South Africans relive their ordeal of trying to prise out Michael Atherton on this very ground, the Wanderers, a year ago.

Atherton waged a heroic rearguard action to save England from what had seemed an inevitable defeat. Dravid's vigil of exactly nine hours, during which he faced 380 balls and hit 21 fours - a lot of them with utmost charm - has given India protection from a vulnerable position in the third Test, a dead rubber. India finished up with 410, their best total of the series.

The amiable nature of the pitch and a considerable loss of time yesterday because of the havoc inflicted on the ground by a series of violent thunderstorms during the night, pointed to a draw.

Play did not start until after lunch and bad light intruded into the extra hour that the playing conditions provide. Andrew Hudson had faced only two balls in South Africa's reply when the umpires offered them a truce.

India were quickly deprived - or rather deprived themselves - of the happy position in which they started the day, 233 for three. Saurav Ganguly, who made 73 out of a partnership of 145 with Dravid, and Mohammed Azharuddin, both got out to Lance Klusener with shots that have been their undoing more than once before in this series.

Ganguly followed and held out a near horizontal bat to a ball slanted away from him and steered it into the infallible hands of Brian McMillan at slip. Azharuddin batted for 19 minutes like a man who had a train to catch.

He threw his bat at everything, square-cutting Klusener for four and then thrashing Allan Donald to the boundary three times in an arc between cover point and the bowler. Then came the sucker ball from Klusener, a short one on the off stump, which he pulled and connected with the top edge, hoisting it to mid-on.

Dravid, then 86, was soon deprived of another partner, Venkat Laxman, the last of the recognised batsmen. Parrying a short one from Klusener, he took a blow on the hand and retired. An X-ray revealed a fracture at the base of the little finger, putting him out of the match.

As if to shame Azharuddin for his frivolity, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, two bowlers, batted with immense grit and character, and in their company Dravid added 61 and 76 runs respectively. Kumble held his ground for 80 balls before Klusener induced an edge.

Day 3: Pollock displays all-round talent

South Africa's wealth of all-rounders - four of them, including wicketkeeper Dave Richardson - accounts largely for their vast superiority over India in the series which ends tomorrow. South Africa had the series clinched over the first two Tests, both of them won by overwhelming margins.

Given an amiable pitch for the dead rubber at the Wanderers, India at one stage seemed set to seize a considerable first- innings ad vantage.

In a fiery post-lunch spell, Javagal Srinath took the wickets of a flourishing Daryll Cullinan and Hansie Cronje in the space of eight runs and reduced them to 147 for five, which left them 265 runs behind.

Adversity was the cue for a rollicking stand of 112 between Brian McMillan and Shaun Pollock.

It was the gentle medium-pace of Saurav Ganguly that brought relief to India, with McMillan collaborating by playing across the line after a sensibly subordinate, although far from passive, innings.

The buccaneering was left to Pollock, who battered the Indian attack into submission with searing drives and vehement pulls. The pair took the score from 150 to 200 in just 12 overs and Pollock had 10 fours in his fifty. His 79 surpassed his own highest Test score and his father Peter's - by five runs.

Day 4: India set challenging chase

India's saviours in the first innings, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, staged their second three-figure partnership of the match to avert a developing crisis and set the stage for a thrilling finish today to a fascinating third Test at the Wanderers.

South Africa, who faced five overs before the close, were challenged by India, to whom victory can only be a palliative, to score 356 in a minimum of 95 overs.

Considering that on Saturday South Africa rattled along at over four runs an over in mid-innings and that the pitch showed no signs of its age, it was not an unchivalrous challenge.

Their requirement is 59 runs in excess of the highest score South Africa have ever made to win a Test match, against Australia in Melbourne in 1953.

Moreover, Tendulkar has at his command only two bowlers with a cutting edge, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. Anil Kumble has been played with utmost comfort by the South Africans right through the series.

However, it was Kumble who gave them the fillip of an early wicket, bowling Andrew Hudson with one that hurried through between bat and pad to rattle his off stump.

The Indians might see this early strike by Kumble as an omen of a return to form. He was a major wicket-taker in their previous series in South Africa, and in the more recent rubber at home he took 12, with four for 71, as his best haul, in the decisive third Test at Kanpur.

For the first time in the series India, in their second innings, had a start worth the name, Vikram Rathore and Nayan Mongia, who made 50, putting on 90 for the first wicket, not least because the South Africans, save for a spell by Shaun Pollock, bowled untidily in the morning. They were not profligate, but certainly looked blunt.

But after lunch India were jolted off their firm perch. Donald, who shared the bowling honours with Paul Adams, produced one that lifted from not much short of a length to the shoulder of Mongia's bat to induce a looped catch to slip.

An inswinger from Donald, two overs later, accounted for Rathore, who was determined, but never comfortable, in making his highest Test score of 44. Then came the major setback, one that was damaging not only to the stability of the innings but also to the prospect of it gathering impetus.

Not for the first time in the series Sachin Tendulkar was out to a stupendous catch. Square-cutting Hansie Cronje, he made contact with the bottom edge and Dave Richardson who, the advocates of his rivals insist, is too old for the post - he is 38 - threw himself forward and held the ball in the webbing between the thumb and index finger of his right glove. He was lucky the ball stuck, but it took tremendous anticipation and lightning reflexes.

India then were only 207 ahead, not a sizeable advantage considering that a fracture in Venkat Laxman's little finger had left them a batsman short and that Mohammed Azharuddin has not batted most dependably in this series.

But Dravid who, as much for his magnificent on-driving as his tight defence, looked even classier than when making his first- innings century, and Ganguly dispelled the crisis.

Ganguly was more assertive, driving with elegance against both pace and the spin of Adams. All but 10 of his 60 runs, scored off 93 balls, came in boundary hits, which included a pulled six off Cronje.

Adams defeated Ganguly with a googly and Azharuddin succumbed lbw to Pollock. Glares at the bowler and umpire, Peter Willey, and a slow trudge to the pavilion made it plain that he was disgruntled.

At the end of the day Azharuddin was hauled up before referee Barry Jarman, who took into consideration the former captain's clean record over 13 years of Test cricket, accepted his apology and let him off with a severe reprimand.

Day 5: Cullinan keeps India at bay

Gallant was the resistance of Daryll Cullinan, who remained undefeated with 122, that it cannot be said, certainly not emphatically, that the weather conspired with South Africa in holding out for an exciting draw with only two wickets standing, in the third Test against India at the Wanderers.

A gigantic thunderstorm which broke when a shade under half an hour remained for lunch, deprived India of 26 overs, with umpires Cyril Mitchley and Peter Willey delaying the resumption longer than was necessary.

Then, with four overs remaining and the scheduled time for close of play passed by more than an hour, the light failed.

When the storm arrived, South Africa, who had started at four for one, had lost four more wickets in 18 overs, one of them, Hansie Cronje's, gifted away with a foolish run out for which Cullinan was culpable.

India struck again within an over of the resumption and, after a brief pause, Anil Kumble removed the pugnacious Dave Richardson and South Africa were 95 for seven, with 40 overs left.

At last, Cullinan, 40 at the time, found an ally in Lance Klusener, and they saw South Africa to within nine overs of the finish. On a normal day, the second new ball would have provided India with a last opportunity of splitting this partnership and mopping up the tail but, with a huge chunk of overs lopped off, none was available.

To an extent, South Africa had invited the crisis which befell them in the morning. In the first over following the completion of the one left incomplete overnight, Gary Kirsten cut loosely at Venkatesh Prasad and was caught at slip.

Before the collapse gathered momentum, Adam Bacher and Cullinan counter-attacked with a flurry of exquisite cuts and drives to add 45 in 10 overs. But then Bacher shouldered arms to one that Prasad brought back and was bowled. The next dismissal, the run out of Cronje, was only half an hour away.

Cullinan drove Kumble towards mid-on and ran. In Cronje's own judgment, there was no run and he hesitated. Kumble fielded the ball himself and dispatched it to the wicketkeeper.

Thunder was rumbling, with rain obscuring a neighbouring golf course, when Brian McMillan was caught at short leg off Srinath.

Heavy though the rain was, the only serious damage it left was one soggy patch, just short of mid-on at one end. The pitch emerged as dry as ever from under the covers and if the Indians were prepared to tolerate what dampness remained, there was little reason to hold up play. It must be mentioned also that there was no urgency in mopping up.

Refreshed, even if irritated by the long stoppage, Srinath immediately disposed of Shaun Pollock with a break-back. Then 27 minutes before the rearranged time for tea, Kumble defeated Richardson with extra bounce.

His dismissal brought together Cullinan and Klusener, who batted for 31 overs without offering a chance until the sixth over of the last hour when Klusener was caught at short leg. Failing light, frequently measured with great ceremony by the umpires, denied India the use of Srinath for a final assault.