Close South Africa 327 for 3 (Kallis 49*)
Scorecard

If the dominant feature of the first day's play was some wonderful batting from India, the second day was shaped by some awful Indian bowling; South Africa were fed runs on a platter and they helped themselves, reducing India's lead to 52 at stumps.

It was all set up by a 189-run partnership between Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten. They started circumspectly as, just for the first couple of overs, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra looked threatening. They pitched it on a good length, in the corridor and appeared fairly menacing; the first scoring strokes of both batsmen were less than certain – Gibbs got a thickish edge off an attempted drive off Srinath, and Kirsten snicked Nehra through the slips.

Control and discipline, in the context of the Indian pacemen, is a fleeting phenomenon. Both bowlers began to mix good deliveries with the occasional loose ball, a benevolence quite in spirit with the Indian festival, Diwali, now just 10 days away. Gibbs and Kirsten were not averse to accepting such gifts, and that alleviated the early pressure considerably.

Runs flowed as the South Africans reached 91 for 0 at lunch; the openers hit 15 boundaries between them, and almost all of them were off rank bad deliveries. Srinath, the master of the short and wide delivery, was liberal with it, and Zaheer Khan was unable to find his line, switching from over the wicket to around and back again, growing increasingly wayward with each over. Nehra had more than just line and length problems, overstepping seven times in his first seven overs. Even Kumble went for nine runs in his first over.

After lunch, Kumble reverted to his customary parsimony, bowling two maidens on the trot. At the other end Srinath bowled with an accuracy hitherto absent, and South Africa got just seven runs in the first eight overs after tea. But Gibbs stepped up the pace once Nehra came back, and by the time he was taken off, he had conceded 66 runs from his 10 overs.

Gibbs brought up his fourth Test hundred in the 43rd over with an imperious pulled six, his second off the hapless Khan. The Indian cup of woe seemed ready to run over, when the fluid level dipped just a bit. Kirsten, who had been more circumspect than usual against Kumble, got down on his knees and was bowled attempting a massive hoick over midwicket. The breakthrough had come, but at a cost of 189 runs. Kirsten had made 73.

Gibbs followed him in the very next over, hitting Srinath straight to a slightly surprised Khan at mid-off (197 for 2). Gibbs had made 107 runs and India's bowlers had never looked like getting him out. In the end, they didn't need to - he did the job himself.

In a sign of things to come, both Jacques Kallis and Neil McKenzie hit a boundary off the first ball they faced, and came in unbeaten at tea, with South Africa well poised on 213 for 2.

A twin spin attack was expected to do the job for India, and that was exactly what South Africa faced after tea, as Kumble and Tendulkar took on bowling duties. Kumble, as had been the case all day, was tight without being particularly threatening. Tendulkar, on the other hand, looked hostile, with Kallis in particular appearing uneasy against him. It was befuddling why Ganguly waited so long to bring him on: Nehra and Khan gave away 121 runs in the 18 overs they bowled when Gibbs and Kallis were motoring along, and Tendulkar, whom the South Africans hadn't read too well in the finals of the Summer Spice Traingular, would have been a welcome change at that point.

But it was too little, too late. Kallis and McKenzie looked solid, and were unsparing on loose deliveries. As Tendulkar's spell went on, he bowled his fair share of them, not surprising for a part-time bowler. McKenzie pulled him for a one-bounce four in the 55th over and Kallis drove an overpitched delivery to deep midwicket for four in the 57th.

McKenzie flicked Zaheer Khan for a single in the 70th over to bring up the third South African half century of the match. Kallis was unbeaten on 49 at close, though McKenzie fell on the last ball of the day, for 68, trapped plumb in front by the persevering Kumble. But the South Africans were in too comfortable a position by then, the dismissal an inconvenience rather than a serious blow.

Earlier in the day, India's innings lasted less than six overs, adding only seven runs to their overnight score (and that included four overthrows). Dasgupta and Khan were both out to the familiar c Boucher b Pollock and then a diving catch from Gibbs off Hayward accounted for Srinath. Nobody, however, would have expected the Indian tail to bowl as badly as they had batted.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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