When Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten walked out to bat this morning, the task in front of them was fairly daunting. India had posted 379, the sort of total that has won Test matches at Bloemfontein before. Yet, right from the outset, the two openers went for their strokes with a refreshingly positive attitude. They were helped by the fact that the pitch had about as much life as a 3000-year-old Egyptian mummy - and the Indian new ball bowlers chipped in with some bowling that was frankly awful. Javagal Srinath was the only one to enhance his reputation, pitching the ball up and extracting some bounce.

Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, both back in action after time spent on the treatment table, were woeful in the morning. They had about as much control over their bowling as the average holidaymaker on the beach has over a boomerang. On the rare occasions that Nehra actually swung the ball sharply, the line and length was all wrong. As for Zaheer, his early spells seemed geared towards giving Gibbs a chance to fine-tune his pull.

Credit to the openers though. After the hell-for-leather pace that the Indians set yesterday, Kirsten gave us a timely reminder of how a traditional Test innings is played. Solid in defence and rarely missing out on the bad ball, he was the perfect foil for the more cavalier Gibbs. As always, he was at his best in the arc from third man to mid-off - anything short or loose was thumped to the fence.

Gibbs curbed his impetuous nature for the most part today, batting with tremendous judgment and maturity to blunt the Indian challenge. His best strokes were all in evidence. There were some glorious cover drives and flicks off the pads as well as pull shots bludgeoned with immense power.

As a double act, Gibbs and Kirsten are very similar to Michael Slater and Mark Taylor. Those two did a tremendous job for Australia in the early nineties and it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that this South African pair are in the same class - Gibbs the destroyer and Kirsten the nudger and accumulator.

All talk of South African frailty against spin came to naught. Anil Kumble was steady rather than menacing. Tendulkar came on and got prodigious turn and bounce but without the control required to consistently test the batsmen. Without Harbhajan to drift the ball in and turn it viciously, the Indian attack was a busted flush.

The dismissals of Kirsten and Gibbs were more the result of poor shot selection than any inspired bowling. Kirsten's hoick across the line was an ungainly end to a well-constructed innings. Gibbs, having cruised to a magnificent hundred, was a little too early into a lofted cover-drive. To be honest, that was the only way Indian were going to get wickets.

Neil McKenzie and Jacques Kallis were both less than comfortable against the turning delivery. The fact that they added over a hundred for the third wicket should give Ganguly and Wright plenty to chew on. It was that kind of day for the Indians. After seeing all the colours of the rainbow yesterday, it was all doom and gloom today.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor, Wisden.com India

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