Centurion, Day 5, Lunch
Tuesday, November 27, 2001

This match is as good as over, mainly because, for the first time in the series, the South African bowlers bowled well together. Nantie Hayward and Makhaya Ntini showed what they are capable of and looked distinctly slippery off the pitch. It augurs well for South Africa as they embark on a tough series in Australia.

As a batsman, Rahul Dravid has got the requisite technique, application, grit and concentration, but you cannot depend on those virtues to play out an entire day like you could, say, on Sunil Gavaskar, who would take control of the situation once he got past the 20s or 30s.

Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman did not come to terms with the team's requirements. Tendulkar felt the pressure of batting only for a draw, and Laxman was also uncomfortable getting into a defensive mode. Both batsmen are naturally aggressive and they didn't enjoy singing a tune that they were unused to.

There has been some talk about two of Tendulkar's strokes that flew over the cordon. In this series he is playing more off the back foot, and having given himself that extra split-second to execute the stroke, it was too much of a temptation for him not to have a go at balls pitched short outside off.

Shots behind the wicket are something that Tendulkar did not play in his formative years. The uppercut over the slips, the paddle sweep or the sweep very fine are strokes that he has developed very late in his career. They are thus not part of his normal arsenal. He has got away with these late additions to his repertoire because of his fantastic ball sense.

People have slowly started to notice chinks in Tendulkar's armour. For one, he has yet to show the ability to bat for long periods to save a Test. Tendulkar is not a man who reads or listens to the media, but I have the feeling that he does realise that the cricketing world expects him to save Test matches, if not win them, off his own bat. If he is to be universally recognised as the second-greatest batsman of all time, after Don Bradman, that is something he will have to do.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan.

More from Manjrekar
Williams and Das show more courage than class
Tail gets India in a twist

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