CENTURION – After taking a battering for two days, India finally put up some resistance with a solid start to their second innings on the third day of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park on Saturday.
Faced with a massive first innings deficit of 484 runs, India reached 190 for two at the close. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag put on 137 for the first wicket before Sehwag was caught at wide long-off for 63 off the bowling of left-arm spinner Paul Harris. Dale Steyn dismissed Gambhir for 80 with a ball which cut back and kept a little low shortly before bad light stopped play, leaving India with a huge task if they are to avoid defeat.
South Africa earlier piled up 620 for four declared, with Jacques Kallis hitting a maiden Test double century and AB de Villiers racing to the country’s fastest Test hundred. Kallis made 201 not out to remove one of the few blots on an otherwise outstanding Test career record. Kallis, fifth on the all-time Test run-scorers list, was the only player in the top 15 not to have converted at least one century into a double. It was his 38th hundred in his 143rd Test match.
Spectators on the packed grass banks roared their approval when Kallis glanced Jaidev Unadkat to the fine leg boundary to reach the elusive landmark. Kallis removed his helmet, hugged batting partner De Villiers and acknowledged the applause with a broad smile.
In the next over De Villiers edged a loose drive against Ishant Sharma and was caught behind by Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a spectacular 129, made off 112 balls. De Villiers raced to his century off 74 balls with 11 fours and five sixes, beating the previous fastest, shared by Denis Lindsay, Jonty Rhodes and Shaun Pollock, by 21 balls.
It was an extraordinary innings by De Villiers, who in his previous Test match scored a South African record 278 not out against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last month. De Villiers played a dazzling array of strokes, from sweetly-timed drives and delicate cuts to reverse sweeps and fearless slog-sweeps over fielders placed on the mid-wicket boundary.
He reached his 12th Test century with two successive hits for six off part-time spinner Suresh Raina. Kallis, who had shared a third wicket stand of 230 with Hashim Amla (140), was content to be the supportive partner as De Villiers went on the rampage in a fourth wicket stand of 224 off 226 balls. Yet Kallis scored at a rapid rate by Test standards, reaching his double century off 267 balls with 15 fours and five sixes.
It was a humiliating morning and early afternoon for India, ranked number one in Test cricket, as they conceded 225 runs off 36 overs in an extended morning’s play and 254 off 43.1 overs before the declaration. India recovered some pride before the tea break, however, with Gambhir surviving some hostile bowling from first innings destroyer Morne Morkel, while Sehwag made up for his first innings duck with a typically aggressive innings, reaching a half-century off 42 balls.
Sehwag gave a hard chance to Hashim Amla at short cover off Lonwabo Tsotsobe when he had 34. Gambhir survived two chances, with Alviro Petersen at point putting him down off both Steyn and Morkel when he had 43 and 62.
