Only two days of the second Test of the India South Africa series have been completed in Durban. But there has been plenty of see saw, although India will be the ones feeling a little more comfortable on a day when as many as eighteen wickets fell in the day!
dale steyn sachin tendulkar
Kingsmead has been bustling with action ever since play got underway but it is India that will be feeling a little more secure, knowing they are in the lead at stumps on the second day of the second Test with South Africa leading the series 1-0.
Dale Steyn was the destroyer in chief as India found themselves virtually in shambles after the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, lost the toss once more and Graeme Smith had no hesitation in asking India to bat first. If India finished a little better than they did in Centurion at 183 for six on the first day, it looked worse at the start of the fourth day when Steyn picked his final two of the innings as India folded on 205.
But if South Africa were hoping for a Centurion encore, none was forthcoming. Steyn's success was quickly wiped out only to replaced by how Zaheer Khan's return to the team had greatly uplifted the India team's bowling image. It seemed only fit then that Zaheer picked up both the South African openers, the South African captain and Alviro Petersen.
And South Africa's consistent batting order was being packed up in a hurry, from two down for forty-seven to four for seventy-four to six for 100. Suddenly India's runs seemed worth their weight in gold and V.V.S. Laxman and Dhoni's thirty odd runs highly valuable.
With South Africa's most prolific run scorer of the year, Hashim Amla, back in the pavilion with the team's top score of thirty-three, the hosts did not have a fighting chance, succumbing under pressure of Zaheer Khan's bowling followed by Harbhajan Singh's glee at the bounce and diffidence of the batsmen to be all out for only 131.
South Africa were once again where they had begun this morning, with the ball in hand, looking to bowl India out cheaply, this time out of more desperation than ecstasy of having the opposition in the mat.
The Indians did start consciously well, Virender Sehwag once again fluent on thirty-two, but once they touched forty, three wickets fell in quick succession to give South Africa reason to hope at three down for forty-eight. With the two openers and Rahul Dravid back courtesy Lonwabo Tsotsobe in large part, Steyn gave his team more reason for joy to see the back of Sachin Tendulkar.
However, South Africa know that the task is far from done, with India taking a lead of 166 runs with six wickets still in hand at ninety-two for four in a match that has seen so many wickets tumble, particularly on the second day.
The Test seems headed for a rather early finish. Can South Africa steer the game back on their course to deny the no.1 Test team the thrill of leveling the series? What more shocks, or surprises, does Durban have in store?
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