da fezbet： The Indian goose is as good as cooked and South Africa, wanting itwell done, batted throughout the third day of the second Test at theChinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday
Anand Vasu04-Mar-2000The Indian goose is as good as cooked and South Africa, wanting itwell done, batted throughout the third day of the second Test at theChinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday. In scoring 472 for eightby stumps and obtaining a first innings lead of 314 runs, the visitorshave certainly sharpened the nails. After all, that’s all South Africaneed to do now. Put the lid on the coffin and slam the nails home.Resuming with a lead of almost a hundred, South Africa made steadyprogress. Daryll Cullinan showed his aggressive intent yesterday andtoday he continued in the same vein. After getting to his halfcentury, Cullinan lost his wicket. The fall of Cullinan’s wicket wascompletely against the grain of play. Just when things were lookinggood for the Gauteng batsman, he was undone by a Kumble delivery. Asis becoming customary on tracks like these, the ball bobbled off thebat to the fielder standing close, Wasim Jaffer in thiscase. Cullinan’s 53 included five boundaries and that unforgettablestraight six off Kumble.Lance Klusener, who has not looked at ease with the bat all tour camein next. Indian bowling ‘attacks’ have a habit of bringing strugglingbatsmen back to form. Today was no exception. Klusener got a goodmeasure of the Indian bowling on a wicket that was slow andlow. Though the ball was turning, it was along predictable lines andKlusener had no difficulty in picking his spots and scoring fluently.At the other end, Kallis brought up his half century with a bigsix. Kallis has played the sheet anchor role to perfection on thistour.Having waited all day for Klusener and Kallis to reach theircenturies, and following that the South African declaration,spectators had more waiting to do. In tragic fashion, both Klusenerand Kallis fell short of the mark.Having done all the hard work, both batsmen fell to thespinners. Klusener was the first to go, driving a ball from Kartikstraight to Tendulkar at mid off. In the end it was a soft dismissal,after what had been a fighting innings from a man who struggled withthe bat in recent innings. Klusener’s 97 came off 169 balls.Kallis was easily the more solid of the pair that put on a 164 runpartnership for the fifth wicket. However, his caution might just havedeprived him of a Test century on Indian soil. Dabbing at a ball fromKumble, that perhaps did a little more than he expected, Kallispresented Jaffer with a simple catch under the helmet. Kallis felljust five runs short of his hundred.After the two well set batsmen were dismissed, the wickets fell inquick succession. Having bowled long spells without reward, Kumble andKartik finally got their names on the scoreboard for the rightreasons. Having done the lion’s share of the bowling, Kumble ended theday with figures of 67-15-136-5. Kartik was less successful and49-10-123-2 would have hardly been the returns he hoped for.An overnight declaration is inevitable. This will mean India have toscore 314 to avoid innings defeat. With such a massive lead, it wassurprising that the South Africans even batted as long as theydid. However, one thing emerges strongly from this exercise: theIndians, with three spinners, on a spinning track, will have toproduce a batting miracle to save this match. All is not well withIndian cricket.