India vs South Africa: Second Test, Day 5

India has won!

Just 9 balls away from the match being called off. From the brink of losing the top Test team status, Singh became the King of goodtimes, with a magical ball that helped India retain the number one status.

It takes 10 good balls to get 10 wickets and win a Test match like the one at Eden Gardens. It takes days to find the 10 sometimes, while sometimes it’s over within a session of two hours.

Brief Scores

South Africa (1st Innings): 296
India (1st Innings): 643/6 d
South Africa (2nd Innings): 290 (Amla 123*, Harbhajan 5/59, Mishra 3/78, Ishant 2/84)

India wins by an inning and 57 runs

India vs South Africa: Second Test, Day 5

India has won!

Just 9 balls away from the match being called off. From the brink of losing the top Test team status, Singh became the King of goodtimes, with a magical ball that helped India retain the number one status.

It takes 10 good balls to get 10 wickets and win a Test match like the one at Eden Gardens. It takes days to find the 10 sometimes, while sometimes it’s over within a session of two hours.

In the second test at Eden Gardens, India took 131 overs to find those magical 10, largely due to a bearded bloke called Hashim Amla who single-handedly ate half of the overs India bowled, not only to remain with another sparkling century, but also threatened to dethrone India out of the top spot on a sunny afternoon at the Gardens.

I bow to this gritty character. He batted for something around 22 hours this series scoring 490 runs in the 2-Test series with an average same as that of his runs. There couldn’t be any doubt to his winning the Man of the Match and Man of the Series award.

Perhaps the Proteas were expecting to rain. But little did they know that the weatherman has always been charming in India, in the sense that their forecasts have been off the target. This time the whole of India was thankful to them for being wrong.

With the rain not threatening, there was a severe handicap in the Indian armoury with Zaheer injured and ruled out of the day. It was s severe blow to MSD’s intentions as the most incisive Indian pacer of recent times was nursing a knee injury. It meant 98 overs in the day had to be bowled by only three full time bowlers in search of seven deadly balls that would take India to victory.

A tough task was on for Harbhajan, Mishra and Ishant. The first two found their rhythm yesterday and was expected to carry on the search. But it was Ishant who excelled today. He has been on the receiving end of the stick for quiet some time now. But the way he shouldered the responsibilities and kept the pressure at one end throughout the day was a commendable effort as he reaped two crucial wickets.

But it was the lion-hearted Bhajji who stole the limelight. He was relentless today, varying his pace, flighting the ball, trying the doosra or changing ends. Every move of his took India closer to the target. And as has been his usual style, every wicket he captured was followed by a run very typically seen done by Wayne Rooney after scoring for Manchester United. Bhajji’s runs meant what England could do with Swann and Onions against the Proteas, the latter couldn’t achieve it with Morkel and Amla for the last wicket, though they almost averted the loss for 20 overs.

Let it rain now. Even if its not, I am tempted to do the rain dance. The rainbow is indeed up!

Brief Scores

South Africa (1st Innings): 296
India (1st Innings): 643/6 d
South Africa (2nd Innings): 290 (Amla 123*, Harbhajan 5/59, Mishra 3/78, Ishant 2/84)

India wins by an inning and 57 runs