India vs South Africa: First Test, Day 3

What can be done in 40 minutes?

Cook a three-course dinner spread for 10 people? Send 1000 sms? Tweet every second of your existence? Get 500 friends invite in Facebook?

Among millions of other things, you can loose your entire pride in just 40 minutes. Like India did today. It took only 40 minutes for the fiery Dale Steyn to hurt our ego so deep that might just cost us the first Test at Nagpur. From 221/4 to 233 all out, MSD and company were delivered a killing punch by Steyn, and were served a palatable dish of reverse swing with the old ball – an art still not mastered by our Zaheer and Ishant.

Cricket is a game of technique and patience – and perhaps the maturity to understand the reverse swing. Steyn mastered that art, the reason why he is regarded as the top bowler in modern cricket. He ripped through the Indian batting lineup to end up with a career-best figure of 7/51, which sent the Indian think tank into a tizzy.

When the dreadful 40 minutes after tea was over, India by then was applying balms to the wounds of following on. 233 all out as against the visitor’s 558 on a flat slow Nagpur wicket, questions are bound to be asked – what will this team do sans a Rahul Dravid? For the test matches, Dravid at the moment looks indispensable material. But are the selectors sure not to have a look at him for the ODI series too? Are they again going to overlook the need for Dravid even on home soil? Remember, Dravid was called in the ODI side after two years to strengthen the dismal Indian batting scenario last year in South Africa and Sri Lanka and then dumped again for the home series against Australia?

The bigger threat right now is saving the Test Match. Even a brilliant century by Sehwag in the first innings couldn’t save the follow on, as besides him, Badrinath and Gambhir could reach double figures.

Let’s hope the batting comes good in the second. The silver lining is that if India poses a competitive target for South Africa to chase in the fourth innings, it would be an interesting ending.

Brief Scores:

South Africa (1st Innings): 558/6 declared
India (1st Innings): 233 (Sehwag 109, Badrinath 56, Steyn 7/51)
India (2nd Innings): 66/2