Sourav Ganguly proved the selectors right by shouldering the team's responsibility with a fighting 83 while Irfan Pathan struck an unbeaten century to dig India out from another batting crisis and help post 316 for seven against Rest of South Africa in Potchefstroom on Thursday.
Pathan slammed 111, his maiden first class century, but it was Ganguly who started the rescue operation with a classy innings after India were floundering at 69 for 5 at lunch on day one of the four-day match.
The day clearly belonged to the illustrious Bengal left-hander who overcame the adverse situation bravely after yet another top order failure against the pace attack that left India tottering at the brink.
Ganguly batted for over four hours for his 141-ball knock, which included 13 fours, to bring the team out of a deep hole.
Later Pathan took a heavy toll of a tiring attack and reached his century with a massive six off part-timer J P Duminy. His bold innings came off 176 balls and he hit 15 fours in his 372-minute stay.
Ganguly, recalled to the squad after a gap of nine months, stepped in the breach in the 11th over when Sachin Tendulkar (10) departed and India, at 37 for 3, were staring at an all too familiar collapse.
Openers Wasim Jaffer (0) and Virender Sehwag (0) had not bothered the scorers and V V S Laxman (23) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) were the other batsmen guilty of indiscretion and expansive flashes outside the off-stump.
The visitors had their top order wrenched out by the lively young seamer Mornie Morkel (4 for 74) whose four scalps hit them in the guts.
Nantie Hayward started the rot by having Wasim Jaffer leg before wicket for a duck and then Morkel got into the act at the other end
Morkel snared Virender Sehwag with a well-guided yorker to reduce the Indians to 2 for 1 in the second over.
Captain V V S Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar looked assured in their 35-run stand for the third wicket before Morkel induced an edge off the Mumbai player's bat and it was safely held by Justin Kemp in second slip.
Tendulkar made 10 from 27 balls with one four and despite his dismissal he looked assured in his short stay.
Laxman also appeared in no difficulty whatsoever but he flirted with a rising delivery and got caught by Kemp in the slip cordon, Morkel striking off the very first ball of his second spell.
Laxman batted for 61 balls for his 23 runs and hit three fours. Morkel was not through yet and had Dhoni out off an flashy drive that ended in the slips.
Ganguly, who was batting resolutely at the other end, needed somebody to steady the situation with him and the young Pathan fitted the bill well. The two hours of the middle session were a period of consolidation with 125 runs accruing and no wickets being lost.
It was a stretch where the seasoned Ganguly exhibited his resolve and showed fine technique, playing mostly straight and resisting the dollies pitched on his off-stump.
Scorecard:
Indians first innings:
W Jaffer lbw b Hayward 0
V Sehwag b Morkel 0
VVS Laxman c Kemp b Morkel 23
S Tendulkar c Kemp b Morkel 10
S Ganguly c van Wyk b de Wet 83
MS Dhoni c van Wyk b Morkel 6
I Pathan not out 111
Harbhajan Singh c Rudolph b Thomas 47
Z Khan not out 9
S Sreesanth
VRV Singh
Extras (b 2, lb 10, w 6, nb 9) 27
Total (for 7 wickets in 85 overs) 316
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-37, 4-59, 5-69, 6-208, 7-287.
Bowling: N Hayward 16-1-59-1, M Morkel 19-2-74-4, A Thomas 18-7-39-1, F de Wet 18-4-56-1, P Adams 9-1-54-0, J Kemp 2-0-8-0, J Duminy 3-1-14-0.
