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Proteas take charge on day two

There's a difference between planning, and wishful thinking.

Put differently, there is a difference between South Africa and India -- or rather, the cricket teams thereof.

Judging by indications, India appeared to have taken the field after a one minute team meeting that must have gone roughly thus: 'Okay, boys, it's easy, what we do is rotate bowlers at one end while Anil Kumble takes the wickets at the other end.'

South Africa must have had a longer team meeting. And it must have run on these lines: 'Okay, Kumble is the one who does well on these tracks, so we have to keep him from breaking through. On the plus side, he is always uncomfortable bowling to left handers and we have Niky and Gary out there, so their job is to ensure that wickets don't go down in a heap. On the plus side, that chap, Chopra, is making his debut and the other spinner, that little fellow what's his name, Karthik?, he's only playing his second game, so if we go after those two, take a few calculated risks, we can turn the pressure right round.'

South Africa played to its plan. India didn't have much of a one to start with, and when it went awry, there was no fallback option.

Which is not to say India did not have its chances. With the score 19/1, Kumble got one to jump and turn, the ball took the edge of Kirsten's bat and Azhar, at leg slip, failed to get across in time as the ball went high in the gap between leg slip and keeper.

Another reason for India failing to break through can be said in one word -- nerve. Generally, when setting a field, you figure what the bowler is doing, where the chances are likely to come from, and you place men in the right slots and then hang on. Sachin Tendulkar, a tinkerer by nature in the field, failed to follow that simple prescription. Thus, Kumble bowled with a slip, silly point, square leg. At the first sign of bounce, the slip was taken off and shifted to leg slip. One over later, leg slip was off and put back in slip -- and two balls after the change was made, there went the thick edge, off Boje this time, in the air to where leg slip had been standing just minutes before.

At once a leg slip was put in, and the next edge went through where slip was standing.

You don't -- do NOT -- follow the ball, when you are setting a field.

In other ways, too, the field setting defied logic. At one point, you had Chopra bowling with slip, silly point, short square leg. And at the other end, Kumble too was bowling with an identical field -- and you have to dig deep to find reasons to set the same field for a leg spinner and an off spinner, against the left hander.

Just to add to the misery, one ball later Boje tried to swat one to mid off, got the leading edge, and Kumble, diving forward, got his hands under the ball and grassed a return chance, with the score at the time of the triple let off 73/1, Boje himself batting 35.

Both Kirsten, who slipped into the determined anchor role, and Boje, who carried out the Protean game plan to perfection, chancing his arm and lifting over mid off, mid on and midwicket whenever confronted with the less experienced Chopra and Karthik, batted with impeccable application to keep the runs coming. And India wilted, under the weight of their own incompetence in the field coupled with lack of imagination with the ball.

Another interesting facet was the keeping of Mongia. On two occasions, the turning ball caught the keeper flat-footed, four byes resulting on each occasion. On another, Murali Karthik got one to jump and turn in, found the inner edge of Boje's bat, and Mongia let it through again, for four to third man, adding insult to that injury by vaguely putting both hands up in appeal, for who knows what.

When India was struggling in South Africa, there was this huge national outcry for the immediate return of Mongia to the squad. The team management of Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar were in fact pilloried for their seeming refusal to prefer Mongia to MSK Prasad -- never mind that Prasad was the selectors' original choice of keeper. The impression at the time was that Mongia's return would solve most of the team's problems. Now that he is back, and performing at a level far below that of either Prasad or even Samir Dighe (four times today, the keeper gave away four byes), there is this complete silence on the issue that makes you wonder what the earlier brouhaha was all about. The national selectors were pretty sniffy about it when they wanted Mongia back in the squad -- now that they have their way, will they have any comment to make?

Lunch was taken with SA on 103/1 -- 92 runs added in the morning session without further loss, with Boje bringing up a fine 50 on the stroke of the lunch break.

Post lunch play was an action replay of the pre-lunch session. There were times when Kumble and Karthik got the ball to jump and turn, and found edges that ballooned into the leg slip region -- which, strangely, remained untenanted for the most part. In fact, by any conservative estimate, there were at least 8 clear chances that went in that region, and went to waste simply for lack of fielders to hang on. And meanwhile, the runs kept coming as Boje and Kirsten, riding out the rough patches, latched onto every possible opportunity to add to the total.

There again, you could see a clear difference between the Indians and South Africans. During their innings, when beaten by a good ball, the Indian batsmen reacted with exaggerated caution to an ordinary one that followed. Here, Boje and Kirsten were beaten time out of mind -- but were quick to pounce on marginal errors to put away every ball they could. It was a fine display of calm, controlled batting under pressure, and it took the game away from India.

The two brought up the 100 run partnership during this session, and Kirsten got another let off as Kumble, going round the wicket, edged one and Mongia failed to get his glove to it. Score at the time, 117/1. More runs on the tins -- including a personal landmark for Kirsten when, with SA on 150/1, he got to his 4000-run mark in Test cricket. For India, a hard, weary grind, bowlers going through the motions, fielders going through theirs, a general air of weariness the most noticeable aspect of their demeanour on the field of play.

It was beginning to look as though Boje, picked as a bowler who could bat a bit, would in fact go on to his first Test century, when Kumble finally broke through. Staying over the wicket, he angled a flipper across the left hander, the batsman played a fraction inside the line, the ball went past the outer edge and took out the off stump. The score at the time, 170/2 and Boje very unlucky to go out with 89 against his name, 11 shy of the landmark.

A heartwarming feature was the way the Bangalore crowd (at least, as much of a crowd as did bother to come in), which has had its share of knocks for unsporting behaviour, stood to applaud the batsman as he walked back.

South Africa had another fine session between lunch and tea, adding 82 runs during the period, for the loss of Boje.

Post tea, India hit one of those periods when everything went right. Kumble triggered off the spell when he had Kirsten pushing at one a bit ahead of his pads, for the ball to go off pad and glove to short square leg.

At the other end, Srinath in the middle of an over rolled his fingers over one, and found to his seeming surprise that the older ball was making the leg cutter really go. That triggered off a dream spell, in course of which he made both Kallis and Cullinan look like novices, beating them repeatedly with leg cutters alternating with reverse swing.

During this period, a wicket looked likely with every delivery. And then came drinks. And another indication that Tendulkar really doesn't learn much from his captaincy mistakes.

If you can remember back to Australia, you will recall how with Australia under pressure in the first innings of the first Test, Srinath went off for a rest (the fact that he can't go more than 5 overs without tiring is one main difference between Srinath and other frontline seamers like McGrath and Donald -- you'd need a court order to get the ball away from either of those bowlers if they were in the middle of a good spell), and for some reason, Tendulkar decided to give Kumble a rest as well, brought in Ganguly and Karthik, and the pressure came right off.

Cullinan and Kallis, struggling for survival before the drinks break (at that point, Kallis had gone 42 balls without being able to score a run and, in that period, been beaten repeatedly by both Kumble and Srinath), got their second wind against the more friendly bowling and the South African innings, becalmed for a bit, began sailing smoothly again.

Towards close, the Indian helplessness was clearly embodied in the line Karthik was asked to bowl -- over the wicket, pitching a couple of feet outside leg turning it in, a line that was completely defensive and in no way likely to get a wicket.

With play winding down for the day, the Indians then compounded their error by taking the second new ball, and entrusting it to Kumble and Srinath. The former found the slippery new ball harder to grip, and Cullinan took full toll, getting under one and lofting it straight for a huge six. At the other end, Srinath, who was getting the older ball to reverse swing and also move away off the seam, found the newer one not quite as helpful, and got clubbed through the off side for runs, Cullinan again doing the damage.

The batsman suffered what looked like a pulled hamstring towards close of play, and had to get Boje back out there running for him, but his strokeplay remained unimpeded and at close, he and the more subdued Kallis (21 off 111 balls) had guided South Africa into a very strong position. At close, South Africa were 254/3 -- adding 243 runs today off 94 overs for the loss of just two wickets. More to the point, at close on day two, SA were 96 runs ahead, with 7 wickets in hand and the very real chance now of putting up a mammoth lead and ensuring that they don't have to bat last on this track.

India, meanwhile, looks likely to pay the price for an inept display in the field. Catches went down, the fielding -- barring Mohammad Kaif, outstanding throughout, and Murali Karthik, highly reliable except for one misfield -- was pretty ordinary, the field placing unimaginative, and the handling of the bowling resources completely clueless.

The cumulative result could be that India will end a very ordinary season suffering the first Test series defeat on home soil in 13 years.

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