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Azhar hits back

Sorry all -- for technical reasons, this one has to be a truncated report, so we are just hitting the high spots here.

Thanks to Murali Karthik's rediscovered touch with the ball and Kumble's perseverance, the South African innings ended within 2.4 overs of resumption. And India went out to bat, looking for a determined performance from a batting lineup that hasn't exactly covered itself in glory these last few months.

At the outset, it seemed that maybe, very late in the day though it was, some discipline and sense was returning to the ranks. Dravid and Jaffer, opening, put on India's best first wicket partnership over the last five Tests -- and more than the runs made, what was noteworthy was the fact that they played positively, and in fact hit Donald out of the firing line, taking the attack to him and repeatedly crashing him through the off side and on.

Niky Boje was brought on as second change, ahead of Kallis and Klusener -- and discipline suddenly took the back seat. Dravid, who looked good till that point, made an error that you don't expect from a batsman of that level. More so an Indian reared on turning tracks. To the line of middle turning away to off, Dravid opened the bat face on the defensive push, and got the inevitable edge low down to slip. And an over late, on the stroke of lunch, Wasim Jaffer -- who in this innings looked a lot more relaxed and confident than in his previous three outings -- repeated that shot, with identical results, and suddenly India were two down and the advantage of a good start had been nullified.

The confusion was then compounded by Ganguly, who apparently had told himself that any time Boje pitched outside off he was going to blindly push pad into line. Blind pad play had in fact been his undoing in the first innings, it was so here as well, as he pushed his foot outside the line of one from Boje that spun back in and hit the back pad, plumb in front of middle.

That got Sachin Tendulkar and Azhar together. And both batsmen seemed relaxed and quite comfortable out in the middle -- Sachin in fact looked the most relaxed he has been in four innings so far, and this is not forgetting the Mumbai innings of 97. And with them settling in, the field began spreading, the South Africans fell on the defensive, and India looked to have found its second wind, when the captain got out in a manner that can only be described as shocking. The ball was so wide of off that Tendulkar, after going on his knee, still had to throw that bat at it almost one handed, and the result was a straightforward catch at point. True enough that Tendulkar in this innings had looked to hit the bad balls and keep out the good ones -- but that shot was an absolute shocker.

Mohammad Kaif then got together with Azhar, and again, a competent partnership seemed to be building as Kaif played with circumspection, increasingly letting Azhar dominate, but never failing to put away the loose deliveries. At one point, with Donald brought back for a second spell, Kaif played a stunning drive on the up then followed it with a lovely glance off his pads, and just when he was looking good, he got a bit of a bad break. Kallis pitched one outside off and jagged it back off the seam a long way, striking the outside of the pad on line of middle. The ball looked to be missing leg, but umpire Jayaprakash, who otherwise has had a very good game, gave the batsman the finger.

Kumble -- promoted given that Mongia was reportedly suffering a fever -- then did what he has been doing well of late, to wit, hung in there, put a premium on his wicket (at this point, he has faced 76 deliveries, which is more than any other Indian batsman in this innings barring Azhar) and kept his end going.

At the other end, Azhar was -- well, Azhar. When he is batting well, he perhaps more than Sachin Tendulkar even is a problem for all bowlers and captains. For reasons why, you only have to look at one over of Donald, and another of Boje. To Donald, pitching short just outside off, Azhar went up on his toes and crashed one through the gap between cover and extra cover, and didn't even bother to run for it as the ball screamed to the fence. The next ball was identical. Same length, same line, same everything -- and this time, Azhar just stood where he was, let it come on and used his wrist alone to guide it behind point for four more.

Boje kept trying him around line of middle spinning it dramatically away. Azhar kept shutting his bat face and letting his wrists work the ball out on the on, against the turn. And out of the blue, down the wicket and a nice, clean hit saw the ball soar over wide long off for a six to bring up his 50. The next ball, down the track again -- and this time, the wrists shut and locked, the ball flat batted over the bowler's head from outside line of off, this time against the turn.

That's the problem when Azhar is batting -- for no visible reason, he will play the same ball in half a dozen different ways, and that gets the bowlers' thinking in a mess. And it was that Azhar on view here as, batting with a seeming absence of pressure, he combined defence with a ruthless savagery in putting away anything even a fraction shy of the good length and line.

In fact, when he was batting, the one wish you had was that Tendulkar hadn't thrown his wicket away the way he did -- because the form Azhar showed on the day reminded you of that day in South Africa on the last tour, when the two tore the Protean pace attack apart to put up a little matter of 172 runs in course of one session between lunch and tea.

AT close, India had made it to 196/5. And played 87 overs -- which is more than the entire innings has lasted in recent times. And found itself 125 short of the South African lead, with 90 overs to go on the final day.

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