PORT ELIZABETH
Herschelle Gibbs played a lone hand at St George's Park on Friday, making 155not out out of South Africa's 237 for five on the first day of the second CastleLager/MTN Test match after India had asked the home team to bat first.
Gibbs, who has spent much of his career veering between the sublime and theridiculous, scored his second century in as many Tests and the fifth of hiscareer to keep India at bay after the conditions had persuaded Sourav Ganguly tobowl first upon winning the toss.
Whether this decision was prompted by a belief that his attack – twoseamers and two spinners – might rout the South African batting on a greenpitch and under a grey sky or more by a desire to keep his batsmen away from thehome team's bowling is a moot point. Whatever the case, Gibbs held the SouthAfrican innings together with another exhibition of his prodigious talent.
Since being involved in a dope-smoking incident during South Africa's tour ofthe Caribbean this year, Gibbs has undergone "life skills" trainingfrom, among others, former Springbok rugby captain Morne du Plessis. If thedesired effect is to rid Gibbs of his unwanted rebel-without-a-clue reputation,then it seems to be working. He has seldom batted better and his form, sinceserving a six-month ban for his role in the Hansiegate affair, has grown evermore consistent.
His first three innings after the ban, against Sri Lanka, produced scores of0, 1 and 8. Subsequently, however, one impressive innings has followed another.In all, Gibbs has scored 949 runs in 2001 at an average of 63.26 and establishedhimself as one of the world's leading batsmen.
On Friday, as India will no doubt testify, he loaded the South Africaninnings onto his back and carried it through the day with only occasional andsporadic assistance. But for Gibbs, Ganguly's decision would have lookedinspired. Even with Gibbs, India did enough to share the honours on the firstday of a Test they cannot afford to lose.
The tourists, almost self-evidently, are a seamer short of aproperly-balanced attack in this match. For all that, Javagal Srinath bowledquite beautifully throughout the day and was full value for his three for 51while the spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, did a good job inconditions far more suited to seam bowling.
Gibbs paid tribute to Srinath later, saying "he hardly bowled a bad ballall day".
South Africa lost Gary Kirsten, caught at second slip by VVS Laxman afterVirender Sehwag had knocked the ball up at third slip, early on for 4 and thenhad Jacques Kallis bowled by Srinath just before lunch for 24.
Neil McKenzie made just 12 before he was comprehensively bowled by Harbhajan,played all around a full ball and then Boeta Dippenaar made a painstaking 29 ashe and Gibbs added 105 for the fourth wicket.
Dippenaar is under pressure to keep his place in the Test team, a pointunderlined when Jacques Rudolph was added to the South African squad earlier inthe week. He never quite settled on Friday, looking desperately uncomfortable attimes and it is difficult to say how much good he did to his chances of touringAustralia next month. At the same time, however, without his contribution, SouthAfrican might have been in deep trouble on Friday afternoon and, if nothingelse, he displayed an admirable determination to stick it out.
He was finally caught at the wicket off Ajit Agarkar for 29 made in 172minutes and when Srinath had Lance Klusener caught at second slip for 9, SouthAfrica were 230 for five.
Gibbs, however, was still there at the close after batting for 363 minutesduring which time he his 21 fours and a six lifted effortlessly over square legoff Harbhajan. He has played quite magnificently and the fact that there isstill some South African batting to come means that India have still some workto do on the second day.
And at least some of that will be to get rid off Gibbs.
"On a wicket like that you can either approach it in a negative or apositive fashion," he said afterwards. "And I decided to playpositively. There wasn't a lot of pace or steep bounce in it and not as muchsideways movement as we'd expected. There also wasn't much for the spinners onthe first day. It will probably get a bit harder tomorrow and the ball shouldcome on a bit more.
"But the way I've been playing for the past year or so, I'd like to keepplaying like that whatever wicket we're playing on," he said.
