Sitting Ducks

Kerala seamer S Sreesanth produced yet another lively spell of fast bowlingto expose the chinks in the South African batting and bowl India to the brink ofa rare overseas win in the first Test today.

Set a daunting fourth innings target of 402, South Africa were looking downthe barrel at 163 for 5 at close on the third day at the Wanderers.

The hosts were down to their last recognized pair of Ashwell Prince (54 n.o.)and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher (23 n.o.) with another 239 runs needed forvictory.

With two full days play remaining, a result is assured.

Should India manage to win tomorrow, or the last day on Tuesday, it would beonly their first ever in South Africa and 27th on foreign soil from 194 matches,a staggering low percentage of 13.47 of win abroad.

Sreesanth, as in the first innings, was the hero again, capturing 3-47wickets from 17 lion-hearted overs, bowling consistently over 140 kmph even atthe fag end of the day.

After Zaheer Khan gave the opening breakthrough, having Herschelle Gibbscaught for nought in the first over of the innings, Sreesanth got into the actand picked up the next three wickets of Graeme Smith (10), Hashim Amla (17) andJacques Kallis (27).

AB de Villiers was then run when he went for a non-existent run to plungeSouth Africa into crisis.

Earlier, VVS Laxman (73) shepherded the lower order to enable India post 236in the second essay.

Laxman featured in an impregnable stand with Zaheer Khan (37) of 70 runs fromnearly two hours, helping the Indians take an overall lead of 401 runs.

The visitors, resuming at overnight score of 146 for 5, lost the wickets ofMahendra Singh Dhoni (18) and Anil Kumble (1) early but then capitalised on anunimpressive bowling performance.

The hosts, with the exception of Shaun Pollock, rarely bowled on to thestumps as the Indians grafted their way to 90 runs in the morning session.

Zaheer was the surprise packet as he presented a straight bat andconcentrated hard in allowing Laxman to prosper.

Smith, in desperation, brought himself on to the attack and Zaheer replied byfirst smashing him for a six over widish mid-wicket and later cutting him forfour.

In the four balls possible before lunch break, South Africa lost Gibbs whoedged a catch to Sachin Tendulkar in the slips off Zaheer for nought.

The afternoon successes were reserved for the first innings bowling heroSreesanth who first fooled Smith into chasing a widish delivery and then hadAmla in more conventional manner behind the stumps.

Smith (10) played an atrocious shot for a beleaguered captain by slashing ata wide delivery and Virender Sehwag at point took a good catch diving to hisright.

Amla (17) then played at an away delivery from his stationery position andedged a catch behind the stumps.

Kallis had difficulty in coming to terms with the difficult wicket asrepeatedly Indian medium-pacers got the ball to bounce from an awkward length.

Even Sourav Ganguly, turning his arm over for an over, hit Kallis on hischest with a delivery which jumped.

Prince was his usual stodgy self and played within his own limitations thoughhe too had his moments of discomfort against rising deliveries on his off-stump.

Kumble was brought on to bowl a few minutes before the break and would be thekey man for India when the ball has lost its shine and hardness.

Like so many silly dismissals, South Africa experienced one more outrageousloss when AB de Villiers (17) took off for a non-existent run and was ran out byZaheer at mid-on.

Prince, amidst this all, stood his ground and in between playing and missingdeliveries, struck some crisp shots down the ground.

A single off Sreesanth in the final half hour saw him chalk up his eighthTest fifty, made from 136 balls in 197 minutes with four fours.

Prince has so far batted for 218 minutes and hit five fours from 148 ballsfor his 54 runs. Boucher, his partner, has batted for 68 minutes and 33 ballsand hit three fours in his 23 runs. Their partnership is so far worth 43 runs.

PTI