The pitch was like an a puma pouncing on a batsmen in Newlands with Dale Steyn using this advantage to get best figures of 4-31 in a pitch that was slobbering at the prospect of wickets. This contradicted to Michael Clarke though who he has used the gap and pace of the ball to nudge his way in one of his best Centuries in Test Cricket.
But it all started gloomy with an hour and 45 minutes worth of waiting in misery due to rain and then another 5 minutes due to a sight screen problem. This all counted valuable to South Africa who would've used this time bowling Australia out. There is a possibility that the rainy conditions at the start caused the pitch to be as it is.
The conditions were very hard to control for the batsmen and bowlers as they found it hard to control the extra bounce and even once struck a nasty blow to opener Shane Watson before bring dismissed for 3 with an thick edge going towards slip to Kallis as Steyn added on victim to his hit list. And then 9 balls later, all the openers went with Phillip Hughes being dismissed by an edge from a nippy bouncer of Vernon Philander who chose to join the party and demolition with figures of 3-54.
Shaun Marsh and Ricky Ponting tried to make a partnership but Ponting never found the rhythm and found himself one of the 8 victims of today with 8 from 25 balls despite hitting a sitter from Philander for 6. Marsh and centurion, Michael Clarke made a 103 runs partnership of the 4th wicket with clever and cunning shots towards extra-cover and mid-wicket regions as well as hitting boundaries gently towards the boundary ropes. South Africa soon found themselves in a spot of bother not making use of the bouncer and the liveliness of the pitch.
While fiery Clarke was gracefully hitting shots for boundaries the middle-order and tailenders thought to have a swing at the ball but no success as the Aussies slipped from 145-4 to 214-8 with Morkel receiving a relative comfortable catch from Ryan Harris to leave Michael Clarke, who has hit 17 fours so far, possibly the last man standing but how long will they be fighting for. Well, it's the Captain that controls the game...
India 209 (Sehwag 55, Dravid 54, Sammy 3-35) and 276 for 5 (Tendulkar 76, Laxman 58*, Sehwag 55) beatWest Indies 304 (Chanderpaul 118, Brathwaite 63, Ojha 6-72) and 180 (Chanderpaul 47, Sammy 42, Ashwin 6-47) by five wickets
With only 124 runs to nibble down for India, Sachin Tendulkar was playing his finest but couldn't in the 18th attempt to turn it to the double 100s. But he also beaten Rahul Dravid's Test runs in chasing for India.
Resuming at 152/2, West Indies needed a miracle to get the stubborn India batsmen dismissed but couldn't make with everything they thrown at them from swing to spin. But West Indies were optimistic at looking at the miracle when after 5 overs, Rahul Dravid was stunned by the pace Fidel Edwards bowled to him sending the stumps flying at 162-4.
VVS Laxman and Tendulkar were known as the perfect combo for Indian Test partenerships and they showed this with some flicking shots towards Fidel Edwards from both batsmen to send any hope of miracles being washed away. The bowlers didn't have any experience in defending low-totals in Test matches and only in ODIs and this inexperience cost them despite spin doing it for Tendulkar. Tendulkar before today needed to get 67 out of the 124 runs needed to get to the magic 100s which seemed like a world away but when Tendulkar was at 76 when India were at 233-4, it looked realistic before his spin weakness left him waiting for next week for magic milestone.
Laxman and along with the odd hits by Yuvraj Singh got India to the target in what was an interesting Test and although being compprehensively beaten West Indies, their strengths and weaknesses are at direct view in front of them in the scoreboard with both sides needing to improve with the 1st innings havoc playing a big roll into rooms of improvement. For the next Test in Mumbai, Sachin Tendulkar will be looking at getting the big milestone at his own home ground with a possible capacity crowds in the weekend with cheap tickets worth from 50 rupees.
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