South Africa gains day's honours India in dire straits From R. Mohan ball was swinging around and that meant trouble. cise this morning instead of giving a pinch hitter like Stunning catch: The debutant was a victim Pringle a chance to put away a few big hits DURBAN, Nov. 14 of a ball that lifted from length, McMillan taking a The major success of the opening day had been took a giant step forward into the elec- stunning head-high catch at second just as that of the seamers despite Prabhakar disappointing tronic age when the third and his ready Cook from third was just about severing his line of a bit. To claim the new ball soon this morning was reckoner, the television replay, were brought into vision. Manjrekar shaped hesitantly at the the best indicated route and postponing it by a few play to rule Indian inswingers of which a deep one from McMillan overs proved quite expensive Pringle's clean hits was, however, seen stepping back to an atavistic struck him on the crease, well in front. off Shastri which sent the ball racing to and beyond state in which a strokeless occupation of the crease The third umpire, Liebenberg today, was asked to the fence was like shock treatment for the Indians. became the overwhelming priority, with relief swing into action when Mitchley could not decide if Timing a sweep so sweetly as to send it over the coming only in the braver methods employed by Tendulkar was in or not, after he had pushed to short boundary for six and then pulling another with Praveen Amre and Azharuddin in their stand of 87, Rhodes's left at cover point and set off for a run a fuller hit over wide mid- had followed a loft the biggest of the match thus far against the game's most famous contemporary fiel- i(ito the straight field for four It is in such unfortu- South Africa was being granted the ascendency der His throw was not as his more famous prede- nate lack of sense of timing that has ruined India in as the batsmen played right into the bowlers' hands cessor Colin Eland's would have been Hudson many a good or promising position. It was a day for subtlety rather than rude pace, a moved from short leg to collect and break the The new ball was to change the complexion of day of overcast conditions more than sun, a grim wicket. the innings so positively revived by the well built day on which batsmen were incapable of getting The 'green', coming on in less than 20 seconds, Pringle. The team's strike bowler cleverly brought out of the shade even if the bowlers were not exact- signalled that the batsman was not 'in' and had to one back to trap Pringle in front, there being a hint ly shining Not until the tactics were switched to a go What a lot of post-event controversy has been of doubt in Bucknor's decision only to the extent more natural method of play, that offered scope to avoided since the replay would anyway have con- that the ball hit the roll of the pad as it was climbing flair, did a reconstruction of the innings from the demned the umpire's judgment had he given the A couple of banana inswingers from Prabhakar depths of 38 for four take place. benefit of doubt to the batsman1 were sufficient to end the resistance What lit up an There was no escape from the monotony certain There was some progress for India soon after overcast day was the simple Simon attitude of to be created by acquiescent batting against pace Shastri's fall which he himself brought about by Schultz. He faced eight balls and shaped to play A surrender was averted by the light Amre (66 playing across the line of one that shook a bit in- each of them with a stylish forward defence He was mins. 100 balls, 3x4) was to throw on those who wards in the air and went through on pitching. The beaten every time and he burst into laughter at his suspected his class to be batting at Test level change of attitude was an important causative fac- own predicament It seemed the Indian bowlers were in some sort of "hit the bat" contest A measure of their form of attack was the amount they swung the ball and hitting the pad on the right occa- sion was enough for the bowlers to claim all three batsmen leg before and finish off the South African innings Credit goes to pacers: The breakdown of the with six going to the seamers and two each to the spinners may represent an even percentage among five bowlers but the merit of the had lain in the pacers who did so much with the ball. Spin was only an adjunct, even if an important one in that Kumble had helped get rid of Wessels when the home team innings was in full flow and Shastri came on to claim his 150th wicket in his 78th Test when McMillan was caught This places Shastri only below the four spinners of the famed quartet — Bedi 266 at 28.71, Chandra- sekhar 242 at 29 74, Prasanna 189 at 3038 and Ven- katraghavan 156 at 3661 — though he has taken his wickets at an average of cost of 40 and at a strike rate of under two per Test that is not impres- sive And yet his success proves his utility value to the team was personally means something to him at a time when he is struggling to retain his allrounder status after switching to opening the innings on a regular basis

SCOREBOARD Ajay Jadeja edges Schultz for a head-high catch to McMillan (right) at second slip on the SOUTH AFRICA — 1st innings: second day of the first India-South Africa Test in Durban on Saturday. The other fielder (third J. Cook c Tendulkar b 0 slip) is Jimmy Cook. A. Hudson b Kapil Dev 14 K. Wessels c Azharuddin b Kumble 118 against four pace bowlers The skipper Azharuddin tor for a change in the complexion of the contest P. Kirsten c More b Srinath 13 gave himself the chance to blossom by sticking it India's gamble pays off: The extra batsman India J. Rhodes c Azharuddin b Kumble 41 out grittily rather than trying to hit the bowling from employed proved more than good value. Amre was. B. McMillan c Prabhakar b Shastri 3 perhaps the first to get well on to the front foot as D. Richardson Ibw b Prabhakar 15 the very start as he did on the tour of Australia be- O. Henry c Tendulkar b Shastri 3 fore his instinct for self-destruction brought ruin He he did to drive Schultz through mid-off. He revealed M. Pringle Ibw b Kapil Dev 33 did have some luck as ambition often overtook fine judgment in letting the ball go, was positive in A. Donald Ibw b Prabhakar 1 practical considerations in strokeplay He was then looking for the singles to put the pressure on the B. Schultz (not out) 0 to throw it away in another form of suicide, a run fielders and was at home in coming well forward to Extras Ob 6, nb 7) 13 out that was brilliantly achieved by a direct hit from handle the fast medium bowlers. Donald at mid-on It was fascinating to see a player on debut set an Total 254 Stand of some substance: The fifth wicket stand example to his senior and . Azhar would lash had brought some relief from the hold established out at the odd ball and curse himself for the folly. Fall of wickets: 1-0. 2-41, 3-101, 4-183, 5-194, 6-206, 7-215,8-251,9-253. by the rotation of the bowling from the direct thrust When on 29 of 113, he was even let off when of pace as in and Brett Schultz to the topedging an intended square-cut towards mid-off INDIA BOWLING swing, rhythm and subtlety of Brian McMillan and to where Kirsten ran from cover only to juggle and O M R W spill the catch. This would have been a simple lob Kapil Dev 22 6 43 3 Meyrick Pringle Putting brain over brawn, this pair Prabhakar 24.4 7 47 2 seduced the batting into a state of absolute passiv-, to Cook at mid-off He was the second major bats- Srinath 18 3 69 1 ity. The day was to prove a triumph for swing bowl- man to contribute to his own run out and since Kumble 28 8 51 2 ing which more often drew mistakes out of the bats- Kapil Dev flashed at one beyond off stump, a ball Shastri 11 1 38 2 later, the advantage lay squarely with South Africa men. Shock tactics such as bowling aimed at the INDIA —1st innings: batsmen rather than the stumps and intimidatory as bad light chopped play into the last hour. This advantage had been the home team's this morning R. Shastri Ibw b Pringle 14 stares down the length of the pitch failed A. Jadeja c McMillan b Schultz 3 Staying put at the crease, as attempted by itself at Kingsmead as India refused to place faith in S. Manjrekar Ibw McMillan 0 openers Jadeja, who had two scoring shots off 27 its pace bowlers straightway. S. Tendulkar run out It bails, and Shastri, who had seven off 80 balls includ- To take the second new ball when due or not to M. Azharuddin run out 36 ing one period of 53 balls off which he failed to claim it until a wicket is needed desperately has P. Amre not out 39 score, became the pattern. With the opening bow- been a dilemma for any Indian cricket team. The Kapil Dev c Richardson b McMillan 2 M. Prabhakar not out 0 lers spraying the ball, particularly evident in Donald background of the bowling performance in Australia 23 who was struggling to find his rhythm and line, there should, however, have pointed to a more positive Extras (b 1,lb8, nb 14, w 2) was less of a need to play but bowlers just love it line of thinking The new ball was not asked for Total (for 6 wkts.) 128 when those who face them are devoid of ambition even after Pringle slammed 16 runs in an over The gains of attacking play as the better form of Shastri claims 150th wicket Now Shastri has Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-22, 3-38, 4-38, 5-125, 6-127. defence had been displayed well enough by Pringle done a fine job on this tour as a bowler though he SOUTH AFRICA BOWLING who made a bright 33 to give South Africa the un- has been given only limited opportunity. He claimed O M R W expected bonus of a total of 254. He may have his 150th Test wicket yesterday when it was simple Donald 12 2 32 0 to say after his success that he had been brought Schultz 12 6 19 1 been helped by Indian reluctance to use the new 15.2 6 29 2 ball as a weapon. The first three Indian batsmen on too late into the attack While that may be true McMillan Pringle 15 2 41 1 played for a while but made little of it. Suddenly, the to a great extent There was a need to be more pre-