Hashim cracks 159 as SA post 540 on day 2 at chennai test

There’s a little bit of steel in everybody’s life claims an advertising line on display at the Chidambaram Stadium. But out in the middle of the ground, there was no life and only steel on a surface that was supposedly made of clay, sand and stone. Why even the tracks just outside the stadium, the ones made of real steel and on which local trains run, seemed to have more life. Having got first use of such a surface, it was no wonder that the South African batsmen simply continued from where they had let off on day one. Batsman after batsman came, saw and went to sleep on the lifeless strip laid out for the first Test between India and South Africa here. No amount of conch-blowing or drum beating by the more than modest crowd that had gathered on another hot day served to wake up the Indian bowlers either, most of whom were forced to go through the motions as the visitors recorded their highest total in this country. November 2004 in Kanpur was when the Proteas had made 510 in their first innings. On Thursday, they made 30 more, ending with 540 from a little over 11 hours of easy-paced batting. Setting of new marks is bound to happen under the circumstances that have prevailed here over the first two days. But what will worry the Indians is that their previous highest against the South Africans is just 466, also made in the same Kanpur Test. The strong 82-run start that openers Wasim Jaffer (25 batting) and Virender Sehwag (52 batting) got them off to and the fact that the pitch doesn’t look ready to break anytime soon, may just help alleviate some of the fears of chasing down such a huge total. The day’s play can perhaps be best summed up by the fact that while only one batsman, Hashim Amla (159) scored a ton, as many as four Indian bowlers conceded over 100. But the Indian bowling didn’t wilt as much halt, a mere 23 overs in the morning session and 27 in the next, showing that like the batsmen, the normally hard-hitting Mark Boucher (70 from 146 balls) included, the bowlers too weren’t in any hurry. Only one man was in a different mood, AB de Villiers, looking to push from the word go. Like on the first day, a little bit of sledging from Sree Santh brought about a break in concentration and off he went edging to ’ketkeeper MS Dhoni. The 66-run fifth wicket association gave way to a 99-run partnership between Amla and Boucher which strangely enough was broken by way of a runout on a day when the Indian outfielding went from bad to worse. The mistake though was made by Boucher who called Amla for a run only to later turn his back on him. Having batted for nearly seven hours, Amla, who struck seven of his ten fours today towards the offside, may have even been relieved.