SA got a fantastic start on Day 1 at chennai

A brown, barren pitch, a green, quick outfield and a really bright, hot day greeted the Indian and South African teams when they took the field for the opening Test. This combination of the pitch and weather allowed a confident batting side help themselves to runs against a hapless set of bowlers. The Indian bowlers didn’t exactly restrict the South Africans but it certainly served to keep the visitors from running away with the honours on day one at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Wednesday. The visitors ended the extended day’s play on 304 for four, no doubt in a position to call the shots on day two but not exactly in the driver’s seat as yet even if Hashim Amla (85 batting) might think otherwise. It could have been far worse after the South Africans had got off to a fantastic start once South African skipper Graeme Smith called it right at the toss and gleefully conveyed his decision to bat. A 132-run opening stand by the same pair that had in the very recent past erased a five-decade old Indian record, would have put the scare into the Indian camp about things to come. That’s when the Indian spin twins, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, got into the act. They first got rid of the two openers Smith (73) and Neil McKenzie (94) before accounting for the dangerous Jacques Kallis (13) and Ashwell Prince (23). Fighting against the unresponsiveness of the pitch and the aggression of the South African openers was not an easy task. The nature of the pitch also meant that there was less margin for error for the bowlers and so it was never going to be easy to restrict the scoring rate. Then again, being day one, the bowlers couldn’t exactly adapt a defensive approach. Initially the cost was high, McKenzie took the Indian seamers RP Singh and Sree Santh on with some exquisite drives in front of the wicket. Sreesanth did send down some beauties, managing to beat the bat on more than one occasion but that was until the ball was new. With no lateral movement available for love or money, the batsmen were always going to take over soon enough and so it proved with Smith too joining in. McKenzie was always expected to handle the fast men well but it was his handling of the spinners that was a revelation. There seemed no chinks to exploit during his 230-minute vigil and it took all of Harbhajan’s guile to get him out just six short of his century.