India’s first innings lasted just 20 overs. The hosts, after winning the toss and batting, on a lively pitch, dished out a diabolical performance and were bowled out for 76. The intensity of the South African seamers, led by Dale Steyn 8-2-23-5, who was suffering from flu till Wednesday evening, Makhaya Ntini 6-1-18-3 and Morne Morkel 6-1-20-2, made a mockery of the Indian batsmen and their reputations. India were dismissed 10 minutes before lunch. It was India’s second lowest total at home, narrowly beating the 75 they aggregated against West Indies in 1987 at New Delhi’s Feroze Shah Kotla. That too was thanks to Irfan Pathan’s spunky unbeaten 21. Pathan’s 39-minute, 17-ball effort showed that there were more devils in the minds of the Indian batsmen, than the pitch. The manner in which the South African openers Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith played to take South Africa past India’s score in the 16th over itself along with Jacques Kallis (60 not out) and Ab de Villiers (59), who added an unbeaten 106 for the fifth wicket, reinforced the view. Apart from Harbhajan Singh, who struck once between lunch and tea and twice after tea in a threatening 12-over spell, to dislodge McKenzie, Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince, the Indian bowling was inspid. It allowed South Africa to recover from a wobbly 117-4 to a secure 223-4 at stumps on Day 1. It gives the visitors a lead of 147 runs with six wickets in hand. Earlier, the positive decision that Anil Kumble took by electing to bat and opting to play five bowlers (the last time India did that at home was against England at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, March 2006), deserved better results. But the ‘best batting line-up’ in the world, contrived to embarrass their captain and the nation. It took the South Africans only 21 balls and 17 minutes to start India’s slide. After a couple of wayward overs, Ntini reaped the rewards of pitching the ball up and getting Wasim Jaffer edge to Graeme Smith at first slip. Sehwag, who supposedly has a ‘chink’ in his armour against the short ball has a bigger ‘chink’ against the three quarter length delivery. Shaun Pollock, Glenn McGrath and Mohd Asif have all succeeded bowling that length to him and getting him bowled off the inside edge. Steyn hit that length and did the same. When Laxman joined Dravid, India had two men who love batting together, at the wicket. But they didn’t last long. Ntini had started hitting the right length and troubled Laxman with full length deliveries seaming away. Laxman, who was playing and missing at those deliveries, left one in the next over that darted in from outside off stump and hit it. At 3 for 30, Ganguly walked in to a crisis. That metamorphosed into a catastrophe two balls later when he played onto Ntini. The quickie had taken three wickets in the span of 12 balls. Dravid and Dhoni took the score past 50. That’s when Smith replaced Ntini after a dream spell of 6-1-18-3, with Steyn. The bowler responded by castling Dravid with the ball of the series, a full length delivery that pitched on middle stump and hit off. Morkel got rid of Dhoni and Kumble off the same over and Harbhajan played all across a full swinging delivery from Steyn to be lbw. At 55 for 8, India looked in danger of beating their record for the lowest score against South Africa (66 in Durban in 1996). But Pathan helped India avoid that embarrassment. A 100 looked in sight as RP Singh seemed determined to hang on and support Pathan. But Steyn’s mop up job denied India that luxury.
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