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What else, but the inevitable!

Nandita Sridhar

McKenzie further his cause good with an unbeaten century

— Photo: K. Pichumani

EFFICIENT BATTING: The South Africans led by Neil McKenzie, seen sweeping Harbhajan Singh here, effectively shut out any chance that India had of forcing a result with a solid batting performance.

Chennai: A day of uninspiring Test cricket was put to rest an hour after tea. The Chennai Test will remain in memory solely for Virender Sehwag, who was the Man-of-the-Match for his 319. The South African batting lived up to what one feared on the final day. It was efficient, disciplined, but under-whelming.

Save for the odd patches of excellence by Harbhajan Singh, the Indian bowling shared the discredit. Having made 331 for the loss of five wickets, South Africa declared at 3.28 p.m. on Sunday, after which both teams agreed to call it off.

Neil McKenzie did his and solely his cause some good with an unbeaten 155, while contributing towards a meaningless pile of runs.

McKenzie stuck to the requirements of batting on such a track on such a day against such a bowling attack. He was motivated, disciplined, and revelled in the drudgery.

Adept footwork

The fast bowlers were made to pay for their follies with boundaries, while the spinners were sorted out by adept footwork. The South African gameplan was to score till the Test was forced to end its own course.

McKenzie, on a comeback trail, would take any offering. Save for the chance he offered R.P. Singh off his bowling which the latter fluffed, the innings — taken purely in its context — was a commendable effort.

Hashim Amla was an able ally, following-up his first-innings century with 81 in the second.

The fielders struggled to remain motivated on a forgettable day. Amla offered a chance off Harbhajan when on 55, but Sreesanth’s wild rush towards the skier left him a step short, and unable to find the right balance for a successful catch.

It was just before lunch that India was rewarded. Kumble’s spell to Amla before lunch meant his dismissal was preordained. The captain bowled a probing line in the first session and settled into a mode of denial against Amla.

The drives dried up for the batsman. In the 57th over, Kumble pitched one on middle, and followed it up with a delivery that pitched on off, which Amla let pass to miss the stump by an inch. It was repeated on the last ball, leading Amla into mistrusting its ability to miss the stump. The shot he offered wasn’t substantial enough to cut out the risk. The edge was collected by Rahul Dravid at slips.

Solid presence

Jacques Kallis made his solid presence felt for 40 balls, with just one boundary.

The situation made no demands on his calibre, and he thought little of sweeping Harbhajan Singh and finding R.P. Singh in a redeeming dive to his left to complete an excellent catch.

With Kumble having left the field after lunch with a groin strain, and Sachin Tendulkar not taking the field the entire day, having aggravated his groin strain, V.V.S. Laxman’s introduction as a spinner had a newfound urgency to it.

There were roughs on the wicket, which needed to be exploited.

Laxman sent across harmless spinners with minimal trajectory. His appeals carried the optimistic earnestness of part-timers, but the umpires were unmoved.

Harbhajan struck soon, with the wicket of Ashwell Prince. Prince bats with the similar left-handed inelegance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, only without the awkward shuffle to lend it prominence.

His entry threatened to stretch the session past its state of inertia, into further drear, but Harbhajan had settled into a threatening rhythm.

The delivery that did nothing left Prince defending unconvincingly. The ball bounced off the glove into Wasim Jaffer’s hands at short-leg.

Sehwag takes a wicket

A.B. de Villiers gave Virender Sehwag his lone wicket in the second innings, when he leaned with similar indecisiveness to find Sourav Ganguly at short-leg.

The run-aggregate for the match was 1498, which does little justice to the previous Chepauk record of 1488, set during the India-Australia tied Test match in 1986-87. Not since the India-Pakistan match in 1987, when Pakistan batted for a similar mission has Chepauk witnessed something like this.

The teams head to Ahmedabad for the second Test scheduled to begin on April 3. The final Test at Kanpur will commence on April 11.

The cricket will need to exceed the standards set here, largely because the pitches aren’t expected to comply.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa — 1st innings: 540.

India — 1st innings: 627.

South Africa — 2nd innings: N. McKenzie (not out) 155, G. Smith lbw b Harbhajan Singh 35, H. Amla c R. Dravid b A. Kumble 81, J. Kallis c R.P. Singh b Harbhajan Singh 19, A. Prince c W. Jaffer b Harbhajan Singh 5, A.B. de Villiers c S. Ganguly b V. Sehwag 11, M. Boucher (not out) 11; Extras (b-8, lb-5, nb-1): 14; Total (for five wkts. decl. in 109 overs): 331.

Fall of wickets: 1-53 (Smith), 2-210 (Amla), 3-264 (Kallis), 4-272 (Prince), 5-306 (de Villiers).

India bowling: Sreesanth 12-0-42-0, R.P. Singh 9-1-43-0, Harbhajan Singh 34-1-101-3, Ganguly 2-1-1-0, Kumble 20-2-57-1, Sehwag 22-2-55-1, Laxman 10-2-19-0.

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