South Africa completes sweep with an innings and 71 runs

Bangalore, March 6: If India walked into the South African trap with eyes wide open, they had only their woefully poor planning to blame.T...

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Bangalore, March 6: If India walked into the South African trap with eyes wide open, they had only their woefully poor planning to blame.

The level of planning and foresight of either team was brought to the fore at the post-match press conference. The South African captain Hansie Cronje spelt out how they had planned the ambush: “The key to winning in India is to throttle their batsmen. Once they are restricted to a low score, our batsmen had to just occupy the crease; defend totally and wear out the bowlers. Other pressures would take over and squeeze them out.”

Cronje probably took a leaf out of Tony Grieg’s England team which followed the same tactics and won handsomely in 1976. But the Indians apparently learnt nothing then, or now.

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Sachin Tendulkar and coach Kapil Dev’s postmortem was as enlightening as their team’s cricket: “We did not bat well enough. We did not combine as a team. Luck did not run our way. Things did not work out.”

Indeed, so ineffective was the Indian batting that barring Mohammed Azharuddin, who whetted his appetite with a century, and Anil Kumble, who once again showed what determination and doggedness could achieve, the rest packed up without a semblance of a fight.

Even Azharuddin, after he reached his personal milestone, failed to carry on and fell into a trap. He hooked down the throat of the deep square-leg fielder to end the 96-run sixth wicket partnership with Kumble.

This morning, Azharuddin needed just 18 deliveries to get the 27 runs required to reach his century. He carted left-arm spinner Nicky Boje for a six and two fours in one over to hasten towards his century. His 22nd century, in his 99th Test, kept India in the match till the fifth day.

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But he fell soon after reaching his century and India’s defeat came rushing. Kumble, after batting well, padded up to Boje and was trapped leg before while Nikhil Chopra and Murali Karthik batted like the tailenders they are. An indisposed Nayan Mongia did not come in to bat and India succumbed by an innings and 71 runs. It was the fifth successive Test defeat for Sachin Tendulkar as captain.

Left-arm spinner Boje, who later said he proved in this match that he ought to have been selected from the beginning itself (he was included after first choice Paul Adams withdrew from the tour owing to injury), bagged five wickets in the second essay (match haul seven). This and his fine batting as nightwatchman (85) were enough to give him the Man of the Match award.

Jacques Kallis was named Man of the Series. The only sore point during the presentation ceremony was when a bunch of over-enthusiastic children kept screaming “Kallis, who the is Kallis” much to the same tune of a song that goes “Alice, who the is Alice.”

India, who lost this Test by an innings and 71 runs and the series (0-2), will regroup under new skipper Saurav Ganguly for the five-match series of One-dayers.

SCOREBOARD

India (1st innings) 158
India (2nd innings, overnight 196-5)

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W Jaffer c Kallis b Boje 23 (96m, 73b, 5×4)
S Ganguly lbw Boje 13 (62m, 50b, 3×4)
S Tendulkar c Gibbs b Donald 20 (76m, 53b, 2×4)
M Azharuddin c Kirsten b Pollock 102 (227m, 170b, 13×4, 2×6)
M Kaif lbw Kallis 23 (82m, 68b, 2×4)
A Kumble lbw Boje 28 (122m, 104b, 4×4)
N Chopra c Boucher b Donald 3 (25m, 18b)
M Karthik c Gibbs b Boje 2 (3m 5b)
J Srinath not out 1 (11m, 8b)
N Mongia (absent, did not bat)
Extras (8b, 5lb, 4nb) 17
Total (all out in 394 minutes, 101 overs) 250
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Dravid), 2-48 (Jaffer), 3-71 (Ganguly), 4-95 (Tendulkar), 5-144 (Kaif), 6-240 (Azhar), 7-244 (Kumble), 8-246 (Chopra), 9-250 (Karthik)

Bowling: Donald 14-5-56-2, Pollock 24-14-40-1, Hayward 16-4-31-0, Boje 38-14-83-5, Cronje 3-0-17-0, Kallis 6-3-10-1