South Africa top order starts series on a high

South Africa had their plans well in place and the Indian bowling began to feel the heat, literally and figuratively, as the visiting batsmen largely cut out all extravagant shots and waited for the bad ball, which came at disturbing frequency. Smith however, would not be happy with the way he departed, failing to reach the pitch of an Anil Kumble delivery, as VVS Laxman pulled off a fine catch at short mid-on.

Smith had done all the hard work, having reached his half-century shortly before lunch as the South Africans went into the break at 109 for no loss. But having done all that, and with little seemingly going the Indian bowlers’ way, he would certainly have been expecting to get a big score.

Earlier, Kumble had to bring himself on much earlier that he would have liked, coming in to bowl the 11th over with 43 runs on the board for no loss. Harbhajan Singh followed soon after, but neither bowler found the ball suitable enough to generate too many revolutions or too much spin.

All efforts to dislodge the two proved futile as McKenzie began getting his act together, reaching his half-century with an off-driven four off RP Singh, 11 boundaries punctuating his effort at that stage off 73 balls.

The Indians had very little to offer in terms of resistance, let alone any breakthroughs, as both batsmen made merry. The 100 of the innings came up in the 24th over as Smith played possibly the best shot of the morning, a straight driven boundary off Harbhajan. The South African went back into the pavilion a happy man, having got to his 50 with in the last over before lunch, coming off 71 balls with eight boundaries.

The teams:

India: Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble (capt), Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, S Sreesanth.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Neil McKenzie, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher (wk), Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Makhaya Ntini.