Placid India fail to hold edge over South Africa

Chennai: When time is of the essence, things need to be done quickly. For a side that recovered so well from a 540-run deficit, India should have really pressed the advantage given to them by Virender Sehwag. But that was not to be.

The South Africans, under no real pressure, finished the fourth day of the first Test at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here at 131 for one in reply to India’s 627. Neil McKenzie was unbeaten on 59 while Hashim Amla was on 35.

Rahul Dravid got a hundred, and more. He also became the sixth in cricket history and the third Indian to cross 10,000 runs. But while that looks great for the records, his progress on Saturday couldn’t really be termed as being in tune with the team ambition, or at least, what team ambition should have been.

Sehwag wasn’t as fluent on Saturday morning as he was on Friday, but at least some of it had to do with Dravid hogging the strike, without actually rattling the scoreboard. One look at some figures could put this in perspective – Sehwag reached 300 off 278 balls, while Dravid reached a third of that in 272 balls. The only way to get the South Africans under pressure was to score quickly, once Sehwag had departed, it should have fallen on Dravid to get things going.