India beat South Africa in first Test
Posted on Dec 18, 2006 at 13:45 | Updated Dec 18, 2006 at 18:16
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Tags: cricket, india, south africa
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New Delhi: The wait is finally over.
Team India have registered their first Test win against South Africa in South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Monday.
Needing 402 to win, South Africa were bundled out for 278 runs despite a defiant 97 by Ashwell Prince in the first match of the three-Test series to give India victory by 123 runs and a 1-0 lead in the series.
The win was the result of a good showing by Indian bowlers led by the young Kerala pacer Shantakumaran Sreesanth and the old guards Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman both of whom excelled with the bat.
On top of it was the aggressive captaincy of Rahul Dravid who never let the South Africans to comeback into the match after the hosts had been bundled out for just 84 runs – their lowest against India in a Test – in the first innings.
Dravid, though not successful with the bat, kept up the pressure with an attacking field placement and changing his bowlers to keep the South African batters on their toes to register one of India’s most famous overseas win.
When the fourth day’s play began South Africa faced a mountain to climb to save the match with overnight not out pair of Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher taking guard in the middle.
But it was not long before the Indian pacers made the breakthrough.
Boucher failed to add to his score of 23 and was sent back into the pavilion trapped lbw by Zaheer Khan in the third over of the day.
Shaun Pollock who replaced Boucher in the middle showed that he was not going down without a fight and belted Zaheer for two fours in the same over in which Boucher got out.
In the next over of Zaheer, Pollock smashed a six and a four and continued in the same vein hitting boundaries at will.
Seeing his pacers making not much of an impact on Pollock and the rock-solid Prince, skipper Rahul Dravid introduced leggie Anil Kumble.
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