 South Africa in command at Motera
3rd Apr 2008 20:02 IST
Agencies
From 16/0 loss in the fourth over, the Indian score slumped to 30/4 by the eighth. It was left to former captain Rahul Dravid and Dhoni to pull the team out of the woods with a stand of 23, the highest in the innings.
The Indian 'keeper took over the attacking reins with Dravid stone-walling at the other end before the latter was castled by Steyn with the first ball of his second spell.
In the alarming situation, Dhoni played a poor shot to get out. He tried to cut wildly and was caught behind off Morne Morkel, who then dismissed Kumble for a duck two balls later to leave the home team at a sorry-looking 55/7.
Steyn then snapped up the tail by scalping Harbhajan (1), Rudra Pratap Singh (0) and S Sreesanth (0) to terminate the innings eleven minutes before the lunch break.
In contrast, the visiting team's openers, captain Graeme Smith (34) and Neil McKenzie (42) by themselves overhauled the meagre Indian total before tea by putting on 78 runs at better than five-an-over, indicating further there was nothing wrong with the track.
The left-handed Smith was trapped leg before by Sreesanth in the first over of his second spell with half an hour to go for tea. When on three, Smith was let off at short leg by Ganguly off Sreesanth.
McKenzie departed on the stroke of tea, which was taken at 100 for two, by edging Harbhajan to Dravid in the lone slip.
The off-spinner struck twice in the post-tea session to send back Hashim Amla (60), also a centurion at Chennai, and Ashwell Prince (0) cheaply.
But Harbhajan, who had taken three wickets on either side of tea in 20 balls for 11 runs, and the rest of the Indian attack were then thwarted by Kallis, an accomplished player in the sub-continent, and the fleet-footed de Villiers who put on a century, unfinished stand to help their team consolidate their strong position.
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