Gambhir and Tendulkar lead India fightback in third Test against South Africa

Gambhir and Tendulkar lead India fightback in third Test against South Africa |Gambhir and Tendulkar lead India fightback in third Test against South Africa

India restored the balance in the series deciding third and final cricket Test with a spirited batting response after South Africa relied on Jacques Kallis' brilliant 161 to post 362 in their first innings here today.

The experienced Kallis notched up his 39th Test ton and teamed up with tailenders to guide South Africa beyond the 350-run mark after they were down 283 for eight at one stage.

The day clearly belonged to Kallis who defied a rib injury to score his second ton of the series and join Australia captain Ricky Ponting as the second highest century-getter in Test cricket.

Temperamental pacer S Sreesanth was the chief wrecker for India scalping five South African wickets for 114 runs while Zaheer Khan gave him able company with figures of three for 89.

In reply, Gautam Gambhir (65) and Sachin Tendulkar (49) put India on course with a fitting reply as the visitors reached 142 for two at close on the second day of the match at the Newlands track which appeared to have eased out considerably.

After bundling out South Africa, the Indians were in for early trouble as they lost Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid inside the first 30 runs.

But Gambhir and Tendulkar held fort and rebuilded the Indian innings with an unbeaten 114-run third wicket stand to end the day trailing South Africa by 220 runs with eight wickets still in hand.

Luck also favoured India and Gambhir in the day as the left-hander was let off twice in the slip cordon.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 232 for four, the South Africans relied on the brilliance of Kallis and a stout resistance from the last two batsmen to post a competitive total on board.

Sreesanth bowled a hostile spell of seam bowling to turn things in India's favour to some extent with the second new ball but the Indians could not polish off the tail as quickly as they would have liked.

Sreesanth scalped Ashwell Prince (47) and Mark Boucher (0) off successive balls to raise Indian hopes of bringing an early end to the South African innings.

The drama started in the 84th over bowled by Sreesanth. By that time, Kallis and Prince had added 98 runs for the fifth wicket. Sreesanth's delivery pitched on the seam just outside off-stump and then shaped in to breach through left-handed Prince's defence.

The very next delivery to Boucher moved a shade away at the last moment as the wicketkeeper-batsman edged it to Dhoni behind the stumps.

Kallis averted the hat-trick as Sreesanth bowled a no-ball. One of the greatest among South African batsmen, Kallis reached 99 with consecutive boundaries from Sreesanth.

He then reached his 39th century with a tuck to the square leg region for a single. Kallis, who scored his seventh ton at Newlands is now equal in terms of the number of centuries with Ponting.

Sreesanth, on the otherhand, completed his third five-wicket haul in Test cricket by getting Morne Morkel to edge one to Dhoni.

Zaheer then removed Dale Steyn with a well disguised short ball that lobbed off his gloves to Cheteshwar Pujara at gully.

Kallis got an able ally in Paul Harris (7) as they thwarted Indian bowlers' bid to polish off the tail. The dogged duo put in 27 runs before Ishant came round the wicket to cramp Harris for room as his desperate fend flew off to Pujara at leg gully.

Kallis, who is slowly reaching another milestone of 12,000 runs in Test cricket, showed a lot of character despite pain in his rib-cage as he he added valuable runs first with Harris and then with Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

The last wicket pair of Kallis and Tsotsobe frustrated the Indians by not only hanging around for too long but piling up runs to put the visitors on the backfoot.

Kallis worked with the tailenders superbly to steer his team to a competitive total as Dhoni kept rotating his bowlers to break the last wicket stand.

It was the experienced Zaheer who finally brought an end to the agony by breaking the last wicket partnership which yielded 52 vital runs for the hosts.

Zaheer evicted Kallis with a ball which moved away from the off-stump and the batsman tried to cut it but only succeeded in edging the ball to keeper Dhoni. Kallis' knock of 161 came off 291 balls and contained 19 boundaries.

The last two wickets added 79 runs for South Africa which gave them a slight upper hand in the contest.

Sreesanth was the pick of the India bowlers while Zaheer (3/89) and Ishant Sharma (2/77) too gave him good company.

India started positively with the dashing Sehwag hitting Morne Morkel for two boundaries in the second over.

But Sehwag's aggression was shortlived as he again fell early, giving the South Africans the much-needed breakthrough.

After smacking Dale Steyn for a boundary in the previous delivery, lack of feet movement again did Sehwag in as he went for a half-hearted drive in the next only to find Smith in mid-off, who dived forward to take the catch inches from the ground.

Dravid, who joined the action after Sehwag's dismissal, tried to play cautiously against the South Africans speedsters to ensure that there were no further setbacks, but that was only for a while.

Ironically, it was a dropped chance off Gambhir which led to Dravid being run out to leave India at a precarious 28 for two.

Gambhir tried to punch a Tsotsobe delivery off the back foot, got a thick outside edge but was dropped at gully. A B de Villiers, who was fielding at slips, ran for the ball and dislodged the stumps at the striker's end with a direct hit to run out Dravid, who was attempting to take a single.

Both Dravid and Gambhir never looked comfortable in taking the singles and finally a misunderstanding brought an end to their brief association.

Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar then tried to rebuild the Indian innings by not taking any undue risks. Although both the batsmen faced a few anxious moments with edges through the slips early in their innings, they gradually settled down to unleash a few delightful strokes.

Tendulkar was a trifle lucky to survive a confident lbw appeal off spinner Paul Harris. The champion batsman responded by spanking the bowler to the extra cover boundary two balls later.

Both the batsmen mixed caution with aggression to resurrect the Indian innings after the visitors were in for early trouble.

After being let off early in the innings, Gambhir grew in confidence with every passing delivery and notched up his 15th half century with a four of Tsotsobe in the 27th over.

During the fag end of the day, Gambhir got another reprieve when he was dropped by AB de Villers in the second slip off Tsotsobe.

Gambhir went after a Tsotsobe's good-length delivery outside off stump and got a thick edge which flew fast to De Villiers who failed to latch on to the chance in the second slip.

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