South Africa finished the first test against India strongly finishing the day at 331 for 5.Mckenzie and Amla played quite brilliantly .Neil McKenzie finished unbeaten on 155. India needed quick wickets if it was to force a result but some sloppy fielding in the morning session ensured that possibility did not materialise.
Hashim Amla, who went on to make 81, was twice dropped before lunch, once by Sreesanth and once by RP Singh. Those slips, combined with McKenzie's determination to occupy the crease, set the tone for the day. Amla's luck finally ran out shortly before the first interval when he edged an Anil Kumble delivery to Rahul Dravid at first slip.
McKenzie reached his fourth Test ton in an afternoon session which also saw two South Africa wickets fall. The first was that of Jacques Kallis, who made 19 before departing to a wonderful catch by RP Singh at square leg off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan claimed his third wicket of the innings two overs later, Ashwell Prince (five) lunging forward only to see the ball clip the glove on its way to Wasim Jaffer at short leg. AB de Villiers departed in similar fashion after tea, Virender Sehwag the bowler this time and Sourav Ganguly the fielder close to the bat. But they proved to be rare moments of success for the Indian attack as the final day panned out in a similar fashion to the previous four with the batsmen in charge. It was a match which featured a number of notable innings - Sehwag hitting the fastest triple century in Test history, Dravid reaching 10,000 runs in Test cricket and Amla and McKenzie both hitting sizeable centuries.
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