Saturday, March 29, 2008

Day 4 belongs to Proteas!


Day 4 started with all eyes on Sehwag. Sehwag started patiently knocking off just ones and twos. Dravid was cautious at the other end as usual. Sehwag added 10 runs to his overnight score before he was caught by McKenzie of the bowling of Ntini. After a standing ovation for his innings there was even a bigger roar as the little maestro walked into his favourite soil. Before the roar could even stop the crowd saw the back of Sachin walking back for a rare duck at Chennai. Ntini was in the midst of a great spell. Dravid and Ganguly then steadied the ship. They piled on useful runs. Ganguly then got a shocker from the pitch, the ball took off from nowhere and he was well caught behind the stumps. Dravid was now joined by Laxman, the famous pair. Dravid then went on to make his 10,000 runs in Test Cricket. He joined the elite panel and was the third Indian after Gavaskar and Tendulkar to do so. At luch India were 547 for 4 just 7 runs ahead of South Africa.
The post lunch session saw Dravid completing his 25th Century. Soon he fell and the batting collapse started. Steyn and Harris cleaned up the tail as the Indians were bowled out for 627 with a lead of 87. It was the turn of Proteas to bat after tea. As in the first innings the openers started confidently. Both Smith and McKenzie played attacking cricket. They reached 50 in no time. Bhajji got Smith for 35 when Amla joined McKenzie at the crease. McKenzie went on to score his fifty. Both kept on piling up the runs. At stumps South Africa was 131 for 1 with McKenzie and Amla at the crease.
The match is heading towards a draw. The only relief for the cricket fans is that many records were broken and set at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

No comments: