Port Elizabeth Test, Day 3, Lunch
Sunday, November 18, 2001

India put up a commendable show in the morning session of this third day. And it was mainly thanks to Javagal Srinath, who looked relaxed and confident. He went about things the old-fashioned way, by putting the ball in the right place and forcing the batsmen to come more on to their front foot than the back. His length reminded me of the times he bowled to me in the nets when I was in the Indian team. He used to bowl in a very relaxed manner, making him the most difficult of all the bowlers to face.

The surface seems to be getting a bit rough, helping the seam to grip the soil and produce the kind of lateral movement we saw today. All the seam bowlers got lateral movement, which could also be down to the atmospheric conditions.

It was disappointing batting from Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs and Neil McKenzie - probably their defensive techniques got a bit exposed. The session also showed why Jacques Kallis is South Africa's best batsman. His organised defence was exemplary.

South Africa haven't played today like a team in the driver's seat. This approach of theirs simply defies logic.

Sourav Ganguly has to work on his problem of overstepping. It's something that we have seen for the past two years and I don't know how much effort has gone to rectify it. When you have a team under pressure it's counter-productive to have a replacement bowler easing that pressure by gifting the batsmen no-balls.

It was nice to see some vintage Sachin Tendulkar seam bowling after such a long time. He showed a bag full of tricks.

This is not the best of South African sides, and if the Indians can put up a strong show in the post-lunch session, then all is not lost. But they need to keep the victory target to 300 or less. As things stand, the balance is still tilted heavily in South Africa's favour.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan.

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