South Africa v India
Wednesday, October 10, 2001

It was an interesting session, in which neither South Africa nor India did themselves much credit. India's batsmen promised much but delivered little, while the South African bowling wasn't too impressive. It's just that the Indian batsmen played into their hands. It wasn't the highest quality one-day cricket on view.

I am concerned watching Sachin Tendulkar bat. He looks below par. He took a few more risks than he usually does, but finished with 38 off 57 balls, which is very uncharacteristic. I would not put that down to lack of match practice. One wonders if he is really 100% fit.

One of the more heartening points was the use of the horizontal-bat shots by the Indians, especially the pull. Now that's a shot that Indian batsmen don't play often, but today everybody from No. 1 to No. 6 played it, and played it well. That augurs well for the tour ahead.

It looks a good batting pitch, with short boundaries on either side -- and as in the previous match, India don't look as if they've scored enough. This track offers a little more bounce than the one at Johannesburg, and that's one of the reasons why I don't think India got enough runs. It looks like a pitch the South Africans will relish batting on.

It would be interesting to see how Harbhajan Singh bowls, and how the South African batsmen shape up against him. I hope he does not bowl like Nicky Boje, who looked more like a left-arm seamer. Harbhajan should be told to go for wickets rather than containment.

On the controversial Ganguly decision, it didn't look as it the umpire instinctively felt there was anything wrong with the fairness of the catch. But Jacques Kallis's response looked odd. I have a feeling there was a bit of doubt in his mind. He looked subdued while the rest of the players celebrated when he completed the catch.

Shaun Pollock looked the best bowler by far. But he made one mistake: he should have brought himself on for a couple of overs when Dravid and Yuvraj Singh were going strong. If he hadn't held himself back, India would have scored far fewer than they eventually did.

But India's final total still looks inadequate -- about 40 runs short, I'd say.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan. He will be commenting for Wisden.com on each session of the triangular one-day series in South Africa.

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