Game on

The series is finally coming down to the wire as a good series should. Unfortunately, all the good commentators and experts are either Australian or English and they are busy crowing about the Ashes. How I wish this were a five test series instead of a three test one? The test of endurance between the two best sides in the world. The cricket produced so far has definitely been keen and high quality.

Dale Steyn provokes genuine awe when he bowls and the manner in which Gambhir and Tendulkar overcome him in the morning session shows the maturity of Indian batting. They realize that dominating Steyn is a pipedream and played accordingly. Steyn did come back after lunch with the second new ball and ripped the match open again. Only for Tendulkar to play a frustratingly sedate knock to demoralize SA. I do believe India have the mental advantage here. Mainly because, SA could not knock India over despite having the best fast bowler in the world take another five-fer.

When it comes to fourth innings batting, India with Sachin, Laxman and Dhoni have the right arsenal to go after it. Enough has been done in the last year or so to prompt us to put our money on India to chase 200 or so in the fourth innings. Anything over 250 is probably not going to happen.

Harbhajan showed up with bat and ball and now SA have to post a decent total without perhaps Kallis in the mix. They have enough ammo with Amla, ABDV and Prince to put up 250 plus. Will they?