India?s motto: Never say win

Chasing a 244-run target, Indian side crashes with a clear sense of deja vu, reports Kadambari Murali. Scorecard

This had to be the sunniest day we’ve seen since coming to the South African shores two weeks ago and perhaps it will signify a change in the fortunes of the beleaguered Indian team. Perhaps.

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What India need, after another generally competent bowling performance saw South Africa restricted to 243-8, is one defining performance from someone, one extraordinary day that will lift the morale of the entire team and turn things around for them. One innings that will hold the rest together, playing to the plan that South Africa have so successfully implemented over the last two years, starting here at the St Georges, when they chased 270-plus against England.

South African skipper Graeme Smith had said earlier that South Africa had tried to perfect one strategy when they batted these last couple of years: Have at least one person bat through the innings for one big score, and have the rest contribute around him.

Jacques Kallis did that for them at Kingsmead, Justin Kemp played a blazing knock for his unbeaten century at Newlands and here, Herschelle Gibbs may just have begun his redemption song.

Gibbs, whose last century was nearly nine months ago, that mesmerising 175 during the world record chase against the Aussies at the Wanderers in March, was rumoured to have been on a final warning from the selectors before the last game in Cape Town, where he made an attacking 35.

Smith, asked on Tuesday if Gibbs had come out at the Newlands and blazed away in reaction to that warning, said again that it was a reflection of the new South Africa and their changed cricketing mindset.

“I spoke early on about how our mindsets have changed and I think he just went in there and tried to counter-attack, came out and played his shots. It’s easy to get into a shell and try and build yourself into the game in that position and instead he did that and it worked for him,” said Smith.

But he did add a cautionary note there, saying that once people got an eye in, they had to continue. “You can get out in the first 15 or 20 balls but when you get to 20 or 30, you need to start making those ones count.” On Wednesday, Gibbs did exactly that.

When Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag come out to bat, they will have to forget that India do not have Rahul Dravid (their most prolific scorer in the series so far) and tell themselves to get on with the game as best as possible.

Look at the Proteas, who have done exceedingly well with no contribution with the bat from their young, aggressive skipper. On Wednesday too, Smith got out early, quickly gaining a reputation for being Zaheer Khan’s bunny. Zaheer has got him thrice in three games, and Smith so far has faced a grand total of 12 balls with one run to his credit.

But he has captained his team with flair and solid sense and the Proteas have rallied around and done so quite splendidly. Again, they lost a couple of wickets with practically nothing on the board, with Loots Bosman being comprehensively beaten by a full delivery.

Smith had said on match eve that the great thing for him as a captain was the positive mindset that his players came out with, even under pressure. “They still come out and attack,” he said. South Africa did just that, taking the attack to the Indian camp like they had nary a care in the world.

Jacques Kallis, often criticised for plodding around, played with rare panache and seemed in a peculiar mood (for him). He drove with majestic ease, picked the gaps with increasing regularity and was looking very dangerous when he fell, with the introduction of Anil Kumble into the attack. He tried to kind of cut-slash Kumble’s first delivery, a slightly widish one, and top-edged it to Dhoni. He left for 49 after a 69-run partnership with Gibbs.

Kumble, by the way, bowled exceedingly well, keeping the batsmen on a tight leash and also taking out South Africa’s flamboyant young star, AB de Villiers very early, just after de Villiers had hit him for a six.

An interesting statistic from this game is that despite playing with four pacemen (India left out Harbhajan and brought in Sreesanth), not one of them bowled their full quota. Tendulkar and Sehwag, in fact, bowled 12 overs between them and except for Tendulkar’s last over, it was a vital move that kept them going.

If India do not chase successfully --- and, let’s face it, it will not be easy under lights at all, even if India were not going through a seemingly never-ending lean patch --- they will wonder if they gave a few runs too many at the death.

Though they were better than they were in the previous two games, but 42 runs in the last five overs does not make for pretty reading.