da pixbet： A patient unbeaten 155 from Neil McKenzie, and his solid 157-runpartnership with Hashim Amla guided South Africa to safety on the finalday
The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran in Chennai 30-Mar-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Neil McKenzie’s patient 155, to complement his first-innings 94, warded off hopes of an Indian victory © Getty Images
A patient unbeaten 155 from Neil McKenzie, and his solid 157-runpartnership with Hashim Amla guided South Africa to safety on the finalday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, with India left to rue the missed chances that put paid to slim hopes of victory. Two catches were put down on a morning offrustration, and though Harbhajan Singh was rewarded for his tenacity andpersistence after lunch, McKenzie stood firm to end any hopes of adecisive result.Unbeaten on 88 at lunch, you might have expected him to be a littlenervous after missing a century in the first innings. Instead, he cruisedto three figures with two cuts for four off Anil Kumble. His fourth Testhundred took him just 184 balls, and vindicated the faith of the selectorswho have left Herschelle Gibbs at home.With the game heading nowhere, Kumble brought on VVS Laxman to bowl his offspinners, but Jacques Kallis put that into perspective by smashing the first ball past midwicket for four. Harbhajan was getting occasional steep bounce at one end, andVirender Sehwag was turning it sharply at the other, but there were onlysporadic alarms for the two batsmen.Harbhajan had beaten the bat several times with no luck at all, and wasfinally rewarded when RP Singh took a stunning catch at short square legto send back Kallis for 19. It was his second failure of the match, and abad omen for India that South Africa had managed so comfortably without asignificant contribution from their batting talisman.Harbhajan had Ashwell Prince caught at short leg soon after, the ballgoing off glove and then pad, but thoughts of a collapse had swiftlyended as McKenzie lofted a couple of big shots over the leg side. WithKumble off the field as well, the draw had become a certainty.The final session was just a case of going through the motions, withLaxman and Sehwag bowling long spells. There was also the farcical sightof Harbhajan taking the second new ball, an indictment both of the pitchand India’s pace bowlers. Apart from AB de Villiers being given outwrongly – the ball flew off the pad to short leg – there was nothing forthe crowd to cheer about, and when play was called off with 14 overs leftin the day, there were few murmurs of disagreement.
Hashim Amla’s 81 was instrumental in blunting the Indian spin threat © AFP
The fate of the match was as good as decided on a morning when Kumble wasthe only successful bowler. Unfortunately for India, it was almost lunchby then. He set up Amla with the googly before pitching a legbreak outsideoff stump. Amla poked hesitantly at it, and Rahul Dravid held on at slip.By then, Amla had already been reprieved twice, but his 81 wasinstrumental in blunting the Indian spin threat.Kumble had opened the proceedings, but strangely took himself off after justan over, leaving Harbhajan to bowl in tandem with Sreesanth. The twobatsmen were cagey early on, but then Amla started to assert himself.Harbhajan was cut for four, and when Sreesanth’s attempted yorker became afull toss, he clipped it through midwicket to reach 50.In truth, he shouldn’t have gone much further. When on 55, a miscued sweepoff Harbhajan went airborne, but Sreesanth made a real hash of the chancerunning in from the deep. As the ball fell into space to his left,Harbhajan looked incensed and clearly hadn’t forgotten the gaffe overslater when he appeared to gesture after making a superb stop himself.Soon after, Kumble and RP took over, with India sticking to the spin-pacecombination. Amla produced a terrific on-drive off RP and then saw thebowler fail to hold on to a return catch when the ball was bunted back athim. On 72 at the time, he was living a charmed life, and a magnificentcover drive off Kumble raised visions of a second century in the match.Kumble though had other ideas.McKenzie was less aggressive in the morning, and survived a vociferousappeal from Kumble just before the interval, but by then he had easedquietly into the 80s. Circumspection was the name of the game, but thatsoon gave way to celebration, and satisfaction at a job very well done. Amatch that began with bat dominating ball ended the same way, with SouthAfrica having more cause for satisfaction after a sterling bowling displayon the penultimate day.