South Africa v India, 3rd Test, Cape Town, 2-6 Jan, 2011

The One wrote:why arent saffrica declaring? has to be the sehwag factor. cant think why they would not want to go for the win

The Sehwag factor is a pretty big factor though!

If he stayed in until tea then even 350 is attainable.

I do hope SA declare overnight though, if they batted until midway through the morning session then even with Sehwag only a draw would be possible for India.

I think they will declare overnight, they'll want two new balls if possible so 90 overs would be what they are aiming for I would think.

Can sehwag save this test for India without actually batting well? According to commies, Smith is delaying the declaration because of sehwag factor. It'd be nice if SA bats the whole morning session tomorrow

I don't think a single delivery at Morkel would have hit the stumps today. Horrendous bowling.

maybe they dont want south africa to get a/o

That's my fella Smith, keep on batting.

In fact bat on through the morning session tomorrow also.

All 3 results possible until Sehwag is out.

Sehwag hasn't done much of note thus far in the series to expect him to suddenly pull off a blinder in the very last innings. Doesn't work like that, for me at least.

Is that Robert Key on Sky? He's a bit of a Billy Bunter....

furriner wrote:Sehwag hasn't done much of note thus far in the series to expect him to suddenly pull off a blinder in the very last innings. Doesn't work like that, for me at least.

He's always seemed hot and cold though hasn't he? I don't watch every Indian test match but try to keep up on results, have noticed a lot of times in his career when he has a few bad runs then comes out with a double hundred.

vilkrang wrote:All 3 results possible until Sehwag is out.

The first 5 overs tomorrow morning then.

vilkrang wrote:

furriner wrote:Sehwag hasn't done much of note thus far in the series to expect him to suddenly pull off a blinder in the very last innings. Doesn't work like that, for me at least.

He's always seemed hot and cold though hasn't he? I don't watch every Indian test match but try to keep up on results, have noticed a lot of times in his career when he has a few bad runs then comes out with a double hundred.

Could be ...but IIRC (and I could be totally wrong) I don't know if he has pulled a big century just like that near the end of a series....I seem to recall that he does better in run ups before the biggies.

But I could be totally off.

philcric wrote:

vilkrang wrote:All 3 results possible until Sehwag is out.

The first 5 overs tomorrow morning then.

Most likely, still, you guys at least have a glimmer of hope until then.

Perfect scenario as a neutral is that Sehwag bats out the morning session to leave India needing 200 from the final two sessions.

Really looking forward to this one, going to get bugger all sleep with watching the Ashes tonight and then getting up for the SA match.

Why is that always in any particular series involving India - we always fail to get that one guy out in the whole series that makes all the difference. Instances of Jimmy Adams, Hooper, A Flower, Chanderpaul, Andrew Flintoff, Damien Martyn etc. come to mind. This time it has been Kallis.

The gauntlet has been thrown and if there is one thing that SRT in his 21 year career has not achieved, it is scoring back to back 100s in the same test the way Kallis did this test. This may be Sachin's last chance. Sehwag needs to pull his head back in and play for team. Laxman may yet have a say but to expect him to always deliver in such situations is too much. I fear India may play for a draw and may already start on a negative note there. I hope our batters learn from Kallis. if a guy in pain can bat out 2 100s, then our batters can draw inspiration there. I am still betting on a draw. That we can achieve. We have in the recent past many times. I just hope we don't choke and throw it away.

We now need at least 2 guys to bat back and the rest to avoid getting out cheap. Dravid needs to be dropped down the order this innings as we can't afford to have him crab any momentum we may possibly get.

Interesting -

Day-------Runs Scored----Overs-----RPO

Day 1----232-----------------74----------3.14
Day 2----272-----------------89----------3.06
Day 3----274-----------------83----------3.30
Day 4----289-----------------86----------3.36

The scoring rate has certainly gone up though the pitch has deterioration for batters progressively. Sehwag and Gambhir hold the keys then.

Batman wrote:Interesting -

Day-------Runs Scored----Overs-----RPO

Day 1----232-----------------74----------3.14
Day 2----272-----------------89----------3.06
Day 3----274-----------------83----------3.30
Day 4----289-----------------86----------3.36

The scoring rate has certainly gone up though the pitch has deterioration for batters progressively. Sehwag and Gambhir hold the keys then.

Interesting indeed.

I believe Gambhir is injured though and won't open the batting.

vilkrang wrote:I believe Gambhir is injured though and won't open the batting.

What happened to him? In which case a perfect chance for him to pull off a Kallis on SA....I hope he can bat and I hope he opens. Having Dravid or Pujara open will backfire big time.

sehwag and dravid will most likely open

going to be very, very tough for india

The One wrote:sehwag and dravid will most likely open

going to be very, very tough for india

Dravid opening is 1 wicket down already. Counting Gambhir's fitness, it's 2 down. Great start to the chase. If Gambhir isn't opening than Dravid has to bat at 3 and we should get Pujara to open given he hasn't done much of note anyways. Maybe the responsibility will fire him up the way he did against Aus last year.

What an innings by Kallis?

Hats off to the man.

And will anybody please shoot Ishant? He is still living off that spell to Ponting at WACA. For heaven's sake kick this idiot's butt. Wonder why does Dhoni invest so much in crap like Ishant, Raina, Jadeja, list is indeed long.

Gotta say Gambhir is getting too much injured at most inopportune of times. If he can't maintain his fitness even at this age what will he do in his late '30s?

Just read on cricinfo, Gambhir will bat in this innings. Though he is out of the ODI series. The list of injured players is getting bigger and bigger.

Gotta say I was bit surprised by Smith's tactics. Its always tough to bat out last few overs before stumps, moreso if its the 4th innings of a decider.

SA could've gobbled up few cheap Indian wickets by stumps today in bargain for 30-40 extra runs they scored.

PS: They'll anyway gobble India up before tea time tomorrow.

This must be close to the best performance of Kallis's career.

Henry wrote:This must be close to the best performance of Kallis's career.

Has to be the best. Without him they would have lost, convincingly.

Still might of course in which case this comment will look silly...