Johannesburg thriller ends without knockout punch

JOHANNESBURG: A muddled head, of the kind that results from the endless tortuosity of close-run games, is not the most ideal quality to bring to writing a match report. And when the game in question is the drawn first Test between India and South Africa the job is all the more difficult. On Sunday, for almost the entirety of 90 overs, not one sane guess could be hazarded on the outcome. South Africa began the morning 320 adrift, two wickets down, depleted in morale and burdened by history, and then turned it all around through a magnificent partnership for 205 runs between Faf du Plessis (134) and AB de Villiers (103). The pair took their team to within 56 runs of the target. But just when we thought the writing was on the wall, South Africa's familiar propensity to asphyxiate when the going is good came to the fore.
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With 56 needed in 13 overs, De Villiers played on to Ishant Sharma, for South Africa’s fifth wicket. Then it was JP Duminy’s turn to chop Mohammad Shami on to his stumps. Six down and the all-too-familiar choke-routine was surfacing alarmingly for the hosts. But du Plessis was still there, just like he had been at Adelaide last year, and with him was Vernon Philander, who had scored a vital half-century in the first innings. The two scorched an array of boundaries and brought the requirement down to a mere 16 runs from 20 balls. It should have been pretty straightforward from here on. It was not.
Rahane's direct hit
Ajinkya Rahane, who had run-out Graeme Smith with a direct hit from mid-off in the first essay, struck again from precisely that position. Only this time the victim was a diving du Plessis. The run-out changed South Africa’s approach from going after victory to settling for a draw, a result they’d have gladly accepted in the morning when they lost Alviro Petersen (76) and Jacques Kallis (34) and were left with almost 70 overs to survive.

Eventually, in a way nobody would have imagined, the host’s fast bowlers proved to be the ultimate thorn in India’s side. Philander and Dale Steyn survived the fateful three-odd overs, aided by a most inexplicable field set by Dhoni: ultra-defensive, no slips, no gully, just precautionary trawlers on the fence to ensure that the batting pair were deprived of any hits to the boundary. Going by the build up to the Tour, even India will be alright with a drawn match, a game that they dominated thoroughly before an other-worldly show by de Villiers and du Plessis snatched back the initiative.