Fast bowlers helps India in leveling the Test series against India

The quick bowlers once again did it for India as they dismissed South Africa for 215 in their second innings to win the second Test by 87 runs. It was never going to be an easy task for a side which was batting last and it proved correct as the whole South
African side was dismissed for 215 in their second innings. South Africa had done well to reach 111-3 on the third day, but the bounce and pace on the wicket proved deadly for the Proteas and they were not able to survive the fourth day. Zaheer Khan again
delivered for the Indian’s as he again troubled the South African’s with his length and accuracy. South Africa would be bit amazed by the result as they were quite successful in dismissing the Indian’s for a low total in their first innings, and had no clue
that they would have to face a defeat at the end of the Test Match. The series is now level 1-1 and from the looks of it one can expect a good conTest in the last Test.

South Africa started from their overnight score of 111-3 and looked confident to chase the Indian total.
 AB Devilliers (17*) and Jacques Kallis (12*) were still present at the crease, and there was some hope that if these two batsmen could bat for sometime than South Africa has a real chance of winning this match. But all their hopes were flushed away
when S Sreesanth produced one of the best deliveries that Kallis has ever played in his life. It was a quick bouncer from Sreesanth that climbed up on Kallis and gave Kallis no time to react to it. Kallis ended in nicking that delivery to the keeper and gave
Sreesanth his first wicket of the match. Still, South Africa had some good batting to follow and one strong partnership would have been enough for them to save the match.

AB Devilliers carried on from his overnight score of 17, but was not able to bat for too long and lost his wicket to Harbhajan Singh. It was a good delivery from Harbhajan and it struck AB Devilliers (33) in front of the middle, but after some time the replays
suggested that the ball would have missed the off stump. Suddenly, South Africa had lost two important wickets and were reduced to 136-5 in early stages of the morning. The fast bowlers were bowling well for India and what was quite encouraging for the Indian’s
was to see Sreesanth returning to his best.

 Sreesanth did not bowl well in the first innings but in the second innings he was quite effective in his spells and bowled with a lot of hostility. He was quite aggressive in his spells and got good bounce from the wicket. To make matters worse for South
Africa some pretty bad umpiring decisions went in their favor and the result could have been different for them if these decisions had not been made. Mark Boucher (1) was one of the victims of the umpiring decisions, when he was trapped leg before of a delivery
which was clearly missing the off stump. It was a well guided out swinger from Zaheer Khan and struck Boucher on middle and off, but replays again showed that the ball would have gone over the off stumps. Boucher left to pavilion in disgust but there was nothing
he could have done about it.

South Africa were struggling at 143-6 and needed Ashwell Prince to play a responsible and patient innings to guide them home. For that a lot of support was required from the lower order and Prince needed someone to bat with him till the end. Zaheer khan
also bowled well in his spell and bowled with a lot of swing. South Africa lost their seventh wicket, when Steyn nicked a full delivery from Zaheer and was caught at slips by Pujara. Steyn played well for his 10 but obviously it was asking too much from a
tail ender.

Zaheer again struck for India when he bowled Paul Harris with an out swinger. Prince tried his best to hang on for as long as he could but he was not left with enough partners to do that. A brief little partnership of 33 runs developed between M Morkel and
Ashwell Prince, but it was not enough to save the Proteas in the Test match. In the end, the whole South African side was dismissed for 215 in 72 over’s. V Laxman, for his timely 96, was named Man of the Match. The series is wide open now and whichever team
plays well in the last Test would definitely come on top in the end.