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What a superb fightback by the South African team, after being literally clobbered to all parts of the ground by Virender Sehwag on day three of the Chennai Test.
The pitch is an absolute batting beauty, and it takes a lot of heart to be a pace bowler in such conditions.
The way Sehwag batted on Friday, it looked quite possible that the hosts will take a lead of around 175 runs, and then will put the Proteas under a lot of pressure on a deteriorating fourth day track. But thanks to some quality pace bowling by Ntini and Steyn, the visitors restricted the lead to double figures. And to make things even better, openers Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie gave the Proteas another good start. That has now brought the visitors right back into this match.
Loose balls
After being kept on the field for one full day in the energy-sapping heat of Chennai, and being hit to all parts of the ground by a dashing Sehwag, Ntini and Steyn bowled with a lot of fire. They learned from their mistakes, and bowled a lot more accurately. Not giving Sehwag any loose balls to hit boundaries is one way of getting him out, and that's what Ntini achieved, as the Delhi dasher wasn't allowed to hit a single four today. He played a rash shot, probably the first in his superb knock, and that was that. Proteas did well not to allow other Indian batsmen to raise the scoring rate, and to dismiss them for 627 was quite an achievement, considering the fact that India were 468 for one after day three. In between Rahul Dravid played a knock that is so typical of him, and had he not done that, India's lead could have been minimal.
Having said that, I think Indians will be disappointed with their lead, after Sehwag had put them in a position from where they could have really won this game. It was not just the number of runs that Sehwag scored, but the manner in which he scored them, that enabled the Indians to dictate terms.
After restricting the Indians, it was important for the South Africans not to lose any early wickets and skipper Smith and Neil McKenzie, the man in form, ensured that. It was important that the Indian seamers didn't get a couple of quick wickets, because then it would have been really tough for the middle-order batsmen to face the likes of Kumble and Harbhajan on a track which is helping the spinners now. So all credit to McKenzie and Hashim Amla for batting well, as they had done in the first innings.
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