By ICF Staff
November 20 2005

South Africa, one short of Australia's record of 21 unbeaten matches, were soundly thrashed by India at Bangalore in the second ODI. Rahul Dravid won the toss and promptly chose to field, with the talk of dew making conditions difficult for bowlers in the night at this time of year. However, batting under artificial lights is no picnic either and a small amount of dew can actually work in the bowler's favor.

They need not have worried. The dew factor was slight if at all present. What really decided the match was Indian bowlers running through the Saffie batting lineup in bright sunshine.

Irfan Pathan's triple strike to send back de Villiers, Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis with just 20 on the board was instrumental in killing their fight early on. Ajit Agarkar held up the other end, bowling with control and economy.

Then the spinners came on and suffocated the South Africans, who seem to be inept at facing even the slightly turning ball. Harbhajan Singh was always threatening, and snapped up Hall courtesy a very good take by Mohammed Kaif fielding close up at silly point, while Murali Karti seemed impossible to score off and ended with 4 maidens in his 10-over quota which yielded a total of 16 runs.

Part-timer Virender Sehwag bowled with variation and intelligence to grab the wickets of Boucher and Prince, and Dravid did not bother to call back the seamers as he brought on Yuvraj Singh who accounted for Pollock. Ajit Agarkar did come back for the final over, in which Johan Botha made his batting debut and played a couple of useful shots before Agarkar uprooted Ntini's middle stump with the final delivery to end the Saffie innings at a lowly 169.

Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar walked out to open and looked unimpressive as they notched up 7 runs off the first 5 overs. Tendulkar in particular played defensively, and the first time he chanced his arm, was caught at mid-on off Pollock. Gambhir showed aggressive intent however, and it was pleasing to see that he came prepared for the inevitable Andre Nel histrionics, with some words ready for the temperamental South African after a miscued four as the astonished Nel came up to glare at him. Another 4 in the same over and some more gentle taunting actually prompted an aggrieved Nel to complain to the umpire in a situation that would have been comical if it wasn't so hypocritical.

Irfan Pathan, promoted to number 3, did an admirable job supporting Gambhir as the two left-handers together put the SA attack to the sword, making up for the slow start. Pathan played the role of genuine batsman, not a pinch-hitter as he negotiated everything the Saffies threw at him with confidence. Their running between the wickets left a bit to be desired, and both were eventually run out, but not before they had given India a solid foundation.

Sehwag came in and played a high-quality innings, eschewing big shots initially but gradually opening up to a run-a-ball rate and later far exceeding it. His was a confident, aggressive effort in which he never looked remotely troubled, and treated both pacemen and spinners with supreme contempt. It was not so long ago that he made his Test debut against this very team with a century in their own backyard.

Dravid, like Tendulkar, looked out of his element and was unable to play a big innings at his home ground, but 55,000 enthusiastic spectators enjoyed a big win for India nevertheless as Sehwag stayed until the end of the innings to take India to a massive 6-wicket victory with 15 overs to spare, finally notching up a big ODI score in the process.

At the presentation ceremony Smith mumbled something about the toss being a factor, but the fact remains that dew was not as much an issue in this game as at Hyderabad where he won the toss and took advantage of a wicket that was seamer-friendly for the early morning overs. The South African batting could not withstand the Indian bowlers in good batting conditions, and there could be no excuse for that.

Given the South African weakness to spin, and the nature of Indian wickets being inherently unkind to pacemen, India look by far the more balanced side and look to have an advantage as they draw level in the series after two games.