Finest beard in the game

Sunday, February 07, 2010 cricket, india, review, rishabh bablani, south africa, virender sehwag 6 Comments

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Two days into the match and I'm terribly bored by it. Graeme Smith, you clout, you should have put India in to bat, if only for our entertainment. Instead, we had to watch Zaheer Khan give us false hope by picking up the two early wickets of Graeme "shovel-to-the-legside" Smith and Ashwell "walking-wicket" Prince.

But the way this match is positioned is similar to the first test match at Chennai when South Africa toured India two years ago. A big Hashim Amla hundred, terrible bowling by Harbhajan, and a big first-innings score.

Those of you who know what happened after that, good on you, treat yourself to a cookie.

Those who don't, I'll tell you, but hell awaits if you touch that cookie jar.

India took a lead of close to a hundred runs, and Sehwag scored the quickest triple century ever. Who was in the bowling attack? Steyn, Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini and Paul Harris.

True, India had Dravid and Laxman, but there was no Gambhir then. Murali Vijay played well against Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson on debut, pace doesn't bother him. And Badrinath is the best domestic batsman to make his debut in the middle order since Dravid and Ganguly 14 years ago, he should fit into the role.

And it's a flat pitch.

This match is surely heading for a draw, as despite the turn on offer, Harbhajan and Mishra don't look up to the task. If this series is to have a result, the next match should either be on a green top and let South Africa win, or a dustbowl coupled with Pragyan Ojha getting a game.

Day 3 begins today, and that's where the match should be taking off.