Are India about to pull off a miraculous save in Centurion? The odds remain stacked against them even as a storm came out of nowhere to end the fourth day's proceedings, right after Sachin Tendulkar had completed a much-awaited 50th Test hundred and MS Dhoni fell for a hard-fought, quick 90 on a pitch that has eased out considerably.
India, at 454-8 are still 30 runs behind South Africa with a full day's play left --- unless the weather can come to their rescue and save them from certain defeat.
Tendulkar is still batting on 107 with S Sreesanth, who can't be expected to last long against a strong South African attack that has smelt a win.
The 37-year-old completed his 50th hundred squeezing Dale Steyn through cover for four, at 7.36 PM India time. The cheers were quickly acknowledged as he directed a prayer heavenwards. But it is a job only half done. India must survive at least two more sessions tomorrow if they are to save this Test.
Dhoni fought his problems of form today with a gutsy innings. Coming in with India having lost four wickets in the morning, he and Tendulkar took India to tea with no further damage.
India added 117 in that session, and the seventh-wicket partnership yielded 172 in 40.3 overs. Dhoni's back-foot moved across well, negating swing and seam movement. Resultantly, he employed the cover drive and the back-foot punch through mid-on well in this innings, scoring 10 of his 14 fours through those regions. He was partly helped by Graeme Smith's attacking fields encouraged by South Africa's massive lead.
Dhoni was closing in on his sixth Test hundred when Steyn bowled him a nasty lifter outside off-stump. The ball followed Dhoni as he guided it to Mark Boucher's gloves, bringing out Harbhajan Singh who lasted two balls before nicking Paul Harris to slip.
India began the day 190-2, still needing a massive 295 runs to make South Africa bat again. Ishant Sharma hung around for 23, before a smart catch at short-leg ended his 51-ball stay.
After two hundreds and three hundreds in the South African innings, and with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir making fifties, Rahul Dravid broke the chain of good scores from the top-order batsmen. Having been given a working over by Morne Morkel, he edged a leg-cutter behind to end a laborious 109-ball innings that was beginning to guide India to a well-played morning session.
This threw the doors open for South Africa. VVS Laxman's feet let him down again. In the first innings, he had failed to cover his stumps from a Steyn out-swinger. This time, his feet stood rooted as he went for a half volley from Lonwabo Tsotsobe. The ball swung out and the edge flew to slip for a regulation catch.
Then came Suresh Raina's downfall, which was identical to his dismissal in the first innings. The feet went nowhere as he edged a straight ball from Jacques Kallis to first slip. It was neither a cut shot, nor a drive, nor a defensive shot. It was catching practice for first slip. Which begs this question: if Raina gets out twice in this fashion to a team's fourth seamer, is he fit to play Steyn and Morkel?
India have poor Test records in Durban and Cape Town and unless they find players who can cope with quality pace bowling, they're in for a hard time in this series.
For the moment, India's followers would pray for rain on Monday. If that happens, it would be payback for Johannesburg 1997.
