Dominant South Africa bring out Dhoni's defensive side

Close of play on day four: India 68 for 2 (Pujara 32, Kohli 11) and 334 (Vijay 97, Pujara 70, Steyn 6-100) trail South Africa South Africa 500 all out (Kallis 115, de Villiers 74, Petersen 62, Jadeja 6-138) by 98 runs with 8 wickets remaining. In Johannesburg, India needed eight wickets on the final day to win. In Durban, it is South Africa who require eight wickets for victory on day five. The crucial difference is South Africa had a chance to win the first Test too while India will bat with victory scrubbed from the picture. After Jacques Kallis and Robin Peterson had given South Africa a lead of 166, the final session was all about survival for the visitors. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander were brutal with the new ball. Where India’s seamers lacked discipline, their counterparts were relentless and hostile. Steyn’s first five overs cost just one run while Philander pushed Murali Vijay on the backfoot with a couple of bouncers before pitching one up in the channel and finding the edge. Vijay, the linchpin of India’s first innings, lasted just 13 deliveries in the second. Pujara was typically Pujara from the moment he came to the crease. He cut out the scoring shots and took a few bouncers on the body as he inched to two from his first 30 balls. The revelation was Shikhar Dhawan, who showed he was prepared to grind it out if he had to so. He did away with all the flourishes one normally associates with his batting and together with Pujara repelled South Africa’s attack for 22 crucial overs. When the deteriorating light forced South Africa to bowl spinners from both ends, the pressure on the Indian batsmen lifted. But as often happens, the loosening of pressure led to a wicket, though this was down to a moment of brilliance from Faf du Plessis. Dhawan had battled for two hours and faced 86 balls to make 19 when he stepped out to half-volley from Peterson and flicked powerfully. The ball appeared to be past Faf at mid-on when he rose like a phoenix, stuck his right hand high in the air and snatched it out of the fading light. For a moment, nobody moved as Faf crashed back down to earth and lay on his back with the ball in his hand. When his team-mates realised what had transpired, they rushed to him in celebration while Dhawan trudged slowly from the ground. The wicket brought India’s two best batsmen – Virat Kohli and Pujara - together again. Though the ball bounced around at weird angles from the bowler’s footmarks now and then, the two Indian batsmen had no trouble keeping out the spinners until bad light stopped play a few minutes early. They will have a much harder time tomorrow against a bunch of fired up fast bowlers hungry for victory. India will be hoping its next generation is up to the challenge. For the full scorecard, click here . Innings break: South Africa 500 all out (Kallis 115, de Villiers 74, Petersen 62, Jadeja 6-138) lead India 334 (Vijay 97, Pujara 70, Steyn 6-100) by 166 runs. Smith’s captaincy has been just as baffling as Dhoni’s in this Test (and at the end of the first Test). He did not declare at tea and the innings ended 7 balls and three runs later. He wasn’t to know this, of course, with Faf still at the wicket. But the value of having more time to bowl India out exceeds the value of padding the lead with only four sessions left in the Test. Faf was run out by a direct hit from Rohit Sharma after Vernon Philander sold him a dummy. By the time Faf put on the breaks, turned and put in the dive to try and get back to the non-striker’s end, Rohit had knocked down the stumps. Morkel was sent out to bat presumably to try and hit a few big blows. All he could manage was to chip his second delivery back to Jadeja, who made good ground to his right to take the catch and finish with six wickets. At tea on day four: South Africa 497 for 8 (Du Plessis 41* Kallis 115, de Villiers 74, Jadeja 5-128) lead India 334 (Vijay 97, Pujara 70, Steyn 6-100) by 163 runs. The umpires forced MS Dhoni to take the new ball after 146 overs but by then South Africa were up and running and India’s chances of winning this Test (and the series) disappeared as rapidly as the new ball sped to the boundary. Rain cut short the post-lunch session, after it delayed the start of the session by 15 minutes, and India will be hoping that it does not ease up so they can catch their breath after Robin Peterson and Faf du Plessis added 102 from just 14.1 overs between interruptions. Peterson was the star of the partnership, making 61 from just 52 balls, including an audacious switch-hit off Rohit Sharma that went sailing over cover and into the grassy stand beyond the rope. His innings ended as the rain came down. He tried to slam Zaheer back over his head but mistimed the shot and Murali Vijay took a comfortable catch running round from mid-off. By then the acceleration the pair provided – Faf is unbeaten on 41 from 68 balls – transformed what had been a day of attrition into a one-way street as India’s seamers continued to disappoint. There was movement to be found alongside the shine on the ball and Peterson should have been given out on 29 when Shami struck him on the back leg with one that swung in. Umpire Steve Davis was not convinced in real time, probably because of the bounce, but Hawk-Eye showed it hitting middle stump with room to spare. That aside, Ishant and Shami bowled without consistency in either line or length, often straying down leg or bowling too short, and Faf and Peterson were happy to punish them. So dominant were the pair, and so poor wer the bowlers, that Dhoni was forced to give Rohit Sharma the still new ball. Before the umpires stepped in, Dhoni’s strategy had been to use the old ball and Ravindra Jadeja to slow the scoring rate. The ease with which Peterson and Faf batted against India’s quicks suggested he was right to do so. But they had already begun their assault, scoring 28 runs from the last three overs before the new ball was taken. The weather aside, only South Africa can push for a victory from here. Would things have been different had India chosen to attack first, instead of allowing South Africa to slowly take a first-innings lead? That’s something we will never know. What we do know is that if the sun comes out, and stays out, India will have to scrap to save this game. At lunch on day four: South Africa 395 for 7 (Du Plessis 5*, Peterson 5*, Kallis 115, Jadeja 5-128) lead India 334 (Vijay 97, Pujara 70, Steyn 6-100) by 61 runs. Jacques Kallis made his final Test one to remember with a grinding century but MS Dhoni steadfastly refused to take the new ball and South Africa showed no urgency in scoring runs on the fourth morning of the Durban Test. India bowled 36 overs in the session, from which South Africa scored just 96 runs. Despite the overcast conditions to start the day, Dhoni persisted in bowling Jadeja from one end – the left-arm spinner now has 55 overs under his belt – and rotated his seamers from the other. The strategy ensured South Africa did not score quickly – always a risk when a hard new ball is pressed into action – but also rendered the seamers irrelevant. This was the cautious version of Dhoni, who wanted to prolong South Africa’s innings as long as possible, thereby reducing the number of his overs his batsmen have to face in their second innings, and the chances of South Africa batting again with only small target to face. South Africa, despite a set Kallis and a normally attacking Steyn, did not try and force the issue either, content to block or nudge the ball around rather than try and hit an increasingly soft ball to the boundary. Jadeja did manage to dismiss Kallis, but only because the batsmen tried to slog sweep Jadeja after going past the three-figure mark for the 45th time. His 115 took him 316 balls and just over 6 and a half overs. In the process, he also squeaked past Rahul Dravid by a solitary run on the list of all time run-scorers and will end his career with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting the only batsmen to stand above him. [caption id=“attachment_1312765” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jacques Kallis made a century in his final Test. AFP[/caption] The wicket of Kallis gave Jadeja five for the innings, the first time an Indian spinner achieved that feat since 2011, but today was more about a holding role than anything else. Jadeja continued to bowl in the “good areas” but he was not going hard at the batsmen in the way a Harbjahan Singh or an Anil Kumble could. With Dhoni believing his seamers would not get anything out of the new ball –the current ball is 140 overs old now – attritional cricket became the order of the day. The only other success India had was when Zaheer got Dale Steyn, who made 44, to nick one to slips. If the first Test in Johannesburg was an advertisement for all that is good about Test cricket, the last two days in Durban are providing an argument for the other side. For the full scorecard, click here .