Related Link : India in South Africa 2006-07
The Indians have picked up some valuable match practice ahead of the Boxing Day Test Match at Kingsmead. A two-day match against an a KwaZulu-Natal Invitation XI was arranged on the request of the Indian team management to give a feel of the conditions for the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Munaf Patel and others. The match headed in an expected draw but it was a good outing for Gambhir who cracked a half century and Munaf who came out to bowl after a long time on this tour.
Batting first, Indians made 270 for 6 declared with Gautam Gambhir retiring after making a promising 79 which should put him ahead of Wasim Jaffer for the next test match. Jaffer had yet another failure on this tour, another single-digit score. Sehwag, Dravid and Ganguly all got decent hits in the middle. Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni were the only batsmen not to play this match.
The homeside, KwaZulu-Natal ended the game at 243 for 8 with their skipper, Rivash Gobind scoring 88 and Morne van Vuuren getting 50. As many as eight bowlers were used by India as the conditions were hot and humid which meant that the main bowlers had to be conserved for the remaining two test matches. Harbhajan was the most successful among the bowlers, taking 3 for 26 in 7. Munaf, the fourth bowler used picked up two wickets in the 8 overs he bowled. Sourav Ganguly chipped in with two wickets with his medium pacers. Irfan Pathan who was trying to make it to the final XI in place of VRV Singh went wicketless and had also been taken for 74 in his 11 overs!