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South Africa smashed 366 for 2 in 87 overs on the Second Day’s play to take full charge of the opening Test at Centurion. India have absolutely no chance of coming back in the game as the hosts have stretched their lead to 230 runs with plenty of batting left. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis helped themselves with unbeaten centuries after a solid century opening stand from Smith and Petersen made short work of India’s paltry total of 136.
In just the third ball of the morning, SA got rid of MS Dhoni when he shuffled back to miss a length delivery from Morne Morkel which nipped back with slightly lower bounce than anticipated. Dhoni didn’t add any runs to his overnight score of 33 and India finished at 136 in 38.4 overs. Morne Morkel wrapped it up with his fourth 5-wicket haul. South Africa then smoothly got to 111 for 1 in 27 overs by lunch losing only Graeme Smith at the stroke of the break. Smith made 62 from 87 balls with 11 fours before edging a cut shot off a bouncing off break from Harbhajan to the keeper.
There was another good partnership after the lunch break from the hosts as Alviro Petersen played some glorious drives on the up while Hashim Amla got himself set for a big score. In the 41st over, Harbhajan Singh provided the breakthrough when Petersen got a bat pad edge to short leg to a ball that turned and bounced sharply. The right handed opener had scored 77 from 114 balls with 9 fours and a six while taking SA to a healthy 166 for 2. By Tea, Hashim Amla got to a half century and Kallis batted positively to smack Suresh Raina’s long hops for a couple of sixes as South Africa motored along to 236 for 2 in 55 overs at the break.
It was all leather chase for India in the final session as the pair of Amla and Kallis punished them with boundaries. The bowlers posed no challenge at all and there was no hope of any wickets coming by even after taking the second new ball. The South African pair collected 130 runs in 32 overs of the final session with Amla getting to a 12th Test hundred while Kallis recording 38th hundred. For Kallis, it was his fastest Test century coming in 130 balls. He remained unbeaten on 102 from 144 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes. Amla got to 116* in 180 balls with 9 fours and a six.
India’s bowling attack looked very substandard with the three pacers unable to trouble the batsmen with their modets speeds. Debutant Jaidev Unadkat bowled decent lines but with speeds averaging around 125-130 kmph, he was hardly going to cause any tremors for batsmen at this level. With three full days in store, the writing is on the wall for an innings defeat for India unless a couple of their batsmen come up with a monumental partnership.