Rash Call Played In To Hostile Hands Of Philander

 Just as the Ashes petered out and the last glimmer of a contest disappeared at the SCG, Test cricket was revitalised by a contest of raw competition played at a pace and intensity that left viewers breathless, for hour after hour, and the players emotionally and physically spent.

- Neil Manthorp

Such was the steepness of the highs and lows for both teams it seemed neither could bounce back yet they continued to do so for three, pulsating days.

South Africa picked five bowlers and then chose to bat on an obvious seamer and Bhuvneshwar Kumar reduced them to 12-3 inside 20 minutes. AB de Villiers, in his first serious Test match for two years following the five session demolition of Zimbabwe a week earlier, raced to a 55-ball half century with ten fours, four of them in a single over – from Bhuveshnar. Take that.

India knew they had conceded too many and closed a pulsating first day on 28-3, Shikhar Dhawan perishing to Dale Steyn whose emotional return from a 13month injury lay-off had been as keenly anticipated as that of De Villiers. Soon after lunch on the second day they were battered, bruised, 92-7 and apparently already beaten.

Steyn, meanwhile, had limped from the field after bowling 17.3 fast, accurate overs with a bruised heel after landing awkwardly in a footmark. It was far more serious than he initially believed and arrived at the ground the following day with a moonboot and a prognosis of another four to six weeks on the sidelines.

Hardik Panya (93 from 95 balls) flipped the game back on onto its feet with a thrilling combination of authentic drives and some comical hooking and pulling which nonetheless required significant physical courage although there was nothing further to lose as far as the match situation was concerned. Kumar, the batsman, proved a vital ally fending off his first 33 balls for nothing before contributing 25 runs from 86.