Gambhir whets India's appetite

After a summer and autumn of discontent, India's cricket team can put their feet up this evening, safe in the knowledge that the opening-batting conundrum appears to be nearer a solution - on placid home pitches at least. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir rattled along at 4.4 an over on a pitch where South Africa's batsmen had threatened to find a cure for insomnia. The 185 they added before smog and poor light enveloped the stadium was the first opening partnership of substance since Sehwag had combined with Aakash Chopra to smash 160 in Multan. Since then, the various combinations tried had managed just 97 in 10 innings, with a paltry 31 at Nagpur the high point.

Most impressive was the manner in which they set about the task. Though the Sehwag-Chopra combination could point to four century partnerships in their time together, their methods were as disparate as the brushstrokes employed by Rembrandt and van Gogh. But unlike Chopra, Gambhir can hardly be described as shot-shy, and the fact that he reeled off his 85 in 27 fewer balls than Sehwag (114), said much about how he took the onus off his more celebrated partner.

Between them, they played pretty much every shot in the book, and South Africa's spirit - fortified by 510 runs on the board - quickly evaporated amid a barrage of drives, cuts, delicate deflections and reverse sweeps. The cavalier approach could have been costly - Thami Tsolekele, experiencing the harsh realities of Test-match cricket for the first time, fluffed a stumping off Sehwag, and then dropped a leg-side chance offered by Gambhir - but it was the perfect way to restore the balance of power after India had endured two torrid attritional days in the field.

But where the Sehwag-Gambhir opening gambit was a resounding success, the same couldn't be said of South Africa's new-ball firm of Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini. There was a time when the sharp pace and ever-smiling enthusiasm of Ntini was seen as the ideal replacement for the not-so-smiley-and-war-painted Allan Donald - the Sundance Kid to Pollock's more measured Butch Cassidy approach.

But increasingly, those that follow South African cricket have come to realise that Ntini is a lesser performer the moment he leaves behind the immigration desk at Johannesburg International Airport. In 23 home Tests, he has reaped a stunning harvest of 107 wickets at 23.03 (strike-rate of a wicket every 44.3 balls), but away from the Southern Cape, his figures are those of the occasional trundler - 59 wickets at 43.71 (strike-rate of 81.4) from 24 Tests.

The short-of-a-length barrage that batsmen are often subjected to in South Africa simply doesn't work abroad, and certainly not on the subcontinent where those that drop it short tend to have stunningly abbreviated careers. Pollock, who can vary his approach according to the situation, has travelled far better, as 176 wickets from 43 overseas Tests will testify.

Ntini's plight is brought into stark relief when you compare his travails to the successes enjoyed by his predecessor. Donald knocked over 153 batsmen in his 34 away Tests, and in four excursions on India soil, his figures were simply sensational - 17 wickets at 16.11 and a strike-rate of 42.8. He was pretty much the complete fast bowler, capable of swinging the ball and cutting it both ways off the seam, in addition to bowling a devastating bouncer. And for all his pace, he rarely bled runs.

Ntini, despite having being around over half a decade, has added very few arrows to his quiver, and his radar tends to switch off with worrying regularity. There are few variations in pace, and even fewer experiments with swing and seam - two attributes essential for survival in batsmen-friendly conditions.

South African teams of the past were renowned for their meticulous preparation, but the manner in which they generously bowled both sides of the wicket today suggested that no plans had been stowed away with the luggage for this tour. If they had, and it was just faulty execution, the timing couldn't have been worse. An Indian line-up starved of runs this season has suddenly found its appetite whetted, and with run-gluttons like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman waiting in the wings, South Africa could well go hungry tomorrow.