All about brave cricket

Weather forecasts can be more fickle than first loves, but India will be hoping that the one for tomorrow - thunderstorms and 80 percent chance of rain - stays faithful. If it doesn't, and 70 overs of play are possible, South Africa will be confident of heading to Cape Town with the series all square.

They got themselves into a near-impregnable position largely due to two superb half-centuries, one near one and a late-order flourish that extinguished Indian hopes of a famous victory. Graeme Smith, skating on the thinnest possible sheet of ice, led the way with a really brave innings. Still struggling with the technical failings that have blighted him in recent times, he tapped into the reservoir of self-belief that was the main reason why he was appointed South Africa's youngest Test captain.

At times, there were unmistakable signs of the man who scored two double-centuries in England, and a marvellous unbeaten 125 to win a Test, and draw the series, in New Zealand. He muscled away a couple of drives, and when the ball was dropped too short, the slapped-pull dismissed it contemptuously towards the square-leg fence. Unfortunately for him, Sreesanth once again zoomed in on a tendency to play towards midwicket, and the resulting mini-collapse could have proved extremely costly.

That it didn't owed much to Shaun Pollock, perhaps the most technically accomplished of the bowling allrounders since Imran Khan. Much of the talk over the past week has focussed on his 400 wickets, but he averages more than 30 while playing with a straight bat that would shame several top-order batsmen. He was immense on Friday afternoon, adding 70 with Andrew Hall, and then 52 from just 71 deliveries with the exciting Mornè Morkel.

Pollock cut and drove beautifully, and a couple of the pulls in front of square where he picked up the ball from outside off stump were simply breathtaking. At 143 for 6, with the lead 231, it was still anyone's game. By the time Pollock and Morkel were finished, India were left to do what they have achieved only once, chase down a total in excess of 300. That solitary success, obscured by the mists of time, came at Queens Park Oval, in the days before Clive Lloyd unleashed a fearsome pace quartet.

India didn't help their cause with some poor bowling after lunch, on a pitch that still appeared to be a belter. Anil Kumble kept it tight at one end, but the pace bowlers could do nothing to staunch the flow of runs at the other. Zaheer Khan wasn't at his penetrative best, while VRV Singh was all over the place, highlighting just why India are so desperate to have Munaf Patel fit and ready for the final Test.

The splash of sunshine was again Sreesanth, who took his series haul to 16 wickets from just two Tests. Those wickets have come from 78 overs at an average of 18, and a comparison with Javagal Srinath in 1996-97 - 18 wickets at 28.72 from 148.1 overs - will tell you just how wonderfully a boy playing only his seventh Test has performed a man's job. He wasn't at his best on Friday, conceding 60 from 11.3 overs while looking listless at times, but still produced magnificent deliveries to nail both Smith and Ashwell Prince.

Summoning up inspiration when still short of your best is something that Virender Sehwag would love to do. Fortunate to escape one thick outside edge, he promptly gave the slips another, and this time Smith made no mistake. Wasim Jaffer has shown enormous character here in both innings, and if an opener does make way for Gautam Gambhir at Newlands, it may well have to be Sehwag - India's most valuable Test batsman after Dravid over the course of the past three seasons.

Dravid won't be around to chart this course for survival, wrongly given out for the second time in the match, and the team's outlook for Cape Town may well be decided by what transpires on the final day at Kingsmead. If they do escape with a draw, as they did at Port Elizabeth in 2001-02, Sehwag may just be thrown a lifeline. But if defeat leads to a winner-take-all scenario at Newlands, the struggling cavalier may well be cut adrift.