President's XI recover ground in final session

It was a moral victory for the Board President's XI as the South Africans were restricted to 293/6 at stumps on the first day of their three day game at the Brabourne stadium on Saturday. Having lost very few wickets in the first two sessions, a huge score looked likely if they could keep their nerve after tea. They failed to do that and the President's XI bowlers capitalised, striking hard in the day's final session by taking four wickets.

When Hansie Cronje won the toss he immediately elected to bat first. Having played a lot of limited overs cricket in the recent past, the visitors were keen to get some solid match practice in the longer form of the game.

Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten began sedately enough, but Debashish Mohanty seemed keen to get the South Africans off to a good start. Mohanty slipped the ball down the leg side to Kirsten with regularity and was worked away easily for runs. Gibbs on the other hand got almost nothing loose and was content biding his time at the crease. It was not until the seventh over, that Gibbs got off the mark, in fine style too, as he smashed an over pitched delivery outside off stump past mid off. The ball raced to the fence and signaled Gibbs' arrival at the crease. Gibbs was truly in good nick as he followed up his off drive with a fluent cover drive off the very next over. Once again the ball was right there in the slot and Gibbs wasted no time in smashing it away.

Murali Kartik was introduced into the attack at the end of the 10th over and began well. The youngster threw the ball up, got the ball to turn away from the right hander and had Gibbs struggling in the very first over. Gibbs became very circumspect after he played an extravagant shot to a ball wide of the stumps and was beaten in the flight and turn.

Just two overs later there was a change in the bowling at the other end as Kumaran was taken off the attack. Kumaran bowled a tight first spell, conceding just ten runs off his six overs. In contrast, Mohanty's five overs cost him 33 runs. Amit Bhandari replaced Kumaran at the Pavilion End.

The fifty came up in the 15th over. There was no real urgency in the two batsmen and that was only to be expected.

Gibbs was never comfortable against Kartik, but frustrated the bowler long enough to make him try something different. Kartik, tired of bowling a full length, dropped the ball short. He was promptly dispatched to the point fence by Gibbs. Kartik was at his best when he threw the ball up and gave it time to turn. After he bowled the ball a bit flatter and was taken for a boundary, Kartik was replaced by Harbhajan Singh.

As lunch approached, Amit Bhandari began to tire and bowled rather loosely. Gibbs was well set by this time and did not mind playing well away from his body. He middled the ball with ease and sent the ball skidding off the turf on the off side more than once. At the other end Kirsten brought up his fifty in characteristic fashion, nudging the ball away for a single. Kirsten, who usually takes his time brought up his fifty off just 64 balls.

Both batsmen were particularly eager to use the sweep shot and did so without much risk. There were almost no instances when the ball went off the top edge or was mishit. The South African hundred came up in the 29th over with Kirsten on 52 and Gibbs on 45. Gibbs was content to give Kirsten most of the strike against Kartik. This ploy worked well for Gibbs, but Kirsten was not as lucky. The southpaw attempted to cut a ball wide of the slip fielder. The ball from Kartik did just enough to surprise the batsman. Kirsten was not totally in control of the shot and Azharuddin diving full length at slip snatched the ball out of the air just as it was going past him. Kirsten's innings of 56 included seven boundaries. At the fall of Kirsten's wicket, lunch was taken.

Resuming after lunch, Kartik bowled well, his confidence up after he picked up the wicket of Kirsten. Gibbs continued to treat Kartik with care. He was joined at the wicket by Jacques Kallis who planted his foot well down the wicket and played with a straight bat. He did not look in any trouble even when Kartik was varying his loop and bowling well. Kallis' use of his feet also did its bit to tame the Indian spinners.

Against the grain of play, Harbhajan Singh picked up the wicket of Gibbs who attempted to sweep the off spinner and ended up under edging the ball. It speared towards the ground, appeared to bounce off Gibbs' boot and ballooned up in the air presenting Kaif at short leg with an easy catch. There was some doubt about whether the ball came off the boot or the ground and Gibbs stared down the wicket in disappointment when the umpire lifted his finger and sent the opener on his way. Gibbs had made 53.

Daryll Cullinan along with Kallis changed the tempo of the game very soon after they came together. Both batsmen were keen to dominate the bowling and played some handsome strokes. Sweeping and driving with the spin, they took to Harbhajan Singh. Even Kartik was taken for one big six as Kallis came down the wicket, got to the pitch of the ball and lofted it effortlessly over long on for six.

When Harbhajan Singh bowled the ball outside the line of the stumps, it was easy for the batsmen to pick him up and whip the ball away on the onside for runs. With the field well spread out, there wasn't much danger in lofting the ball if the batsmen picked the right spots.

The 150 came up in the 45th over as Nayan Mongia made yet another Gaffe and let a Harbhajan quicker delivery fly away to the boundary for four byes. After MSK Prasad and Sameer Dighe displayed less than impressive ability behind the stumps in the recent past, this match was the ideal opportunity for Mongia to win his place back. However, Mongia did not look himself through the course of the first two sessions.

Kumaran got the ball to move well off the wicket and had Cullinan in a bit of strife. Cullinan attempted big strokes to the medium pacer. The fact that Cullinan had a high back lift and an expansive follow through made him a shade late on the ball and the slightest bit of lateral movement made it difficult for him to adjust his stroke. He was lucky to survive a confident shout for LBW, but lived on to struggle further.

Kallis had a big let off when he was on 34 as Nayan Mongia grassed an inside edge off the bowling of Kartik. Beaten in the flight, Kallis' full blooded drive missed the mark as his foot was not to the pitch of the ball.

Amit Bhandari came back into the attack after Kumaran finished a tidy spell of four overs for just three runs. The flow of runs was stemmed after and Bhandari continued to test the batsmen. Confident to the extent of testing Kallis with a bouncer, Bhandari started his new spell with a maiden over.

Kartik's run of bad luck continued as Cullinan chopped a ball straight through Azhar at slip. Azhar was late on the ball and it flew away past him to the vacant third man region for four. Cullinan was stumbling along on 17 at this point. Just when it looked like Azhar could do no worse he dropped a sharp chance, this time of Kallis. The Mumbai crowd began its slow hand clapping and booed the former Indian captain outright.

Just before tea, Cullinan finally got bat on a short wide all from Mohanty and smacked it away for four square of the wicket. The period between lunch and tea was one of mixed success for the Indians. Though they stemmed the flow of runs, which threatened to get out of hand initially, the Indians could not pick up any wickets. The South Africans got away with some less than determined batting thanks mainly to sloppy Indian fielding. Neither batsman looked comfortable against Kartik, who had toiled manfully in his spell of 21-0-69-1. At tea, South Africa were 192/2 with Kallis and Cullinan on 42 and 31 respectively.

After tea, things began to happen. The first to go was Daryl Cullinan as he tried to sneak in a quick single off the bowling of Debashish Mohanty. Unfortunately for him, he picked out the sprightliest fielder of the President's XI Mohamed Kaif who threw the stumps down and had Cullinan struggling to make his ground. Cullinan made 43.

South African captain Hansie Cronje came to the wicket at the fall of Cullinan's wicket. He and Kallis then pushed the scoring on for a while. Soon after Kallis reached his half century, he played a lazy shot to a ball from Mohanty that jumped off the wicket. With the ball hanging in the air outside the off stump, Kallis nicked the ball through to Mongia who pouched the catch easily.

Pieter Strydom showed a lot of initiative while he was at the crease, attempting to dominate the spinners. He played a couple of good shots, but he too did not last long. In attempting to work Harbhajan Singh away, Strydom presented him with the simplest of catches. Harbhajan is an excellent fielder off his own bowling and made no mistake with the catch.

Amidst crowd chants of "Zulu! Zulu!" Lance Klusener walked out to the middle. He began sedately, giving the crowd little to cheer about. Soon he got in to the act and clouted the ball off the back foot. The two times he did that, he found the fielder and did not get off the mark. Out of frustration, he tried to cut a very straight ball from Murali Kartik and was bowled. Kartik was easily the pick of the bowlers and with some luck could have had at least three more wickets to his credit.

While wickets were falling at one end, Cronje was batting sensibly at the other end, attempting nothing fancy. He was joined by stumper Mark Boucher who also played in the same vein. After Cronje got his eye in, he used his feet well, coming down the wicket and tonking the ball over midwicket for a one bounce boundary.

Consecutive boundaries for Boucher off the 88th over of the day gave everyone a clear idea of how flat the wicket was. Cronje showed that he wasn't very far behind in the very next over and did his bit to sully Murali Kartik's figures. The last few overs before close were not good for the Board President's XI. Shoulders drooped in the field and they were clearly playing for close. The South Africans had no such thoughts and were playing as positively as ever.

Kartik in particular was impressive as he stuck to his task all day long. At the end of the day, both sides will return to the pavilion without too much to worry about. South Africa had a good knock out in the middle and the President's XI put up a good enough display in the field.