Sehwag talks with Bat
Feb 08 2010 - 07:42:24
South Africa destroyed India's top order with a fierce spell of fast bowling, steering them into pole position on the third day of the first Test in Nagpur.
Morne Morkel removed Gautam Gambhir (12) in his first over, while Dale Steyn accounted for Murali Vijay (four) and also had the prized scalp of Sachin Tendulkar (seven) as India crashed to 56 for three inside the first hour.
Virender Sehwag (63 not out) and debutant Subramaniam Badrinath (21 not out) revived the home side with an unbroken 63-run stand for the fourth wicket as India reached 119 for three at lunch.
India were still 439 runs in deficit of South Africa's first innings total of 558 for six declared at the interval.
The overnight pair had added only six more to the total when Gambhir was sucked into a defensive shot by Morkel, but only managed a faint edge which went straight to Mark Boucher.
Vijay, occupying Rahul Dravid's customary number three position, began with an edged boundary, but that was his only scoring shot.
He was embarrassingly bowled while shouldering arms to a delivery from Steyn which came back in off the seam.
Tendulkar was off the mark with a tentative inside edge and unfurled a couple of attractive drives thereafter, but his stay too was brief as he was sucked into a forward defensive shot by Steyn, the ball flicking the edge on its way to Boucher.
Sehwag had begun the day in belligerent fashion, but the fall of wickets forced him into a more measured approach.
However, he still scored at a fair pace, interspersing good running between the wickets with boundaries, reaching his 22nd Test half-century off 70 deliveries.