Zaheer, Harbhajan peg India back into reckoning

Durban,  (IANS) India bounced back in the second Test, courtesy some brilliant bowling from Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, to pack off South Africa for 131 in the first innings on the second day of the second cricket Test here Monday.

Zaheer (3-36) and Harbhajan (4-10) packed off South Africa in 37.2 overs. India now lead by 74 runs after having been bowled out for 205 in the first innings.

South Africa, who were struggling at 74 for four at lunch, folded up dramatically to lose their last six wickets for 35 runs in 20.4 overs forcing an early tea.

Pace spearhead Zaheer’s return made a difference. The left-arm seamer, who missed out the first Test due to a hamstring injury, toiled hard to keep South Africa on the backfoot.

After lunch it was Harbhajan Singh and some fine catching from the visitors that triggered South Africa’s downfall.

Hashim Amla (33) was trapped in front as he attempted to sweep Harbhajan. Zaheer then cleaned up Ashwell Prince.

Rahul Dravid took a spectacular reflex catch diving to his left to remove Dale Steyn while Cheteswar Pujara held another splendid bat-pad to get rid of Paul Harris. Harbhajan got both the wickets.

Harbhajan was again in the thick of action when he caught a Morne Morkel skier at third man after Ishant Sharma set-up the fast bowler with sharp bouncers.

Harbhajan picked the last man Lonwobe Tsotsobe, who was caught by Murali Vijay at mid-wicket.

Earlier, India were bowled out for 205 after adding 22 runs to their overnight total of 183 for six. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35) scored 15 of those runs, including a six off Dale Steyn, but perished in the deep while attempting another big hit.

Zaheer, who returned to the side after missing out the first Test at Centurion with a hamstring injury, bowled beautifully to pin down the South African openers. The left-handed Zaheer got the ball to seam around. He did not have to wait long for the reward as South African captain Graeme Smith, who has often been at Zaheer’s receiving end, edged behind.

Zaheer then removed Alviro Peterson (24), who moved across, allowing the ball to hit his leg stump.

But Zaheer did not get good support from the other end with both Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma lacking consistency in their line and length.

Amla and Jacques Kallis (10) added 30 runs and were looking good when India got the latter out with a stroke of luck. Kallis backed up far too ahead and Ishant got his fingertips to the straight shot from Amla that hit the wicket and found him out of his crease.

Sreesanth, who was bowling wayward till then, suddenly bowled an unplayable delivery that swung late to kiss the gloves of AB de Villiers and Dhoni gobbled an easy catch.

Smith’s lucky Test cap found

DURBAN, (PTI) South Africa captain Graeme Smith has found his ‘’lucky Test cap’’, which he wore for 89 matches, within days of it being allegedly stolen while he was on his way to Durban from Cape town.

Smith wore the cap in every match since his debut against Australia in 2002 in Cape Town.

Smith revealed the news of the cap being found via his Twitter account.

“Big thx everyone, got my cap back! must have been @janbraai lamb offering...:-) quality crowd on boxing day, big for the boys PROTEAS,” the skipper wrote.

An official Cricket South Africa tweet also confirmed the development but did not say whether it has been returned voluntarily or recovered from somewhere.

“Smith’’s cap has been found and returned to its rightful owner. Happy days,” it stated.

Smith had been upset ever since the cap was lost and had described it as “irreplaceable”.

South Africa are currently playing India in the second Test of a three-match series at Kingsmead here.

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