And they all fall down….

India capitulated meekly to some disciplined bowling by Ntini and Steyn on Day 4. Starting at 468/1, with Sehwag being in a rampaging mood, one would have been forgiven for thinking that India would take a healthy lead of 150 runs or so by tea and then ask Grame Smith and Neil McKenzie to see off the new ball in the last sessions of a day where they had to brave Chennai’s heat and humidity for most of the day.

But no such thing happened. Sehwag departed early, after being frustrated in his attempts to get the strike by some dour defending by Dravid. Granted that Dravid scored his 25th century and also became only the third test player after Gavaskar and Tendulkar to cross  10,000 runs in test cricket. However, one was left with the feeling that he was not playing for the team- something that vintage Dravid could never have been accused of doing.  Bottomline- India lost 9 wickets with an addition of only about 160 runs to their Day 3 score (playing for most of Day 4) and ended their first innings at 627- a relatively modest lead of 87 runs.

South Africa rose to the challenge and although they lost Smith, Amla and McKenzie were scoring at a pretty brisk pace, ending the day with 131/1- effectively, 44 runs ahead.

Chepauk’s reputation of being a spinner’s track on Days 4 and 5 have so far been belied, and the match seems headed for a draw, with the only excitement coming from Sehwag’s swashbuckling 319.