| Watch India Vs. South Africa 1st Test Live Streaming | | | | Graeme Smith hadn't looked comfortable either. In |
| Zaheer got India off to a splendid start as he took | | | | the seventh over of the innings, with the score at 6 |
| two quick wickets early on. Prince was unlucky to be | | | | for 1, Smith played a poor shot, a defensive one with |
| given out caught behind while replays suggested that | | | | an angled bat, and the slight seam movement found |
| it went off his arm guard. Zak bowled a beauty to | | | | the gap. Ishant Sharma was disciplined in support, and |
| send Smith back to the hut and SA were put on the | | | | then the spinners managed to extract disconcerting |
| backfoot right away. Kallis came in and looked to | | | | turn. Scoring runs took a backseat: the first boundary |
| rebuild the innings with Amla giving him good | | | | came in the tenth over, a square-cut by Amla, also |
| company. The South Africans paced the innings | | | | the first sweetly-timed shot. |
| beautifully after the loss of two wickets and Kallis | | | | The spinners came on in the 12th over, at 16 for 2, |
| got to his 53rd Test fifty minutes before the Lunch | | | | and immediately there was turn. Perhaps too much |
| break. | | | | turn. Mishra turned legbreaks across the batsmen on |
| Things were just as eventful half an hour before the | | | | more than one occasion, was denied an lbw because |
| first ball was bowled. VVS Laxman lost the fitness | | | | the ball spun too much, and started looking for too |
| race, his last-minute replacement Rohit Sharma injured | | | | much, bowling outside leg stump. M Vijay, fielding at |
| himself playing football, and India had to give Bengal | | | | forward short leg, added a new dimension to his role. |
| wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha a Test debut as a | | | | Twice he fired in throws at the non-striker's end, |
| specialist batsman. Then MS Dhoni lost the toss and | | | | once he missed by inches with Kallis, who was |
| South Africa got first use of a slow pitch that would | | | | backing up, still out of his crease, and once he forced |
| get harder for scoring runs with time. Not everything | | | | a referral with Amla just safe. |
| conspired against India, though: a sharp bouncer from | | | | Kallis, though, remained serene with all this happening |
| Zaheer hit Ashwell Prince on the arm guard and the | | | | around him. Not at the cost of urgency. When Mishra |
| batsman was given out caught behind. Perhaps used | | | | tried too hard, and pitched ever so short, Kallis pulled |
| to the review system, he wanted to challenge the | | | | him over midwicket in back-to-back overs. It ended |
| decision, but had to take the walk back. | | | | the period of struggle, taking South Africa to 47 for |
| Watch India Vs. South Africa 1st Test Live Streaming | | | | 2 in the 22nd over. He then turned his attention to |
| There was no luck involved in how Zaheer set Prince | | | | Harbhajan, slog-sweeping twice when he got too full, |
| up. Twice he beat Prince with deliveries that seamed | | | | and also drove him inside-out. Zaheer came back for |
| in, the ball hitting him marginally outside the line of | | | | a spell before lunch, managed some reverse, but he |
| off, and once he got an edge with the away-going | | | | was taken for two boundaries too. Almost every |
| delivery, but it fell short of the slip cordon. Finally | | | | loose delivery in the last half hour of the session was |
| came the bouncer, not too short, but surprising the | | | | accounted for, and Kallis moved from 12 off 39 balls |
| batsman. | | | | to 55 off 81 by the lunch break. |