Jacques Kallis puts Proteas on top – 2nd Test vs. India

Dec 29, 2013

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India 334 and 2-68 (Cheteshwar Pujara 32*, Shikhar Dhawan 19, Vernon Philander 1-9) trails South Africa 500 (Jacques Kallis 115, AB de Villiers 74, Alviro Petersen 62, Ravindra Jadeja 6-138) by 98 runs with eight wickets in hand.

The middle order batsman of South Africa, Jacques Kallis, hammered a century in his final Test and brought the home side in a winning position against India.

India managed 334 runs in their first innings followed by 68 for the loss of two wickets in the second whereas the Proteas piled up 500 in their first one.

The third day’s play of the second Test came to an end on Sunday, December 28, 2013, at Kingsmead, Durban.

Earlier, the hosts started at 5-299 in 104.5 overs whereas Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn were batting at 78 and 0 runs. The duo got off slowly but kept on cruising without playing any risky shots and the first powered his 45^th Test hundred in the 120^th over. Steyn hit seven fours until the end of the 133^rd over and the partnership was broken at 384 when Kallis lost his wicket for 115.

Jacques Kallis - 45th ton in his final Test — Jacques Kallis – 45th ton in his final Test

Dale Steyn was gone three runs later after scoring 44 as Faf du Plessis and Robin Pietersen associated in the middle. The batsmen changed their gears, especially Petersen was the most attacking of the two and was sending the ball out of the rope regularly. He attained his third Test fifty with another four and added 110 runs for the 8^th wicket with his partner. Robin Petersen was finally gone for 61 and du Plessis followed him at 500 after scoring 43. The entire innings of the home side was folded back for at the same score in 155.2 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja was the supreme bowler with six wickets, Zaheer Khan got two whereas Mohammed Shami held one wicket.

India initiated their second innings with a deficit of 166 runs and went down with the first wicket at 8. Cheteshwar Pujara joined in with Shikhar Dhawan who was struggling to find back his form. The batsmen found it hard to push the score briskly and played quite a few overs as a maiden. The second wicket fell at 53 when the latter was dismissed for 19 off 87 balls. Pujara along with Virat Kohli saw the day off and remained unbeaten for 32 and 11 as the score reached 68 in 36 overs.

South Africa still carries a first innings lead of 98 runs whereas the last eight Indian batsmen will have to perform excellently to save the match.