Scorecard

Even for a team prone to be on the receiving end of high drama, the first ten minutes of the fourth day's play at Newlands was going some.

The fun -- okay, using the word loosely -- began in the second over. Virender Sehwag, sent out at the top of the order to see if he couldn't crack the game open for India, flicked Dale Steyn for a four off his pads; one ball later, he lashed out at a harmless ball going well outside off, got the edge and got de Villiers, all in that order 4/3; 6/1).

At the other end, Makhaya Ntini banged one in short; Wasim Jaffar swayed out of line and looked to have left. The ball, however, hit a crack and took off, following the batsman, pinning him in place and clipping the glove to put de Villiers in business again (2/11; 6/2).

And all of that was merely prelude to the real drama: no one came out to bat. The South African players looked puzzled; Shaun Pollock and Graeme Smith began consulting the umpires about the rules regarding a batsman being timed out; Rahul Dravid looked like he could cry; the cameras panned to the Indian dressing room and found no one there who should be: no Tendulkar, no Ganguly, no Laxman, no coach.

The suspense lasted for all of eight minutes before a plainly puzzled Sourav Ganguly came out through the gate, putting his gloves and make up on along the way. It was a while before clarification came: apparently match referee Ranjan Madugalle ruled that since Sachin Tendulkar had been off the field last evening when South Africa was bowled out, he couldn't bat in his usual position.

To the first ball he received, Ganguly thought of continuing the drama: the first ball he received, predictably short, was guided clinically into the slip cordon; to the batsman's luck, it flew between third slip and gully down to the fence for four.

Both batsmen met for a mid-wicket chat, probably to agree that they had given spectators enough heart attacks; from that point on, play settled down to conventional lines and, along the way, the cliche 'out of evil cometh good' got a fresh lease of life.

The Proteas bowlers were really feeling their breakfast oats at this point and bowling like they were radar controlled. Suddenly confronted with a left-right combination, those clean lines fell apart. In the 8th over, Ganguly first played a neat cover drive for a brace, then off drove Dale Steyn with ease and poise. At the other end, Dravid cut Ntini to the point boundary; two overs later the bowler was flicked to fine leg, then smashed through the covers off the front foot. Equally to the point, both batsmen looked to drop the odd ball dead and take off for quick singles, accentuating the left-right advantage and forcing bowlers into constant changes of line.

The real signal that the early morning tide had truly changed, though, came in the 15th over. Ntini, after much fiddling with his field, ran in and banged one down. Ganguly waited on it, moved into position, and pulled fluently away to the midwicket fence (that the shot also brought up India's 50 was, in context, incidental). As a signal of intent, the shot was hard to beat and though the bowler cracked him on the forearm guard with another lifter in the next ball, Ganguly stayed calm, and played the next delivery off his hips, again through midwicket, for a single. The message was, no, it is not quite as simple as running in and banging it down.

The run rate was above the 3 an over mark; Ntini (1/29 in 8) was clearly done; Steyn was off the field, the aggressive field was diluted, and debutant spinner Paul Harris found himself in action as early as the 16th over. At the other end, Ganguly refused to let Pollock settle, slapping him over the slips cordon for the four that brought up the 50 of the partnership (52 runs in 15.2 overs). Pollock, used to having things his own way, was forced to go round the wicket to the left hander to try and slow things down.

The importance of the slender 41 run lead began manifesting itself as well -- when Dravid at the other end straight drove Harris for a single, India had topped the 100 mark , including the lead, in the first session itself: a healthy platform for the batting side, a worrying statistic for the home team looking to bat last.

The run rate at lunch is 2.97 -- and that includes a slow down as lunch approached; there are 66 overs to go in the day. If the batting side can go on at even this pace through the rest of the day, they are looking to be anywhere between 290-310 (inclusive of the lead) at close of play (obviously, if they do find themselves in a very good position at tea, they will logically look to explode the rate of scoring). That will give them a sizeable bank of runs and 90 overs at South Africa on the final day, with the side batting last knowing the chances of forcing a win are slim to none, and therefore being forced onto the defensive from the get-go. For India, that is the optimum situation; then again, this Test has served up enough twists and turns already; who knows what drama lies ahead in session two?

Lunch time score: India 73/2 in 25 overs; Rahul Dravid 30/68; Sourav Ganguly 35/69.