Yesterday's Hero...Virat Kohli
Today's Hero...Vernon Philander
Not many people know that Vernon Philander started his provincial career as a batsman! When you watched him bat today to help save South Africa from a very dismal position, you might realise that he is still not a muck with bat in hand. He put on an unbeaten 67 run partnership with struggling batsman Faf du Plessis (17) for the 7th wicket to help rescue the Proteas from an embarrassing collapse (they lost 5 wickets in about 20 odd runs) at 146 for 6, to end Day 2 on 213/6.
Philander is currently on 48 not out, but the job is not over yet. South Africa is still more than 60 runs behind the Indian first innings total of 280. Philander was furthermore the joint destroyer with the ball during this morning's first session, when together with Morne Morkel they cut through the Indian batsmen in no-time. Philander fell just short of taking his 100th test wicket, when he ended on 4 for 61, while Morkel was just as impressive with figures of 3 for 34.
The South African innings started off solid enough when they only lost Peterson for 21 early on. Smith and Amla put on a solid partnership of almost 100, when Amla was bowled by Sharma. In walked Jacques Kallis, SA's best batsman for many years, but he lasted only one ball. From there things got even worse, as the Proteas lost three wickets with the total on 130. Another two fell soon thereafter and when Philander joined Du Plessis on 146/6, it appeared as if India was going to make sure of "winning" the test on Day 2 already.
BUT...Philander had other ideas. This is why The Sports-Man do not "like" cricket, he "loves" it...it is very unpredictable and you can never be sure what will happen next! What will day 3 dish up for us? I certainly cannot wait...
India 280
South Africa 213/6 (66.0 ov)
South Africa trail by 67 runs with 4 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Stumps - Day 2
- India in South Africa Test Series - 1st Test
- Test no. 2108 | 2013/14 season
- Played at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
- 18,19,20,21,22 December 2013 (5-day match)
| South Africa 1st innings | R | M | B | 4s | 6s | SR | ||
 | GC Smith* | lbw b Khan | 68 | 119 | 11 | 0 | 57.14 | |
| AN Petersen | lbw b I Sharma | 21 | 61 | 41 | 4 | 0 | 51.21 |
| HM Amla | b I Sharma | 36 | 117 | 74 | 6 | 0 | 48.64 |
| JH Kallis | lbw b I Sharma | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| AB de Villiers† | lbw b Mohammed Shami | 13 | 32 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 61.90 |
| JP Duminy | c Vijay b Mohammed Shami | 2 | 22 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 16.66 |
| F du Plessis | not out | 17 | 55 | 1 | 0 | 30.90 | ||
| VD Philander | not out | 48 | 76 | 5 | 0 | 63.15 | ||
| Extras | (lb 4, w 1, nb 3) | 8 | ||||||
 | ||||||||
| Total | (6 wickets; 66 overs) | 213 | (3.22 runs per over) | |||||
| To bat DW Steyn, M Morkel, Imran Tahir |
| Fall of wickets 1-37 (Petersen, 13.1 ov), 2-130 (Amla, 38.1 ov), 3-130 (Kallis, 38.2 ov), 4-130 (Smith, 39.3 ov),5-145 (Duminy, 44.1 ov), 6-146 (de Villiers, 44.3 ov) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |||
| Z Khan | 22 | 4 | 72 | 1 | 3.27 | (1w) | |
| Mohammed Shami | 18 | 3 | 48 | 2 | 2.66 | ||
| I Sharma | 20 | 4 | 64 | 3 | 3.20 | (3nb) | |
| R Ashwin | 6 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 4.16 |
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