Its upto the Indian Giants now....

This pitch doesn't seems to be the same pitch on which the Indians batted on day 1. The ball bounced deviantly and batsmen had no mercy. But from day 2 the pitch looks lot more different. Batsmen could easily play strokes on it. Indians were really unfortunate to loose toss on pitches like this.

Saying that, the bowling performance of Indian quickies is very poor. They should have taken all the 10 wickets at least before the proteas reached 500 mark. But they went on to score 600+ runs with a loss of 4 wickets. Out of 130 overs India has bowled, not even a single over could trouble the hosts.

Luckily for India the pitch eased up a bit. Now its not difficult to play strokes but I think that India would try to defend the ball rather than scoring the runs at a quicker rate.

"Now our focus is on saving the game." - Rahul Dravid

India opened its third innings very positively. Openers played fantastically, they didn't let the pressure in. Although there is huge lead to deal with, the World No.1 team's openers didn't get nervous. They played freely and didn't allow proteas to choke the score card. This is a very good attitude being displayed by Indians. If you get too defensive the opposition will get upper hand and will try to dominate you. So the Indian openers exhibited controlled aggression. But the way Sehwag got out will play on the minds of Indian dressing room. When everything was going well, he just gave his wicket. Gambhir's wicket came in for a very good delivery from Steyn. Ghambhir has to call himself unfortunate for having to play that ball.

India is still trailing by 294 runs and there are two days of play to happen. Not at all an easy task. But India has every chance to achieve it. Indian middle order is studded with jewels like Dravid, Sachin and Laxman. Dravid has already begun his battle and is playing beautifully up there. He is looking cool and settled and hence he will be determine to guard the gates at one end. Night watchman Ishant has loads of temperament and he is a tough guy to deal with. He will try with all his might to build up a partnership with Dravid as long as possible. India will hope that these two batsmen will hold on innings for at least some 20-30 overs.

Tendulkar who is on verge of his 50th century will relish this occasion. He knows that if he can make a century in this innings, that 50th century will be a match saving century that everyone will remember for a life time. Laxman has the reputation of fourth innings expert and he will try to live upto it. He has the rare skill of tying up the innings with lower order batsmen.

Dhoni and Raina should raise up to the occasion and go out to perform their best. Harbhajan can be very useful with bat. Even Sree has good temperament that he had exhibited recently in Kiwis test series. He will look forward to repeat it.

So India has every chance of sailing to the shore safely. Its all upto the Indian batting giants to rescue the team. Good luck India.

Good bye friends. Will come again tomorrow with fourth day analysis. Until then good bye...

Comments are welcome...