South Africa won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat on day one of the third test in Kanpur. The pitch is widely predicted to fall apart after three or four days and they wouldn’t have wanted to be batting last against India’s spinners.
The decision looked even better at 152-1 in the afternoon session, with runs from McKenzie (36), Smith (69) and Amla (51) putting the visitors in control. Then the fight back started.
Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh took three wickets each as the South African innings disintegrated. At the close they were all out for 265, well short of the 300 plus they were hoping for on this wearing track.
India need to apply themselves and bat well against the South African seamers. The bounce was variable, although mainly staying low, right from the start of play. If they can get any sort of a lead here they are right back in with a chance of squaring the series - even without their injured skipper Kumble.
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