Durban, Dec. 25: Four seasons ago when the Indians arrived here for the Boxing Day Test under Rahul Dravid they were charged up at the prospect of ending the calendar year on a relatively successful note.
They had narrowly lost a Test series 0-1 in Pakistan, went back home to draw with England, scalped West Indies away, and then crushed a cold and complacent South Africa in Johannesburg towards the end of 2006.
Then Durban happened. The Indians slipped to a 174-run defeat, lost the next one at Cape Town after New Year’s and went back to the West Indies to write a chapter of Indian cricket that is best forgotten: the 2007 World Cup.
The connection between then and the second Test beginning on Sunday here — weeks before the 2011 edition of the big-ticket tournament back home — is just too hard to miss.
Despite the innings and 25-run loss in the first Test at Centurion, the Indians are coming to the end of a year which has more or less been what skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni would’ve wished for at the start. But it can all change over the next five days and Dhoni knows it all to well, having witnessed the aggressive fast bowling pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel ravage the Indian batting line-up in the first innings at Centurion before Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers drove them to despair.
India’s problems, though, go beyond their misfiring bowlers or a formidable batting line-up that has a penchant for collapses after every few games.
The conditions here are even more seam-friendly with a green track and overcast skies welcoming the Indians on Saturday. If it wasn’t for the north-easterly blowing from the shore which can carry away the moisture and make life just a bit more easier for the batsmen, it would’ve been far more judicious to go in with four seamers on this track.
The Proteas draw their confidence from Amla. Set for his 50th Test here, he has virtually stonewalled the Indian attack. He averages 315 in the three Tests that he has played this year against the country of his forefathers, and has been dismissed just once by Zaheer Khan & Co. He has pinched 630 runs from the Indian bowlers out of the 1208 that he has recorded this year.
“I believe he will end his dream year with a bang. To have him in the team is an incredible privilege because he was, especially in 2010, at the forefront of our success. He established himself as one of the leading players in the world,” South Africa skipper Graeme Smith said.
Matches like this call for an in-the-trenches effort from the batsmen. India are expected to beef up their middle order by a replacing the struggling Suresh Raina with Cheteshwar Pujara, who’s technique is a lot tighter.
But history is against them. India have never scored more than 300 runs at this venue in the three visits here, losing two of them.
Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan’s return will be a big boost. India missed him at Centurion not only for his individual ability but for the leadership that he provides to what is an inexperienced pace attack. Whether that’s going to be enough is an entirely different matter altogether.