When South Africa embarked on the tour to India, they were considered a bunch of no-hopers. That must have been a hard tag to bear, especially for the senior pros, to digest as South Africa was the last team to beat India in India before the Aussies did so recently. That series win in 1999-00 was India's first series loss at home in twelve years. But the reality is that South Africa have not really taken the world by storm so far in recent times. In fact, they were at the receiving end of a series loss and humiliating five-nil defeat in a one-day series against Sri Lanka, a team against which South Africa had scored a momentous victory away from home under the captaincy of Kepler Wessels in the mid-90s.

The guts and determination that were the hallmark of South Africa under Wessels' leadership, and the innovation and ingenuity that elevated their world standing under the late Hansie Cronje, have been conspicuous by their absence in the last few years. But if South Africa were expected to roll over, Andrew Hall gave the most impressive retort to silence any doubts about his team's commitment. The highlight of South Africa's first innings was concerted and nurturing partnerships that built on the fortuitous luck of Graeme Smith when he won the toss and took first strike. The promotion of Andrew Hall to the opening slot was the first of many fresh plans that have been incorporated for the trip to India. The tour marks the start of a new coaching stint under former Eastern Province coach Ray Jennings, with Eric Simons shown the door. Only Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis remain from the last tour of India. The experienced Lance Klusener, Mark Boucher and Gary Kirsten have been replaced by budding stars in Zander de Bruyn, Martin van Jaarsveld and South Africa's first black wicketkeeper, the promising Thami Tsolekile.

Patience turned to exasperation for the Indians as the rising stars, Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Kaif, surprisingly sidelined for this tussle, could only watch helplessly from the boundary ropes. Andrew Hall batted for fifteen minutes short of five sessions to score a fine 163, his highest score in first-class cricket. His aggressive demeanour was replaced by a more pragmatic but no less assertive attitude towards the task at hand. His reading of the situation was impeccable, as was his stroke-play. He found the Indian bowling largely innocuous and while Anil Kumble picked up all the four wickets to fall on the first day, even he was growing weary. Kumble may have picked up his twenty-eighth five wicket haul in Test cricket, but his lapse on the first day wherein he dropped Hall off Harbhajan Singh's bowling, proved to be very costly.
 

South Africa's batting in their tour match against the Board President's XI highlighted the fact that they were willing to bide their time without putting pressure on themselves to score runs at a fair clip. That was evident once more in this innings. Graeme Smith's lapse in judgement on thirty-seven, when he played on to Anil Kumble's bowling ended a rather hassle-free opening partnership of sixty-one, which really reinforced the belief in the South African camp to meet the Indian challenge. Another rewarding eighty-five partnership materialised between Hall and Jacques Kallis, who has been assigned only a batting role for this Test, due to a side strain. Just when it appeared that India had their backs to the wall, a double blow on 154 evened things out before tea. But the overnight partnership between Andrew Hall, batting on seventy-eight, and vice-captain Boeta Dippenaar, further dented the morale of a tiring Indian attack on the first evening. Their stand ended only thirteen short of a century. The Indians were shown no sympathy by the Test debutant Zander de Bruyn, who played his strokes fluently. He ably supported Andrew Hall, who remained the pivotal cog in South Africa's irrefutable resurgence. Hall's dismissal ended a massive and telling 144-run association with De Bruyn before tea.

Yet another appeal - The Indian players exercised theit vocal chords right through the day, with little success.

De Bruyn carried on, putting together another partnership with former skipper Shaun Pollock. The former was a tad unlucky not to be able to score a rare Test debut century, falling to Harbhajan for eighty-three. But no one can deny the impact of his contribution. It thrilled his teammates and demoralised his opponents. The Indian performance was below-par and uninspiring to say the least. The three South African wickets that fell on the second day could be attributed more to lapse in concentration or poor judgment in shot selection than a special guileful bowling from even the mesmerizing Anil Kumble. The slow pace at which the South Africans made their runs might make some of the Indian players contemplate a draw, but adopting a defensive attitude while batting could backfire on them, as generally happens in cricket.

The Indian batsmen should take a leaf from the manner in which their opponents went about their job. South Africa's bowling wears an inexperienced look, but at the moment, the initiative lies firmly with them.