Match ends in a tame draw

The third day's play opened up with the faint glimmer of hope that a result would be possible. If Hansie Cronje and Pieter Strydom had a dash at the bowling, then a declaration might follow. Even if a result was not on the cards, Hayward and Donald steaming down the wicket would infuse some enthusiasm in the match. Murali Kartik, recently selected as part of the Test squad was introduced into the attack. In a concerted attempt to demoralise the young spinner, both Cronje and Strydom went after him from the first ball. Even Strydom who had not played the spinners with and degree of felicity came down the track and flat batted the ball straight back over Kartik's head for four.

Soon after Kartik was hammered, he was removed from the attack and the pacemen were brought back on. Cronje got to his fifty early on, but it was of little importance given the situation of the game. He attempted to pull a short ball from Mohanty and was deceived by the lack of bounce. The ball kept low and rapped him on the pads. The umpire had no hesitation in sending him on his way.

Lance Klusener who made a duck in the first innings did not look his usual self in the second essay even. After middling the all regularly and not finding the gaps, Klusener pulled a Bhandari short ball straight to Kaif at mid wicket.

Strydom continued to motor on and about half an hour before lunch brought up his fifty with a huge six over long on off Harbhajan Singh. His fifty came off 102 balls and included three boundaries in addition to the six that brought up the landmark. There was very little left to play for before lunch for the Indian Board President's XI and Amit Bhandari used the opportunity to test out the batsmen with some short pitched bowling. Strydom was well up to the task as he waited for the right ball and pulled it away powerfully.

At lunch on the final day, South Africa had a lead of 328. Strydom was unbeaten on a well compiled 63. The roller came on at lunch and it was obvious that South Africa had declared their innings. This left the Indian Board President's XI with 63 overs to chase a tartget of 329.

Despite the steady stream of falling Indian Board President's XI wickets, the last session of play assumed proportions of extreme boredom. After all the excitement of Mohammed Azharuddin's recall and then his withdrawing due to injury, the actual cricket drifted into the background.

Wasim Jaffer was his usual solid defensive self and once again looked a worthwhile prospect as an opener. At the other end Arun Kumar did not last long, and was caught fending at a ball from Hayward after he had made just 2.

Mohammed Kaif made a frisky 33 but could not sustain the assault and was beaten by the turn of a flighted Eksteen delivery. He found himself stranded down the wicket as Boucher whipped the bails off.

There was very little determination in the rest of the Indian Board President's XI middle order. The total was far out of their reach and they never really went after it. Ajay Jadeja was given out caught close to the bat in a doubtful decision. The ball appeared to miss the bat and come off his shoulder.

Nayan Mongia came in to bat next as Azhar's injury ruled him out. In quirky circumstances Mongia was struck on the hand by a rising Hayward delivery and after much on field examination by the physio he too left the field rubbing his right thumb.

Kartik and Kumaran followed but had no answer to the South African bowlers. Neither reached double figures. Harbhajan Singh was once again at his entertaining best and swatted a few lusty blows off both the spinners and the pacemen. When Eksteen trapped Harbhajan LBW, it was very much against the run of play as Harbhajan looked very comfortable at the wicket.

Nayan Mongia came back to the wicket to join Debashish Mohanty and they both dug themselves into a mire of singles and dot balls. The last ten overs yielded just 10 runs. The South Africans persisted with their spinners and even Hansie Cronje rolled his arm over bowling off breaks.

There was an audible sigh of relief as the futile exercise came to a close at 5.16pm. Indian Board President's XI had made 181/8. The match was drawn and the South Africans promptly came back onto the field for a session of exercises.