Legacy in a royal mess

Without Smith, Yousuf and Kamran, the Royals will rely on the combined might of Warne, Lehman, Kaif and Yusuf Pathan to win matches. Pitted against the megawatt stardom in all other teams, they look like domestic goat that wandered into the forest. At night. After a bath in chicken blood, wearing neon signs that say "Red Meat".

But one man, known as the Best Captain Australia Never Had, can change all that. On his day, and there are several of them, all he needs is four overs, to reduce grown men to tears. And that has nothing to do with their wives, or daughters. Or mothers. It will help if Warne came into bowl with a few wickets down. Where's Morne Morkel? Sohail Tanvir should be here soon as well.

And Dmitri? The Royals don't need others to gain what might turn out to be an unassailable lead.

Virile Saurav

Ganguly's batting at Kanpur was a measured repartee to critics, and even I have done that occasionally, who have always questioned his spine. Now his fans have one of the great Indian knocks to hold up when his determination/virility/team-play/skill is questioned. He came to the crease after Morne had a piece of Dravid's finger and his wicket, and while he was at the other end, Laxman played inside the line to one that pitched on leg and took off and middle - Morkel at work again. Given how the pitch was behaving, and given that the Indian batting has over the last couple of years been guilty of permitting easy momentum shifts, Ganguly was phenomenal - driving out of the rough, fearless in coming down the track, and almost chanceless against the quicks.
Sreesanth had a fantastic opening to the third days play. Not only did his batting deprive Smith of any initiative, his bowling was also quite spectacular, outshining Ishant Sharma for the first time.
Could the South Africans have done better? Maybe, if Smith and Kallis hadn't let things drift for that long in the second innings, if Ashwell had taken a few more risks.
Any sense criticizing the pitch? Maybe, but only on the grounds that the match did not last full five days. Predictably, when something was in it for the bowlers, it made for exciting cricket. It also threw mud on the giant strides that the South Africans seemed to have taken in learning how to play spin effectively.
Did they choke? Yes. The Indian tail wagged longer than at any point in the series on a crumbling pitch on the decider.

300, starring the V-Bomb

Dale Steyn recieved an education in Test cricket. Morne Morkel troubled him with bounce more not than often. Paul Harris was ineffective at best. Ntini did not play like someone with a bucketload of wickets - either too short or too full.

Of course, none of this really mattered because Virender Sehwag is a Chennai SuperKing (averaging over 150 at the venue now). With nine wickets still to go before SA can bat again, the V-Bomb has made sure India will not lose. If India can keep the run rate up tomorrow, there is no reason India cannot put pressure on South Africa on the last day.

A world record, at a TV screen near you?