2.4 to Smith, Got im! Khan nails Smith. Yet again. Pings in a short one and Smith swivels off his front foot, pulls and gets a top edge. It balloons up over the slips, swirls in the air and Tendulkar, from the first slip, turns and runs towards it. A wonderful catch. Bad shot selection though. The ball was outside the offstump and he was trying to fetch it from there. Arthur's prayer has not worked. 8/1

6.2 to Amla, Khan strikes again! Perfect delivery to a right-hand batsman. Lands on a length, on the middle stump and shapes in. Amla falls over a touch as he is surprised by the inward movement and is trapped right in front. Dead plumb. South Africa are tottering here at Durban. 13/2

12.3 to de Villiers, change of end works! fuller in length and shaping away late, just a wee bit. de Villiers goes for the drives and the edge goes straight to Tendulkar at first slip. Another South African batsman walks back, courtesy poor shot selection. South African three down and in deep trouble here. 28/3

35.2 to Gibbs, and there's the wicket!!! Just as this partnership was assuming significant proportions, Gibbs plays a loose shot, plays a flamboyant pull to a wide delivery, and only manages a thick outside edge, Dhoni does the rest by diving to his right and comes up with the ball 122/4

63.6 to Boucher, Crash! Sreesanth has cleaned up Boucher! What a big blow! It was full in length, landed on the off and middle stump line, and jagged back in. Boucher went for a drive and is beaten by the in-drift. His bat went outside the line of the ball even as the cherry threaded the huge gap between bat and pad. Sreesanth spreads out his arms, ala Donald, and runs along merrily in celebration 222/5

82.3 to Prince, Prince falls! Sreesanth hurls across a full and wide delivery, well outside the offstump, and Prince reaches out for it and edges it to left and above head-high of Laxman at second slip. Good catch. Not a wicket-taking delivery but ....A defiant knock from Prince comes to an end. Sreesanth applauds Prince, taps him on the back as he walks back. 296/9

71.3 to Pollock, and VRV Singh strikes!!! full and wide again, Pollock decides to drive it square this time, that was a copybook square drive, weight nicely transferred onto the frontfoot, head nicely over the ball, and hit off the middle of the bat, but it was hit uppishly and it was travelling at some speed, but unfortunately for Pollock and for South Africa, it was Sehwag at point and he didn't have to move too much to take that catch. 256/6

72.2 to Hall, Googly does him in! Tossed up, lands on a length, outside the offstump and Hall is clueless and plays for the conventional spin. The ball breaks back in to trap him in front. Dead duck! India have come back well in the last session, prising out three wickets. 257/7

72.5 to Nel, The Googly claims another victim. Quite similar to the Hall dismissal. It landed outside the off stump, full in length, and Nel ends up driving all around it. Again the batsman was playing for the traditional leg break and is beaten by the wrong'un. Kumble is running through the tail here. Will Prince get his ton or will he get stranded? 257/8

91.3 to Ntini, Topspinner does the trick. Lands on a length, on the middle and off, Ntini presses forward, bat comes down outside the line as the ball slides in and is trapped plumb in front. 328/10

0.5 to Sehwag, Sehwag falls for a duck. First ball. Length-delivery outside the offstump, Sehwag flashes at it, away from his body, and de villiers, standing at second slip, plucks the ball as it flies to his right. Good smart catch and Sehwag's travails continue. 5/1

9.2 to Dravid, Nel nails Dravid. With a little bit of help from umpire Benson. Angled in, lands on a length around off, and shapes back in and beats Dravid for pace. He is hit high on the thigh and it was going just over the leg stump. But that's that. India have lost two quick wickets here and Pollock is yet to bowl 35/2

23.3 to Jaffer, got'm! Jaffer's long vigil comes to an end. Pitched up. Ball came in with the angle and shaped away just a wee bit after hitting the deck. Probably bit of reverse swing there. Jaffer for once attempts to squeeze the ball through covers and ends up with a thick edge. de Villiers at second slip swoops lows and takes a good catch - that's end of that. 61/3

45.4 to Tendulkar, Tendulkar falls! Very bad shot-selection. It was banged in short of length, landed on the offstump line, came in towards top of middle, Tendulkar had his left foot thrust forward and across and suddenly backs away, sways away and tries to cut it to the thirdman region. Cramped for room as the ball keeps coming in. And he ends up nicking it behind for Boucher to hold a simple catch. Poor shot selection does him in. He was looking so good and this is a big blow. South African fielders erupt in joy 125/4

45.6 to Ganguly, Now Ganguly falls. India slip into a deep crisis. Banged in short, at the body, Ganguly was too late to react, it rises chest-high, and he just fended it off in an ungainly manner, as if he didn't see the ball, and it popped up, off the shoulder of the bat, at backward point for a simple catch 125/5

59.1 to Dhoni, Morkel gets his first Test wicket. What a moment for the youngster. Dhoni falls edging a drive to second slip. Full in length and outside offstump, shapes away a touch, Dhoni drives and nicks it behind to de Villiers who dives low to his left from second slip to take the catch. Huge wicket this. 179/6

61.1 to Kumble, Kumble throws his wicket away. Full and wide and he threw the kitchen sink at it. And the outside edge is swallowed up by Boucher. Morkel gets his second victim. Laxman is in the danger of being stranded. 179/7

65.2 to Khan, Gone! Morkel claims his third victim. Banged in short of length and it rears up chest high, at the body of Zaheer, who goes for an ungainly pull shot but only ends up popping up a simple catch to Amla at short-leg. 183/8

77.5 to Singh, Indian innings has folded up. Laxman is stranded. VRV Singh backs away, swings his bat a length-delivery which cut back in a bit and gets a faint nick. 240/10

76.6 to Sreesanth, oh ho! brain explosion! Sreesanth, suddenly, gives a charge, backing away in the process, and throws his bat at a length-delivery, gets a top-edge, and into Boucher's gloves.Waste of a wicket. South Africa won't be complaining though. 235/9

37.5 to Boucher, Another one bites the dust! Zaheer Khan pitches this one just in line with the leg stump, Mark Boucher tries to play across the line, and misses the line of the ball - he's caught plumb in front of the stumps, the only point of contention was if the ball pitched outside leg stump or not, and once Asad Rauf was conviced it didn't, he decided to send Mark Boucher back on his way 143/6

29.5 to Amla, He does! Full and on the middle and leg and Amla has a waft across the line - quite a poor shot- and is hit in front of the leg stump line. Hawk eye reveals it would have clipped the outerhalf of the leg stump. Two quick wickets for India. Sreesanth turns around, once he got the decision in his favour, looks at the batsman and does a 'namaste' gesture 108/2

31.3 to Smith, and Smith goes, and Sreesanth gets his revenge. This one was pitched in line with the stumps and swung back into Smith who tries to drive it to mid wicket without moving his feet, there's a big gap between the bat and pad and the ball sneaks through and dismantles all the wood work behind Smith. 121/3

31.6 to Prince, Prince goes for a duck this time. Sreesanth on fire!!! this one was pitched on the stumps and shaped away with the arm, Prince plays away from his body and feels for it outside the off stump, the ball takes the edge and sails at a comfortable height to Ganguly at first slip. 121/4

55.5 to Hall, Sreesanth strikes! Hall falls playing across the line. Full, on the leg and middle stump line, and Hall, like Amla, goes across the line, misses. Hitting the legstump. At first look, it looked as if it was missing legstump but the replays and the hawkeye say the legstump would be pegged back. Umpire Asad Rauf lifts the fatal finger. 213/7

28.4 to de Villiers, VRV Singh gets the breakthrough. Length-delivery, on the offstump line, holds its line and de Villiers, three runs short of his fifty, pushes hard at it, bat away from the body, and nicks it to low and in front of Laxman who takes a neat catch at second slip. de Villiers looks at Laxman who confirms he has taken it cleanly and then walks. But suddenly stops, asks for confirmation from the umpires who refer it upstairs. The verdict is OUT. Big wicket. 99/1

36.2 to Gibbs, and he strikes second ball! fuller in length and bowled slower through the air, Gibbs is sucked forward into the drive and the ball goes straight to Karthik at short cover. Was there to be hit but Gibbs was done in by the lack of pace there. Well bowled Kumble 140/5

67.4 to Morkel, The declaration has come as Morkel falls slogging. Tossed up by Sehwag and Morkel lofts it straight down the throat of long-off. So India need to chase 354. Interesting declaration. Smith didn't want to things to drift what with bad light curtailing play on most days.

Rakesh obviously uses Nike. He says, "Just do it", But doesn't tell us India or South Africa.
Sunil Archak has given up hope of an Indian win. Wants the stats for India playing out a draw! Here it is. 429 for 8, chasing 438 and thus falling tantalizingly close to a win at the Oval against England in 1979. Then, 364 for 6, chasing 390 against Pakistan in Delhi in 1979. Third, 355 for 8 , chasing 361, against West Indies in Mumbai in 1949. Then comes that famous Tied Test in Chennai in 87. 347 runs. Against South Africa, India's highest score in a draw is 206 for 3, in Port Elizabeth in 2001, while chasing 395. 265/8

28.4 to Laxman, Huge huge wicket. Laxman falls, playing across the line. It landed on just short of length, outside the offstump, shaped back in towards off, and Laxman, for some reason, chose to go across the line, his bat coming down in an angle and gave him no chance as the ball flew through the huge bat and pad gap to crash into the top of the offstump. Laxman then, like Tendulkar did when he got out, gestured as if that was low. He swooped down, bent down suggesting he anticipated that it would bounce more than it did. 85/6

48.5 to Dhoni, What a time to get a wicket. Nel is ecstatic. What a time to throw your wicket away. Dhoni is distraught. Full in length, in the channel outside offstump and, Dhoni decides to combust. He throws his bat at it, trying to drill it through the offside ring, and edges it behind. Boucher takes off in the air to pouch a spectacular catch. There was just two minutes left before the tea break. All of India would be asking why Dhoni why? South Africa would be happy he did. 160/8

54.5 to Khan, Nel gets the vital wicket. Banged it in short of length, it kicks up outside the offstump, and also holds its line. Zaheer hops up, gets squared-up as the ball straightens, pushes at it, bat away from the body, feet up in the air, and it flies to Hall at third slip who makes no mistake. All the fielders converge on Nel. He has never been so popular. Never has Zaheer been so disappointed. India lose their ninth wicket. South Africa are ever so close to that win. Just one wicket away. 179/9

3.6 to Sehwag, Gone this time! Straight to Smith at first slip. Lands on a length, outside the offstump, comes in a touch, Sehwag jabs at it as he plays slightly inside the line, bat brushes the pad before making contact, and the outer edge is swallowed up by Smith. SA celebrate and why not. India lose their first wicket. India need another 340 runs, SA need 9 wickets. 14/1

11.4 to Dravid, Ntini gets Dravid with a probing delivery outside the offstump. Full in length, lands outside the offstump, Dravid is sucked into a forward prod, bat comes down ahead of his body, jabs at it and the 'nick' is swallowed up by Boucher. Replays don't reveal a edge. Dravid is also not so happy, the bat must have clipped the pad. South Africa are hot here! 2 down, in comes Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Another semi-crisis to deal with. The story of his life. 34/2

13.5 to Tendulkar, Huge wicket! Tendulkar is trapped in front. Ntini strikes for South Africa. slightly short of length, landed outside the offstump, came in, Tendulkar initially kept his left foot out, then hopped back and was hit on the knee roll. Beaten for pace. The ball was going on to strike the top of the middle stump. 38/3

15.2 to Jaffer, horrible shot! Ntini bangs one in short, it stays well outside the offstump, Jaffer tries to fetch it from there, pulls and all he does is end up popping it up to Nel, who moves to his left, at mid-on to take a simple catch. South Africa are on fire here. India slip further into a deep crisis. Enter Sourav Ganguly. 45/4

27.1 to Ganguly, Ntini nail his fifth victim. Ganguly falls, pushing to gully. Banged in short, slanting away, chest-high. Ganguly gets up on his toes, tries to get on the top of the bounce, but couldn't and ends up steering it straight to Gibbs. Gibbs takes the catch, points the finger towards dressing room. Now then, the match referee could be interested. India sink into deep hole. South Africa are digging up that hole deeper with more than a little help from the Indian batsmen. 83/5

38.1 to Kumble, He gets the breakthrough righaway with a snorter. Beast of a delivery, rears up right at the throat, Kumble is stunned at the extra bounce, just fends at it, eyes off the ball, and pops up a dolly to Amla at short-leg. Kumble resisted for 41 minutes. Valiant effort comes to an end and South Africa storm further towards a win. And oh btw... the sun is still out, smiling down on the arena. 101/7

55.1 to Sreesanth, South Africa have levelled the series!. What a nerve-wracking game! Andrew Hall gets them home. Congrats South Africa. Sreesanth is unhappy, storms off the field. Not at the South African celebration, which was, obviously, wild but at the decision. It went off the right shoulder. No edge. Banged in short, and at the offstump line, Sreesanth tries to withdraw his bat from the line. He does. Umpire Asad Rauf doesn't notice it. The cherry whistles past the blade, brushes the right shoulder and sails into Boucher's gloves. Game over. 179/10