Durban, Dec 29:
Jacques Kallis made his swansong match a memorable one by hitting his 45th Test hundred as India faced a daunting task of batting out the entire fifth day to save the series-deciding second cricket Test against South Africa, here.
Kallis ensured that he left the Test arena in a blaze of glory with a fluent 115 as the home team posted a mammoth 500 in their first innings to take a sizeable 166-run lead.
India lost both the openers Murali Vijay (6) and Shikhar Dhawan (19) before reaching 68 for two on yet another rain-marred day, still needing 98 runs to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat.
Cheteshwar Pujara (32) and Virat Kohli (11) will resume India’s battle tomorrow.
Pujara and Dhawan had batted with caution after paceman Vernon Philander had Vijay caught in the slips. But Faf du Plessis took a spectacular one-handed catch to send back Dhawan, who played uppishly in the mid-wicket region and failed to clear the fielder.
It was yet another waste of a watchful start by Dhawan, who ended this Test series with scores of 13,15, 29 and 19.
With one day left in the match, the visitors have to bat out the final day to share the honours in the two-match series. The first Test in Johannesburg had ended in a thrilling draw.
South Africa on the other hand need to take eight wickets on a tricky fifth day track at the Kingsmead to give Kallis a perfect gift in his farewell match.
Beginning at the overnight score of 299 for five, Kallis scored 115 off 316 balls with 13 boundaries while lower-order batsman Robin Peterson played a 61-run cameo before their innings folded for exactly 500.
Left-arm spinner Ravidra Jadeja was the pick of the bowler for India with six wickets for 138 runs while paceman Zaheer Khan took two wickets at the expense of 97 runs. (PTI)
SCOREBOARD
India 1st innings: 334 all out
South Africa 1st innings: (Overnight 299/5)
Graeme Smith c Dhawan b Jadeja 47
Alviro Petersen c Vijay b Jadeja 62
Hashim Amla b Shami 3
Jacques Kallis c Dhoni b Jadeja 115
AB de Villiers c Kohli b Jadeja 74
JP Duminy lbw b Jadeja 28
Dale Steyn c Dhoni b Khan 44
F du Plessis run out 43
R Peterson c Vijay b Khan 61
VD Philander not out 0
M Morkel c & b Jadeja 0
Extras (B-3, LB-15, WD-2, NB-3) 23
Total (All out in 155.2 overs) 500
Fall of wickets: 1-103, 2-113, 3-113, 4-240, 5-298, 6-384, 7-387, 8-497, 9-500.
Bowling: Z Khan 28-4-97-2, Mohammed Shami 27-2-104-1, I Sharma 31-7-114-0, R Jadeja 58.2-15-138-6, R Sharma 11-1-29-0.
India 2nd innings:
Shikhar Dhawan c du Plessis b Peterson 19
Murali Vijay c Smith b Philander 6
Cheteshwar Pujara not out 32
Virat Kohli not out 11
Extras 0
Total (for 2 wickets in 36 overs) 68
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-53
Bowling: Dale Steyn 7-5-5-0, Vernon Philander 6-2-9-1, Morne Morkel 6-2-11-0, Robin Peterson 9-2 23-1, JP Duminy 8-2-20-0.
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