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Day 1: Kirsten makes Indians pay

Batting of immense flair and authority by Gary Kirsten, who was allowed two escapes in making the first 10 of his 103 runs, and Daryll Cullinan gave South Africa an early grip on the second Test against India at Newlands.

By the time they came together to put on 114 runs for the third wicket, the sparse Indian attack had lost its edge. Fielding only four specialists, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad alone posed problems at any time.

Once the ball had started to soften, the pitch seemed to lack the anticipated mettle. But in the morning, Prasad bowled a long opening spell with great heart and it was off him that Kirsten had both his reprieves.

Kirsten, whose century was his third against India and fourth in all Test cricket, was not off the mark when Mohammad Azharuddin, at second slip, just failed to hold a low snick. An easier chance was the second that went to Anil Kumble, at gully, from an uppish square cut.

From then on Kirsten batted impeccably - in all for 290 minutes, during which he faced 204 balls and hit eight fours. Chastened by the two near-misses, he was careful, but never inhibited.

Prasad's compensation for his ill-luck was the wicket of Andrew Hudson, who played a loose square cut to be caught behind. The bowlers stayed in control of runs through the morning, but made no further headway. Srinath, bowling into a strong gale from the south-east and was steady if hardly penetrative.

Changing ends after lunch, he snared Adam Bacher who, from India's point of view, was batting as ominously well as Cullinan did later. Srinath seemed to expect to get him out hooking. Undeterred by being hoisted for two fours, he bowled Bacher a third bouncer and this time he made contact with a glove in aiming fine and was caught by Nayan Mongia, who has missed nothing in this series.

That happened half an hour after lunch but that wicket of Bacher's remained India's ration of success for the session. Through the rest of the afternoon runs came at an increasing pace to the accompaniment of joyous chanting from a packed crowd. The gates had been closed long before the lunch interval.

So complete was the domination of the batsmen that India's redemption seemed to lie in a run-out or the distant second new ball and it was a run-out that caused the breach.

Cullinan, the striker, changed his mind over a single on seeing Azharuddin make a fine stop at square leg to a clip off the legs. But by then Kirsten was too far up the pitch to get back to his ground at the bowler's end. Azharuddin, off balance, mistakenly threw the ball to the wicketkeeper - and not very well - but the agile Mongia got to it and relayed it to the bowler.

The new ball, taken immediately it was available, claimed the irrepressible Cullinan for 77, including six fours and a six. He fell to a splendid catch by Mongia from a fine glance at Prasad.

Day 2: India wilt after twin centuries

Centuries by all-rounders Brian McMillan and Lance Klusener, both undefeated after assembling a record eighth-wicket stand, carried South Africa to their highest total of the post-isolation era in the second Test against India, at Newlands.

With the pitch fairly amiable, their gigantic score of 529 for seven declared was not necessarily a passport to a South African victory, but the prospect of an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series grew when India lost - rather than South Africa took - three wickets for 29 in the 16 overs they faced before the close.

The first disaster was the run-out of Woorkeri Raman, going for a second run that was possible, but only for one more swift than the victim. With two overs left, Rahul Dravid succumbed. He had opened the innings to meet an emergency created by an eye injury inflicted by a flying bail on Nayan Mongia while keeping wicket. Dravid batted staunchly for 13 overs for two runs, but then picked the wrong ball to cut - not enough room - and played-on off Klusener.

Then Venkatesh Prasad, the nightwatchman, survived just one ball before being bowled by Paul Adams. To be fair it was a good ball that did Prasad, a perfectly pitched googly which to him, was a leg-break. Sachin Tendulkar had to play Adams most carefully in the one over he faced before the close.

The first hour of the morning had gone well for India, well enough to keep them in contention. The second new ball was only 10 overs old and Javagal Srinath and Prasad used its shine and hardness to pick up a wicket apiece and also to keep the batsmen restrained.

Srinath preyed on Hansie Cronje's well-known weakness against the short ball; having him caught behind off a glove, fending away one that he dug in. Then Shaun Pollock waved his bat at one from Prasad delivered almost round armed and pitching well outside the off stump and was gobbled up at slip.

These reverses, suffered while only 19 runs were added to the overnight score of 280 for four, added responsibility on McMillan. He bore it well, eschewing risks, but heartily thumping anything short or over-pitched. He and Dave Richardson added 83 for the seventh wicket in 32 overs.

The momentum of South Africa's progress was already rising when Richardson was caught at long leg from a hook at Srinath. It did not flag with his dismissal, however. It rather rose, with Klusener laying about the bowling with gusto. He completed his hundred off the hundredth ball he faced, hitting 13 fours and two sixes.

Their undefeated stand broke a record which had stood for 94 years in the name of Dave Nourse and Ernest Halliwell - 124 against Australia.

Day 4:Tendulkar must repeat heroics to achieve unlikely for India

It will take another major innings from Sachin Tendulkar, with significant support from Saurav Ganguly, who remained unbeaten with him, and Mohammed Azharuddin if South Africa are to be denied a win in the second Test at Newlands.

Hansie Cronje had given his bowlers a minimum of 118 overs in which to dismiss India, and set them 427 runs to win - 21 in excess of the highest winning score in the fourth innings, by India themselves, at Port of Spain in 1976.

They were tottering at 52 for three at the close. Nayan Mongia was the victim of a beauty from Allan Donald, one that straightened to pluck out his off stump, and Woorkeri Raman, who could have been out to several of the 48 balls he faced, finally edged Shaun Pollock to the wicketkeeper.

But Rahul Dravid, who looked composed and able, was unlucky to be given out caught behind off Paul Adams, who bowled well enough to suggest that today he will be as big a threat to India as any of South Africa's fast bowlers.

With the lead South Africa had acquired in the first innings, 170, they were never in serious danger of losing their initiative, but their second innings wobbled twice before Cronje was satisfied that enough runs had been accumulated to shut India out of the match.

In timing his declaration three overs after tea, Cronje, a faithful disciple of his predecessor, Kepler Wessels, who was never known to be a dasher, was more mindful of the carnage that Tendulkar and Azharuddin had wrought on Saturday than on the Indian debacles at Durban and also the dire straits in which their first innings was placed at one stage on Saturday - 58 for five.

That was the background to the stand between Tendulkar and Azharuddin which must be regarded as one of the most gallant and spectacular rescue operations in the history of Test cricket. They added 222 in a mere 40 overs.

Another factor in the equation was the pitch. It was a mosaic of cracks at one end, but its behaviour was impeccable. If at any stage it gave the bowlers any help, it was to the Indians in the early stages of South Africa's second innings.

The ball seamed about briefly, and Javagal Srinath and the new boy, Dodda Ganesh, won a couple of lbw decisions in the innings' first three overs on Saturday. Then, yesterday morning, Srinath struck another quick blow, getting Lance Klusener to mishook, and South Africa were 33 for three.

From then on, Andrew Hudson and Daryll Cullinan, who both scored 55 Hudson's half-century was his third in the series - batted with consummate ease against an attack depleted by the absence of an indisposed Venkatesh Prasad.

There was glorious strokeplay from both and, in 24 overs to lunch, they added 87. But the innings fell into another trough after the break as the batsmen sought increased momentum.

Cullinan aimed across the line at Anil Kumble, bowling from round the wicket in a containing exercise. Hudson dragged the ball on in playing a lavish drive at Srinath, and Cronje was superbly held at short leg, low and one-handed, in deflecting Kumble, and South Africa were 155 for six.

The worth of genuine all-rounders batting in the lower middle order was emphasised during another recovery - by Brian McMillan and Pollock, who remained together until the declaration, adding 101 in 23 overs.

Day 5: India wave the white flag and surrender series

India, who had fought so gallantly through every session of the first four days, had no resistance left to offer on the last and South Africa won the second Test, at Newlands, by 282 runs, their second biggest win. It gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

The crucial wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin were seized in consecutive overs before the day was half an hour old and then a South African victory was only a matter of time.

Indeed, there was some defiance from Saurav Ganguly, not out overnight, who stayed in for 70 minutes, 114 in all. But the only pause after his departure to a wanton shot was a seventh-wicket stand of 28 between Venkat Laxman, who remained unbeaten with 35, and Anil Kumble.

From the South African viewpoint, it was just as well that Tendulkar and Azharuddin were so cheaply despatched, for Allan Donald was unwell with a viral infection and had to be spurred on to bowl a full first spell.

As early as in his second over he went down on his haunches and looked as if he wanted to be sick. He had a gulp of water and then got up to fire in a particularly nasty ball which went right through Tendulkar's defence and over the stumps.

But as the Indians batted, a lesser bowling force than Hansie Cronje had at his command would have sufficed to win the day. Indian dismissals were a catalogue of poor shots against balls unworthy of success.

Tendulkar top-edged a pull at an innocent short ball from Brian McMillan, the man of the match. Azharuddin waved his bat at a ball from Donald which would have been best left alone and Ganguly, after having looked composed, neat and settled for so long, invited doom in like fashion against Shaun Pollock and left looking disgusted with himself.

Laxman was now the only recognised batsman left. He was in India's under-19 side who toured England in 1995 and even then looked a delightful player who has modelled himself on Azharuddin. He is tall and elegant playing off the front foot, but has a lot to learn about coping with the ball dug in.

Paul Adams had a hand in the mopping up of the tail and a feature of his dismissal of the last man, Venkatesh Prasad, was that it was completed with Dave Richardson's first stumping in 33 Tests.

Tendulkar, the captain, said he was disappointed India had not kept the series alive until the final Test, which begins at the Wanderers, in Johannesburg, on Jan 16. He added: ``We do get demoralised at times but these guys are young and they are all wanting to do well for the country. We just have to give them time.

South Africa are one of the top sides in the world, very competitive, very professional, and it's good that our players have seen the tougher side of cricket at a young age.''