Close South Africa 237 for 5 (Gibbs 155*, Srinath 3-51)
Scorecard

It was Herschelle Gibbs all the way at St George's Park today. He scored a sensational 65 percent of South Africa's total runs, and even though India partly salvaged the situation with a couple of late strikes with the second new ball, Shaun Pollock will still be the happier captain at the end of the first day.

Gibbs saw off the new-ball burst on an overcast morning in seaming conditions, and then took full toll of the attack later in the day. The feature of his play was his magnificent cover-drives off both front and back foot. He was not entirely assured against Harbhajan Singh's clever variations in flight and turn, but trusted his instincts and looked to attack.

Sourav Ganguly would feel India were slightly hard done by a couple of close lbw decisions, but with only two front-line seamers, they were always likely to struggle in helpful conditions. Javagal Srinath bowled his heart out, and thoroughly deserved figures of 3 for 51 off 22 probing overs.

Ganguly won the toss and had no hesitation inserting South Africa. India began impressively, with both Srinath and Ajit Agarkar beating the bat a few times. The breakthrough came in the seventh over, when Gary Kirsten drove airily at a widish delivery from Srinath. The ball flew to third slip, where Virender Sehwag parried the ball, and VVS Laxman showed wonderful reflexes to grab it left-handed at second slip. Kirsten had scored only 4.

Both batsmen had previously survived close shaves. Kirsten was lucky to survive an lbw shout in the third over, off Srinath. Umpire Russel Tiffin ruled that the batsman had got an inside edge, but replays showed that to be doubtful. Next ball, Gibbs inside-edged onto pad, but SS Das was far too deep at short leg to grab the chance.

Ganguly came on in the 14th over, and immediately eased the pressure, conceding 21 runs in two overs. Sensing the match was slipping away, Ganguly brought Harbhajan into the attack as early as the 18th over, and he immediately settled into a fine rhythm, troubling both batsmen with his straighter one and with variations in flight.

Srinath came back and provided India with some cheer in the last over before lunch, getting through the defences of Jacques Kallis with one that swung in after pitching. Kallis shaped to play an orthodox defensive shot, but all he managed was an inside edge, and the ball crashed into middle and leg. Kallis had made 24.

Harbhajan struck after lunch when he clean bowled Neil McKenzie with a full delivery for 12. McKenzie tried to force the ball to leg, but played all over it and found his stumps disturbed.

Dippenaar joined Gibbs and was content to play second fiddle, even as Gibbs shifted gears with some imperious shots off Harbhajan and Agarkar. He got to his hundred with a dab off Kumble for two, and went to tea unbeaten on 111.

After tea, he survived a confident lbw shout off Kumble, and was beaten outside off stump by Harbhajan, but that didn't stop the sequence of powerful boundaries. A couple of front-foot pulls off Srinath were stunning hits. But the pick of them was his sweep off Harbhajan which comfortably cleared the midwicket rope.

The Gibbs-Dippenaar duo added 105 before the new ball did the trick for India. Dippenaar tried an expansive drive outside off stump off Agarkar, but managed only to nick it to Deep Dasgupta, who moved to his right to take a smart catch. Srinath then joined in the act, forcing Lance Klusener to edge a seaming delivery to Laxman at second slip.

Those two late wickets had kept India in the game - just.

Teams
India 1 Shiv Sunder Das, 2 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 7 Virender Sehwag, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Ajit Agarkar, 11 Javagal Srinath

South Africa 1 Gary Kirsten, 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Boeta Dippenaar, 5 Neil McKenzie, 6 Lance Klusener, 7 Shaun Pollock (capt), 8 Mark Boucher (wk), 9 Nicky Boje, 10 Nantie Hayward, 11 Makhaya Ntini

S Rajesh is a sub-editor at Wisden.com India.

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