Do not blame it on Sachin's absence

With just two wickets to go and lunch still half-an-hour away, it does look disastrous. But it will be most unkind to South Africa to suggest that the absence of Sachin Tendulkar has got anything to do with India’s massive collapse on the Indian Soil. He could have suffered the same fate as the rest of the specialist batsmen. After all, all the score that India had made at Chennai had come without a single run from the blade of this world’s premier batsmen. If’s and buts never solve the cricketing zigsaw.

Not only the South African bowlers looked to be in great rhythm today, but they were also helped by some misjudgments from the Indian batsmen. Of the first six batsmen, only Jaffer and Dravid were authentic dismissals. Laxman was a victim of his own poor judgment, Dhoni failed to keep his head, and bat, down, while Ganguly and Sehwag just played on to the outbound deliveries.

As the situation stands now, there is a real danger that South Africa may bat India out of the match by tomorrow evening (if they survive that long). But looking at the positives, India have one additional bowler and with five-men attack, they might be able to restrict the visitors to a manageable lead.

As things stand now, India can only hope and pray that the South Africans too suffer from the same series of misjudgments, which plagued them today morning. They will certainly need some luck as bowling alone may not be sufficient to get them back into a match, where result looks a certainty after less than a session of play!