da jogodeouro： Shaun Pollock was delighted by the manner in which South Africa foughtback on the second day at Newlands, but he wasn’t about to take anythingfor granted with his side still 270 adrift on first innings
da leao： Dileep Premachandran in Cape town03-Jan-2007
‘If we can build up a big score tomorrow, we can use the wear and tear on days four and five. It only needs two or three balls to misbehave to get you wickets’ – Shaun Pollock © Getty Images
Shaun Pollock was delighted by the manner in which South Africa foughtback on the second day at Newlands, but he wasn’t about to take anythingfor granted with his side still 270 adrift on first innings. Pollock’s naggingaccuracy fetched him figures of 4 for 75, and contributed to India losingtheir way in the afternoon – the last five wickets fell for just 19.By stumps, Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla had taken South Africa to 144 for1 after Sreesanth had got AB de Villiers early. According to Pollock, thefate of the match rested largely in the hands of South Africa’s batsmen,with batting supposed to be at its easiest on day three.”We haven’t discussed that at this stage,” said Pollock, when asked whatsort of score his team was looking at. “There’s a lot of cricket to beplayed. We can’t afford to get too ahead of ourselves. We need to find apartnership tomorrow and launch from there. But the quicker we do get abig score, the more time it gives us to try and win the Test match.”That’s the ideal route. We find ourselves in a good position now becausewe got those five wickets so quickly at the end. That was really theturning point for us. And to have batted the way we have sets up a base tolaunch from. We were pretty comfortable throughout the afternoon.”While Pollock’s wickets came as no surprise, there would have been someconsternation in the Indian dressing room over the identity of the otherfour-wicket man. Paul Harris was making his debut, and at times thismorning, he was clouted over the infield. But each time, he held his nerveto strike back with a telling blow, showing the sort of character that wonPollock’s approval.”They do score quickly, and their idea was to take on the spinner,” saidPollock. “There was a little bit of risk involved [in bowling Harris fromone end], but we always knew there was going to be an opportunity. Ithought he bowled very well. To take some big scalps like he did – I thinkSehwag and Sachin are pretty good players of spin. For him to come intohis debut Test match and have those two was pretty big for him.”Though the pitch showed few signs of deterioration late on day two,Pollock was hopeful that things would be different once the game went intothe final two days. “If we can bat well in this innings, it might beeasier for the bowlers later on with variable bounce and the cracksstarting to widen.”We’d like to get as much as we possibly can. It’s very dangerous to talkabout big targets; it can easily backfire on you. Any lead we can get willbe fantastic. If we can get them into a pressure situation and be 150ahead, then they will be behind the eight-ball fighting back to try andget back into the game. If the wicket starts misbehaving, then we’rereally in the front seat.”His one-time new-ball partner, Makhaya Ntini, went wicketless; a rareoccurrence for him in a home Test, and Pollock admitted that bowling on aplacid pitch had been no vineyard stroll. “There’s probably not that muchin it for the seamers,” he said. “Maybe, there’s a little bit of reverseswing going. There’s some assistance for the spinners, especially from outof the rough at one end.”You’d expect that day three is best for batting, and you’d expect thepitch to wear on days four and five. If we can build up a big scoretomorrow, we can use the wear and tear on days four and five. It onlyneeds two or three balls to misbehave to get you wickets.”Before all that though, he might need to bat. And on the evidence ofDurban, where his accomplished second-innings 63 set India an imposing 354to chase, few will be as well-equipped to handle the Kumble factor.
