India reiterated that they are poor travellers no more by pulling off a series-levelling win in Durban, where they had suffered one of their worst Test defeats in 1996.
The victory at Kingsmead, after a humiliating loss in Centurion, joined the other famous successes over the past decade at some of the world's most fast-bowler friendly tracks - Headingley, Jamaica, Nottingham, Johannesburg and Perth.The match was even at the start of the fourth day, but India's bowlers barely sent down a bad ball in the morning session to seize control of the Test. A Sreesanth snorter to Jacques Kallis started South Africa's slide, before two lbws - one a marginal decision and the other a howler - that are sure to refuel the UDRS debate, hurt them further. Ashwell Prince tried to resist but India plugged away to remove the tail an hour into the second session and set up a decider in Cape Town next week.
If the match has to-and-fro-ed, so has Sreesanth's bowling form. The wayward, antic-loving Sreesanth was missing in the morning, as he sent down an accurate spell of sustained hostility. The highlight was in the seventh over of the day - an unplayable bouncer that reared up sharply and jagged in at Kallis, who had no way to avoid it. He jumped and arched his back in an attempt to get out of the way, but could only glove it to gully. It was the snorter needed to remove the kingpin of South Africa's batting. There was no over-the-top Sreesanth celebration either, just a fist pump before getting back to business.
That wicket put India slightly ahead, and there was no doubt who the front-runners were after AB de Villiers decided to not offer a shot against a Harbhajan Singh delivery from round the wicket. He was struck in front of middle, looked lbw and the umpire agreed, though Hawk-Eye suggested the ball would have bounced well over the stumps.
Over a decade in international cricket, Mark Boucher has built his reputation as a scrapper, and with Prince also around, it wasn't yet lights out for South Africa. Boucher, though, made only 1 before he was given lbw to a delivery that was angling across him and going to miss off stump comfortably.
South Africa had lost three wickets, and there was still no boundary in the morning, a testament to the scarcity of bad deliveries. When the first four did come, from Dale Steyn, it was an edge to third man. Steyn had pinged Zaheer Khan on the helmet with a quick bouncer on Tuesday, and was the target of a string of short balls. After three of those, Zaheer slipped in a fuller delivery, which Steyn duly nicked to slip.
At 155 for 7, with lunch 45 minutes away, the game looked set for a quick finish. Prince and Paul Harris, however, resisted with some dour batting, in addition to a couple of confident boundaries from Prince. They batted out the 10 overs to the break, but a pumped-up Zaheer, chatting to the batsmen after nearly every ball, ended the stand in his first over after the resumption with a peach that clipped Harris' off stump.
Prince and Morne Morkel then stood firm for an hour, reducing the required runs to double digits. India's wait seemed to have ended when Ishant Sharma had Morkel wafting to gully, but that turned out to be his regulation wicket off a no-ball. In his next over, though, Ishant didn't overstep when he found the edge off Morkel to Dhoni. Two balls later, an alert Cheteshwar Pujara threw down the stumps from short leg, catching the No. 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe short, and sparking celebrations. The Indians were ready to grab the stumps as souvenirs, when they realised the third umpire had been called for. The dismissal was confirmed moments later and there was no stopping the celebrations this time.
India came into this Test with their No. 1 status questioned after the clobbering in Centurion and doubts over whether they had the bowling to take 20 wickets. They provided answers to both in Durban.
