Harbhajan Singh answered India's call with a mix of aggressive and patient, smart and persistent spin bowling, taking them to a series-equalling and innings win over South Africa.
However, retaining the No. 1 spot in Tests wasn't easy for India: the last three wickets batted out 53.3 overs. The last pair denied India for 77 minutes but Harbhajan came back to trap Morne Morkel with just nine mandatory deliveries to go. Hashim Amla was difficult to dislodge, but India found a way around him, leaving him stranded - after 23 hours and 22 minutes of batting in the series, nine hours and 39 minutes in this innings.
Hashim Amla, who by tea had batted for 21 hours and 14 minutes in the series, and seven hours and 31 minutes in this innings, stood between India and a series-levelling win. Harbhajan Singh bowled exceptionally well in the two sessions, taking three wickets, but India still needed three more in what promised to be an exciting final session, with bad light likely to play a role.
The play in the first two sessions could be divided into three clear sections. For nearly two hours in the morning, Amla and Ashwell Prince kept the bowlers out. For about 40 minutes before lunch and about 40 after it, Harbhajan was all over South Africa, and helped by Mishra's pre-break wicket, India came within three good balls of the win. For the next hour and 20 minutes, once again Amla and No. 9 Wayne Parnell negotiated the bowling without much trouble, beautifully setting up the rest of the day.
India may have woken up to a bright and sunny day, but they were down on luck in the personnel department, with Zaheer Khan off with an injured right knee. They didn't help themselves by some inexplicable field sets. The first over of the day, when Virender Sehwag bowled without a gully in place, may yet turn out to be a pivotal point in the match.
Sehwag was used to bowl that over so that Harbhajan could be moved to the High Court End, the one that provided the spinners more rough and bounce. Still, with South Africa 232 runs behind and time at a premium, India went by just wasting that over with just one slip and silly point for Prince. Sehwag got one to bounce but the edge flew neck high where gully would have been. For close to next two hours, that was the closest India would come to a breakthrough.
Amla took everything the bowlers could throw at him: offbreaks, topspinners, unintended doosras, big legbreaks, googlies, bouncers, full ones, a blow on the elbow. He was solid against pace and spin alike. Ishant Sharma wasted his time trying to bowl bouncers at him, which he easily swayed away from, except for one that stayed low and got him in the elbow. Facing spin, he read the length so early he could play most of the stuff off the back foot. That he was not scoring didn't put him into a negative frame of mind of just padding. He scored only 57 runs off 209 deliveries faced.
The other key character of the day, Harbhajan, was as much on as Amla was. In his second spell especially, six overs each either side of lunch from the High Court End, he looked menacing with almost every delivery. In the morning spell, he had tried to get Prince lbw in a fashion similar to the one in the first innings. In his second he went over the stumps and made it difficult for Prince to judge which deliveries to leave. The leg line troubled Prince, and finally he jabbed at one outside off and lobbed it to mid-off. Mishra, who didn't trouble the batsmen much, once again produced the special delivery out of nowhere, this time a stunning googly to take out AB de Villiers just before lunch.
de Villiers was the big wicket because he was the one batsman capable to use his feet and hit spinners off their length. After the lunch, Harbhajan went on to suggest JP Duminy might become his new Ponting. Offbreak, offbreak, slider. Duminy caught in front again. Dale Steyn didn't have a clue about deliveries spinning down the leg side, and kept getting beaten. Harbhajan smartly moved round the stumps, and trapped him too.
Thereafter Amla found an able partner in Parnell, who looked much more assured than Steyn, and also hit boundaries off every loose delivery. Amla smartly kept him away from Harbhajan, letting the youngster face Mishra for most of the early past of his innings. With the partnership 12 overs old, and Harbhajan tiring, Dhoni called for the new ball. Ishant produced an edge in his first over, but Suresh Raina at a wide fourth slip spilled a tough chance. A possible 34 overs, two hours of play, and three wickets to go. Throw in possibly deteriorating light, and it was all happening at the Eden Gardens.
