07 January,2011 08:24 AM IST | | Sai Mohan
Gautam Gambhir hailed for his staying powers and bravado in battle of Newlands India's Gautam Gambhir plays a shot on Day Five of the third and final Test against South Africa at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town yesterday. PIC/AFP
The pain spilled over from Jacques Kallis to Gautam Gambhir yesterday. The first ball of Morne Morkel's over in the morning session struck Gambhir on his left arm, tantalisingly close to his injured left elbow. At that juncture, one could see the menacing South African slip fielders licking their lips in anticipation of an outside edge at any instance.
Marathon man
Gambhir, who battled for 271 minutes for his 64, was a marked man. He roughed it out to not only deny South Africa a series win, but to ensure Mahendra Singh Dhoni maintains his unbeaten record as Test captain. In other words, he did a Napier.
"It was really good to see him (Gambhir) take heavy blows and still continue the way he did. None of us can ever forget that special innings he played at Napier (where he batted for 643 minutes there ufffd a little over 10 hours). It was important for someone to put his hand up and play out the day, and he did exactly that. It requires a lot of courage to do what he did. It would have been good to see him bat till the end, but he got the job done," Dhoni said of his opener.
Bravo
Eventually, Gambhir, trying to get his bat out of the way, gloved a Dale Steyn delivery down the leg side to Mark Boucher. It was evident Gambhir's movement was restricted, and he couldn't get behind the line of the ball, fearing getting struck on his injured elbow. SA captain Graeme Smith too praised Gambhir's gutsy effort: "We expected more from the wicket today, but there was no swing, nothing at all for the bowlers. But, I must credit Gambhir for fighting it out the way he did," he said. In fact, Gambhir, usually a remarkable player of spin bowling, couldn't even connect to Paul Harris when he stepped out of the crease.
That's how much pain he was in. Gambhir also had to counter some heavy sledging from Steyn, who had a word with him quite frequently, in an attempt to ruin the southpaw's concentration, but only in vain.
Here's to the new Wall of Indian cricket!
saimohan.mid-day.com
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