Kumble won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch which was supposed to help fast bowlers on the first day, maybe the performance of his batsman in the first match encouraged him to take such a bold decision, the wicket had some moisture in it and a tinge of grass which helped the fast bowlers and South African bowlers took full advantage of the conditions and bowled aggressively, Indian top order batsmen failed to adjust to the pace of the wicket and were late on the ball.
India are all out for 76 only 1 run better than their all time low score, Pathan was the top scorer with 21. The wicket is not unplayable its just that Indian batsmen failed to co-op with the pace and committed too many mistakes. Steyn took 5 wickets and Ntini took 3. India are bundled out before lunch.
India probably got carried away by the performance of their batsmen on a dull and placid wicket they completely forgot the strength of the South African’s and prepared a pitch which was Ideal for South African bowlers.It will be hard for India to fight back in this match.Sachin is not playing this match and India does not have a good test record when Sachin is not playing he is a huge calming factor in their batting line up.It will be interesting to see how RP will perform on this pitch in the last match he was completely out of form, IMO this pitch suited more to Munaf.