And India’s cricketers will have to show that this performance was not a fleeting resolution. Lamp posts were being created to hang them, now they are being heralded. Unlike triumph and victory, it is the reactions to them that are the modern impostors and India will know that the difference between the two sides wasn’t large. India showed greater resolve at key moments; at 14 for 2 in the first innings when Tendulkar and Dravid put on 69, in the half hour before lunch on the second day when Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan rocked South Africa and before lunch on the third day when VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan batted stoically.

The positives, if India can sustain them, are huge. The biggest, even bigger than the brilliance of Sreesanth, was that the seniors showed they belong. When the top players are insecure and unhappy it can have an effect on youngsters, especially those who may not have been picked. That is why it was critical that Tendulkar and Kumble, Laxman and Ganguly performed.

Ganguly has taken his return well. The cricketer in him had been shrouded by the scriptwriters using him for their daily soap. He battled it out here, spoke to the team about being out of the game and what that meant, even ran upto Dravid with a suggestion. And Zaheer Khan too has shown the hunger that being out of the team can produce. He is leaner but the question marks over him, his fitness and commitment, have been dispelled. He is running in hard, batting doggedly and remarkably, fielding with zeal. That had never been a strong point. Being left out was probably the best thing to have happened to him because he has responded admirably and the selectors have done mightily well by picking the right moment for his return.

... contd.