Mickey Arthur just had a taste of his own medicine; and it certainly didn’t taste sweet at all. The South African coach had ordered fast and bouncy type of pitches to unsettle the Indians but The Wanderers script had a twist weaved in, that went beyond his own imagination.

In sportsman-like-manner, he came for the post-match press briefing and didn’t flinch from facing the truth — suddenly Arthur’s words were sweet music to the Indians, who till then, had only heard of chin music. “We knew that they had been badly wounded after the one-day series, and we discussed every day the prospect of them fighting back. Hats off to them for the way they have played so far,” he said.

Arthur praised the Indian bowlers no end, and accepted that his team hadn’t executed their gameplan well enough. “They bowled very, very well, but there was no way that we should have been bowled out for under a hundred,” he said. “India showed us the right lengths to bowl on this pitch. We have not got our lengths right throughout this Test. Over the last two months, we have played a lot of one-day cricket, and yesterday in particular, we largely bowled one-day lines and lengths.

“The pitch got a lot quicker today than it was yesterday. Yesterday, there was a little time to adjust but today, things seemed to happen a lot faster. At the same time, some of the shot selection and the application wasn’t perhaps where it should have been.”

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