Zaheer, actually, was the big hit, walking back into the team for the first time after February to come up with those crucial early breakthroughs. Today, he took out the dangerous Graeme Smith with a superb in-cutter off his second ball, then packing off the young hitter Loots Bosman lbw in the 9th over of the day, leaving South Africa at 47/2.

But that was when Kallis decided to do a Rahul Dravid - working the gaps, rocking back and arching his back to smash a couple through the covers, and then letting de Villiers take over in the middle. It was that crucial fourth wicket partnership of 87 runs that took South Africa from potential disaster at 6/3 in the 16th over to 248/8 in their quota of 50.

So how did the Indians cope with the bat? Wasim Jaffer's debut ended in two balls, Dravid and Tendulkar were beaten by sheer pace, Mahendra Dhoni was plain unlucky, Suresh Raina had no clue, and Andre Nel was all over the place. Why couldn't they cross even 100 despite the seven batsmen? Well, let's leave that question for tomorrow.