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Weather plays spoilsport on the fourth day of the Eden Gardens Test

In the hunt for a victory to level the series, India found the spoiler to its well-founded dreams in the form of weather gods that wrecked damage on the day four of the second test between India and South Africa. Play had just started at 10.30 a.m. and a delayed lunch at 1.45 p.m. saw the gloom darken, forcing the players to remain indoors, as the play again resumed only at 3.20 p.m.

India, so far, in its quest to maintain the home record as well as keep the No 1 ICC test ranking to itself had removed two architects of the South African batting line-up, as both Smith and Kallis were outwitted, and the first innings hero and debutant Alviro Petersen also fell cheaply. But, Hashim Amla on 49, in top notch form held forte, and being dismissed only once in this test series, Indian think tanks will have to come out with a novel idea to get the better of this man on the fifth and final day.

The weather forecast for Thursday remains to be encouraging for the Indians, and in theory, Indian bowlers have 98 overs to drive the final nail into South African batting coffin. An optimistic assessment lie in the wait in favor of an Indian resurgence, as the Indian bowlers now hold the key to the result of this second test match at Eden Gardens. The fourth day saw the skipper Dhoni shuffling around with his bowlers to extract further success after removing the three top order batsmen.

Mishra with tweaking leg breaks removed Smith with a delivery that turned viciously and had Kallis caught behind the wickets. Though Harbajan found the bounce favored by the Eden Garden pitch an advantageous proposition, he could just manage with a wicket to his name, with Zaheer failed to unleash magical spells to bring the South African doom at a faster rate.

Earlier Amla was nearly consumed by Harbajan when he played the bowler only to find Murali Vijay wanting, and in effect has enjoyed the reprieve to remain unbeaten on 49. South Africa was 115 for 3 at the end of the fourth day’s play at Eden Gardens. The fifth and final day is a day to witness vigorous competition between bat and ball, and if the weather holds good, an interesting fifth day’s play is sure to delight cricketing fans all around.

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