India level series win 87-run win

India emphasised that they are poor travellers no more by pulling off a series-levelling win in Durban, where they had suffered one of their worst Test defeats in 1996. The victory in Kingsmead, after a humiliating loss in the first Test in Centurion, joins the other famous successes over the past decade at some of the world's most fast-bowler friendly tracks - Headingley, Jamaica, Nottingham, Johannesburg and Perth.

The match was even at the start of the fourth day, but India's bowlers barely sent down a bad ball in the morning session to seize control of the Test. A Sreesanth snorter to Jacques Kallis started South Africa's slide, before two lbws - one a marginal decision and the other a howler - that are sure to refuel the UDRS debate, hurt them further. Ashwell Prince tried to resist but India plugged away to remove the tail an hour into the second session and set up a decider in Cape Town next week.

If the match has to-and-fro-ed over the week, so has Sreesanth's bowling form. The wayward, antic-loving Sreesanth was missing on the fourth morning, as he sent down an accurate spell of sustained hostility. The highlight was in the seventh over of the day - an utterly unplayable bouncer which reared up sharply and jagged in to Kallis, who had no way to avoid it, arched his back in an attempt to get out of the way, but could only glove it to gully. It was the snorter that was needed to remove the kingpin of South Africa's batting. They was no over-the-top Sreesanth celebration, just a fist pump before getting back to business.

That wicket put India slightly ahead, and there was no doubt who were front-runners after AB de Villiers decided to not offer a shot to a Harbhajan Singh delivery from round the wicket. He was struck in front of middle and looked lbw and the umpire agreed, though Hawk-Eye suggested the ball would have bounced over the stumps.

Over a decade in international cricket, Mark Boucher has built his reputation as a scrapper, and with Prince also around, it wasn't yet lights out for South Africa. Boucher, though, made only one before he was given lbw to a delivery that was angling across him and going to comfortably miss off stump.

South Africa had lost three wickets, and there was still no boundary in the morning, a testament to the scarcity of bad deliveries. When the first four did come, from Dale Steyn, it was an edge to third man. Steyn had pinged Zaheer Khan on the helmet with a quick bouncer on Tuesday, and the Indian responded with a string of short balls to the South African spearhead. After three of those, Zaheer slipped in a fuller delivery, which Steyn duly nicked to slip.

At 155 for 7, with lunch still 45 minutes away, the game looked set for a quick finish. Prince and Paul Harris, however, resisted with some dour batting, in addition to a couple of confident boundaries from Prince. They batted out the 10 overs to the break, but a pumped-up Zaheer, chatting to the batsmen after nearly every ball, ended the stand in his first over after the resumption that with a peach that crashed into Harris' off stump.

Prince and Morne Morkel then stood firm for an hour, reducing the required runs to double digits. The frustration seemed to have ended when Ishant Sharma had Morkel wafting to gully, but that turned out to be his regulation wicket off a no-ball. In his next over, though, he didn't overstep as he extracted the edge off Morkel to Dhoni. Two balls later, an alert Cheteshwar Pujara threw down the stumps from short leg catching the No. 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe short, and sparking celebrations. The Indians were ready to grab the stumps as souvenirs, when they realised the third umpire was called for. The umpire confirmed the dismissal, and there was no stopping the celebrations this time round.

Full Score Board:

ndia 205 & 228

South Africa 131 & 215 (72.3 ov)

India won by 87 runs

• India in South Africa Test Series - 2nd Test
• Test no. 1987 | 2010/11 season
• Played at Kingsmead, Durban
• 26,27,28,29 December 2010 (5-day match)

	India 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	V Sehwag	c Kallis b Steyn	25	47	32	4	0	78.12
	M Vijay	c †Boucher b Steyn	19	59	42	2	0	45.23
	R Dravid	c †Boucher b Steyn	25	121	68	3	0	36.76
	SR Tendulkar	c Kallis b Tsotsobe	13	42	22	3	0	59.09
	VVS Laxman	c Tsotsobe b Steyn	38	94	73	4	1	52.05
	CA Pujara	c †Boucher b Tsotsobe	19	54	45	3	0	42.22
	MS Dhoni*†	c Petersen b Steyn	35	108	57	3	1	61.40
	Harbhajan Singh	c de Villiers b Steyn	21	48	39	2	0	53.84
	Z Khan	c †Boucher b Morkel	0	7	5	0	0	0.00
	I Sharma	not out	1	18	9	0	0	11.11
	S Sreesanth	c †Boucher b Morkel	0	3	1	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(b 1, lb 2, w 4, nb 2)	9
	Total	(all out; 65.1 overs)	205	(3.14 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-43 (Sehwag, 10.4 ov), 2-48 (Vijay, 12.5 ov), 3-79 (Tendulkar, 19.5 ov), 4-117 (Dravid, 36.6 ov),5-130 (Laxman, 40.6 ov), 6-156 (Pujara, 49.4 ov), 7-190 (Harbhajan Singh, 60.2 ov), 8-193 (Khan, 61.6 ov),9-205 (Dhoni, 64.5 ov), 10-205 (Sreesanth, 65.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	DW Steyn	19	6	50	6	2.63
	M Morkel	19.1	3	68	2	3.54	(2nb)
	LL Tsotsobe	11	3	40	2	3.63	(1w)
	JH Kallis	8	2	18	0	2.25	(1w)
	PL Harris	8	1	26	0	3.25

	South Africa 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	AN Petersen	b Khan	24	54	39	3	0	61.53
	GC Smith*	c †Dhoni b Khan	9	22	11	2	0	81.81
	HM Amla	lbw b Harbhajan Singh	33	106	46	5	0	71.73
	JH Kallis	run out (Sharma)	10	27	17	2	0	58.82
	AB de Villiers	c †Dhoni b Sreesanth	0	7	5	0	0	0.00
	AG Prince	b Khan	13	48	46	2	0	28.26
	MV Boucher†	not out	16	60	24	2	0	66.66
	DW Steyn	c Dravid b Harbhajan Singh	1	11	11	0	0	9.09
	PL Harris	c Pujara b Harbhajan Singh	0	4	5	0	0	0.00
	M Morkel	c Harbhajan Singh b Sharma	10	30	30	1	0	33.33
	LL Tsotsobe	c Vijay b Harbhajan Singh	0	4	2	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(lb 2, w 1, nb 12)	15
	Total	(all out; 37.2 overs; 192 mins)	131	(3.50 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-23 (Smith, 4.6 ov), 2-46 (Petersen, 10.3 ov), 3-67 (Kallis, 15.2 ov), 4-74 (de Villiers, 16.4 ov),5-96 (Amla, 25.1 ov), 6-100 (Prince, 26.4 ov), 7-103 (Steyn, 29.1 ov), 8-103 (Harris, 29.6 ov), 9-127 (Morkel, 36.4 ov),10-131 (Tsotsobe, 37.2 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Z Khan	13	2	36	3	2.76
	S Sreesanth	8	0	41	1	5.12	(5nb, 1w)
	I Sharma	9	2	42	1	4.66	(7nb)
	Harbhajan Singh	7.2	2	10	4	1.36

	India 2nd innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	V Sehwag	c †Boucher b Tsotsobe	32	43	31	6	0	103.22
	M Vijay	c Amla b Morkel	9	54	27	1	0	33.33
	R Dravid	c †Boucher b Tsotsobe	2	17	7	0	0	28.57
	SR Tendulkar	c de Villiers b Steyn	6	22	10	1	0	60.00
	VVS Laxman	c †Boucher b Steyn	96	280	171	12	0	56.14
	CA Pujara	b Morkel	10	81	56	1	0	17.85
	MS Dhoni*†	c †Boucher b Tsotsobe	21	52	35	4	0	60.00
	Harbhajan Singh	c Kallis b Morkel	4	10	7	0	0	57.14
	Z Khan	c de Villiers b Harris	27	87	63	4	0	42.85
	I Sharma	c Amla b Kallis	0	22	16	0	0	0.00
	S Sreesanth	not out	0	10	2	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(b 8, lb 4, w 9)	21
	Total	(all out; 70.5 overs; 342 mins)	228	(3.21 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-42 (Sehwag, 9.1 ov), 2-44 (Vijay, 10.3 ov), 3-48 (Dravid, 11.2 ov), 4-56 (Tendulkar, 14.1 ov),5-93 (Pujara, 31.5 ov), 6-141 (Dhoni, 41.6 ov), 7-148 (Harbhajan Singh, 44.1 ov), 8-218 (Khan, 63.4 ov),9-223 (Sharma, 68.5 ov), 10-228 (Laxman, 70.5 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	DW Steyn	15.5	1	60	2	3.78	(2w)
	M Morkel	15	1	47	3	3.13	(4w)
	LL Tsotsobe	13	3	43	3	3.30	(1w)
	JH Kallis	13	2	30	1	2.30	(1w)
	PL Harris	14	2	36	1	2.57

	South Africa 2nd innings (target: 303 runs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	GC Smith*	c †Dhoni b Sreesanth	37	62	38	5	0	97.36
	AN Petersen	c Pujara b Harbhajan Singh	26	78	45	4	0	57.77
	HM Amla	c †Dhoni b Sreesanth	16	19	16	3	0	100.00
	JH Kallis	c Sehwag b Sreesanth	17	77	52	2	0	32.69
	AB de Villiers	lbw b Harbhajan Singh	33	103	76	0	1	43.42
	AG Prince	not out	39	181	108	3	0	36.11
	MV Boucher†	lbw b Khan	1	12	6	0	0	16.66
	DW Steyn	c Pujara b Khan	10	25	24	2	0	41.66
	PL Harris	b Khan	7	58	28	0	0	25.00
	M Morkel	c †Dhoni b Sharma	20	48	47	3	0	42.55
	LL Tsotsobe	run out (Pujara)	0	4	2	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(lb 1, nb 8)	9
	Total	(all out; 72.3 overs; 338 mins)	215	(2.96 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-63 (Smith, 12.1 ov), 2-82 (Petersen, 15.4 ov), 3-82 (Amla, 16.2 ov), 4-123 (Kallis, 34.2 ov),5-136 (de Villiers, 39.6 ov), 6-143 (Boucher, 42.4 ov), 7-155 (Steyn, 48.5 ov), 8-182 (Harris, 60.2 ov), 9-215 (Morkel, 72.1 ov),10-215 (Tsotsobe, 72.3 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Z Khan	17	3	57	3	3.35
	I Sharma	11.3	0	36	1	3.13	(6nb)
	S Sreesanth	14	2	45	3	3.21	(2nb)
	Harbhajan Singh	29	5	70	2	2.41
	SR Tendulkar	1	0	6	0	6.00

Match details

Toss South Africa, who chose to field Series 3-match series level 1-1

Player of the match VVS Laxman (India)