BBC SPORT | INDIA IN SOUTH AFRICA | South Africa complete easy win

First Test, Bloemfontein, day four: South Africa 563 and 54 for one beat India 379 & 237 by nine wickets

South Africa completed victory in the first Test against India with four sessions to spare after skipper Shaun Pollock took 10 wickets in a match for the first time in Tests.

The South Africa skipper's penetration - he took six for 56 in the second innings as India crumbled to 237 all out - meant his side needed just 54 to wrap up an easy win.

They lost Herschelle Gibbs cheaply as Anil Kumble won an lbw decision, but Jacques Kallis and Gary Kirsten reached the target without further alarm.

Earlier, India's batsmen were guilty of some poor shot selection.

Shaun Pollock had a tremendous Test

VVS Laxman, Shiv Sunder Das, Sachin Tendulkar all gave their wickets away before lunch - only skipper Sourav Ganguly was removed by a good ball.

Laxman, who had been lucky to last out the final session on Monday, fell early on.

Two balls after hitting Pollock to the cover point bounday, he left his bat out to dry to a ball outside the off stump.

His poor technique to date in the series - he has struggled to move his feet - cost him again as Kallis pouched the edge at second slip to give Pollock his second wicket of the match.

Horrid shot

That ended a partnership of 79 between Das and Laxman (29) and in the next over Das played a shot he will want to forget.

He spoilt all his excellent work on Monday night by playing a cut shot at a Nantie Hayward delivery he could barely reach.

Mark Boucher took a diving catch behind the stumps as the opener was out for for 62.

3,000 runs & 100 wkts

I.T. Botham
5,200 and 383

A.W. Greig
3,599 and 141

G.S. Sobers
8,032 and 235

R.J. Hadlee
3,124 and 431

Kapil Dev
5,248 and 434

Ravi Shastri
3,830 and 151

Imran Khan
3,807 and 363

Jacques Kallis
3,429 and 100

Still in arrears, Tendulkar and Ganguly had much to do. But as soon as Pollock and Hayward ended their spells, Kallis got the crucial breakthrough.

Tendulkar failed to get on top of a cover drive and Gibbs took the catch at backward point.

Kallis thereby became the eighth person in Test history to score 3,000 runs and take 100 wickets.

After making a century in the first innings, Tendulkar was out for just 15 - and India looked in disarray.

Then, to compund matters, Ganguly was out when Makhaya Ntini slanted a fine shortish ball across him which he could only fend to Boucher to fall for 30.

Late collapse

India's slide continued in the post-lunch session as Virender Sehwag shouldered arms to a ball from Pollock and was bowled for 31.

Neil McKenzie had earlier dropped a real sitter at square leg off Kallis to give Sehwag a life on 16.

Three more wickets went down for the addition of only 11 runs, with Pollock removing Deep Dasgupta and Zaheer Khan, the latter caught behind second ball, and Hayward winning a fortuitous lbw decision against Anil Kumble with a ball which was angling down leg-side.

The final pair of Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra provided some entertainment, however.

Nehra hit a tremendous six off a Kallis half-volley but Srinath eventually skied a catch off Pollock to fall for 16 after putting on 31 with his partner.

South Africa: G Kirsten, H Gibbs, J Kallis, N McKenzie, H Dippenaar, L Klusener, M Boucher (Wkt), S Pollock (Capt), N Boje, M Ntini, M Hayward.

India: S Das, R Dravid, V V S Laxman, S Tendulkar, S Ganguly (Capt), V Sehwag, D Dasgupta (Wkt), A Nehra, J Srinath, A Kumble, Z Khan.


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