17 February,2010 09:19 AM IST | | Sanjjeev K Samyal
The South African batsmen face a near-impossible task to thwart the Indian bowlers with two full days of play left in the second Test. At any other venue, the South Africans would have harboured some hopes of staging a fightback but at the Eden Gardens, they are in all probability fighting a losing battle.
The wicket is still quite flat and good for batting as seen during Mahendra Singh Dhoni and VVS Laxman's unbeaten partnership yesterday. But, as Sachin Tendulkar reckons, 'at Eden Gardens, India just need to take the first two wickets and the crowd will take care of the rest.'u00a0 SA team's batting consultant Kepler Wessels expressed optimism in his batsmen's ability to rise to the challenge. "SA batsmen have had many similar challenges over the last two years and come through those quite well. This will be a difficult one, but that's what experienced top international batsmen are there for. They've coped with it well in the past and will hopefully do so again tomorrow," said former SA skipper Wessels.
"It's a pretty good pitch. I think you can still bat for extended periods of time. Clearly, we are going to be under more pressure than India were, so it'll be more difficult.
"We're in a position where we have to save the game to win the series. There are two days of tough Test cricket ahead and we'll fight as hard as we can," said Wessels.
